Impacting the world through social media

Using Social Media to Impact the World

It isn’t uncommon for “good” people to avoid social media because of the perceived evil in those platforms. However, the truth of the matter is that keeping off social media can only achieve a zero-sum effect. It is far much more helpful for you to be on social media and effect good from within. That perhaps explains why even conservative institutions like Churches are increasingly embracing social media. They have realized that they can reach out to the masses and bring positive impacts to their lives from there.

Social media has brought with it a limitless amount of information packaged as educational material, entertainment, training manuals, inspirational content among others. As a result of their outstanding involvement in the provision of content on social media, some people have inadvertently earned the title “social media influencer”. Such people have an immense impact on the lives of thousands and even millions of people who follow them on various platforms.

It is also true that there is quite a large number of social media influencers who have so much content and have accomplished so much that it becomes difficult to compete with them. Below are some tips on how you can create your own space within this crowded field:

Giving information that can transform lives – Social media is awash with profiles of people who are living their lives in a fantasy world. Well, not literally, but living their lives in a wishful way. Such people portray perfect lives, which they hope raises their social profile and online following. The truth, however, is that the vast majority of those portrayals are nothing more than fake publicity stunts.

Unfortunately, many people feel pressured to imitate fake lifestyles and when they fail in their pursuit, they end up depressed and hopeless. Feeding people information that gives them hope and a purpose to live is one way of getting an online following. You need to give people real-life experiences, including encouraging stories on overcoming life obstacles. It may take you some time to command a large following, but you will finally get there. Hope sells.

Take the lead in agitating for social and political change – Social media has proven to be an effective tool in mobilizing the masses to agitate for social justice, better governance and community empowerment. Injustices are widespread across the world and people sometimes lack a sense of direction.

You can use social media to highlight social evils, governance excesses, human rights abuse cases, gender-based violence and other evils. You can be the one to educate and empower people. You can help form a united front to tackle oppression, corruption, trigger change and improve socio-political governance, economic wellbeing, environmental conservation among other topical issues.

Promoting an entrepreneurial spirit – you can help bring together persons with an entrepreneurial agenda by creating a platform where they can meet, exchange ideas, find business opportunities and promote their products and services.

By building these synergies, you will create traction to attract new investors, clients and customers looking for goods and services. Such a platform can also be used to offer subsidized advertisements for small and medium-scale enterprises.

Skills acquisition and education platform- You can use social media to offer useful tips on how to tackle some of life’s challenging tasks. It could be a YouTube channel on cooking, an Instagram page on interior design, a page on molding clay, or any other page with useful educational information. Many people have cut a niche for themselves by offering tutorials that make classwork easy and fun. Some people have also become masters of their trades using skills acquired online.

Sharing tips on home- based medical and healthcare- Note that you shouldn’t venture into this field unless you are a qualified health practitioner. You can offer helpful information on improving health by offering tips on how to eat healthy, how to keep fit, how to live with certain medical conditions among others. Some of your sessions may require video clips , flip charts, and pre-recorded material, so always be ready. The bottom line is that you can positively impact lives with the right guidance on health matters.