Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today, we're talking about using social media for good.
Melanie
Yes, social media for good. How do we use social media for good? We could send a good, strong, sustainable message across all of our social platforms. We can use it to fundraise. We can use it to bring people back together. I find a lot of social media for good is like trying to get animals adopted. I see that frequently.
Esther
Yeah, and you can also, like you were saying about bringing people together, you can raise awareness for topics that are close to your heart, things that have maybe affected you personally or your family or your neighbours. There are always campaigns happening for go fundme's, for raising money for charities. But there's also a more hidden element of using social media for good. It's when you see something that has happened that has negatively affected a person, a business, a family, that you reach out to them and you offer your support. So we recently saw a video of a guy whose van had been broken into a tradesman and his van had been broken into and all of his tools that he uses for work had been stolen out of the van. So he was left with nothing, with no way to work, with no way to earn money, with no van, because the door wouldn't even close. So his whole livelihood was sat there in pieces. And another company saw the video and they recognized some of the boxes and some of the materials that had been left in the van that the guys couldn't steal. They reached out to him and they replaced a lot of his tools.
Melanie
I think they gave him more, actually, than he previously had.
Esther
Probably. But it was his heartfelt story. It was the fact that he's not the only one it happens to. Happens so often across the world. It'll happen that somebody's broken into, somebody's tools are stolen, houses go up on fire, So all of these things that we see happening in and around our neighbourhood, usually, is where you should be stepping in and using social media to help the people who are affected.
Melanie
We saw this on TikTok as it happens. This is where this particular story came from. It was just a normal Monday morning as far as this chap was concerned, which is another reason why we highlighted it. He was really quite upset, I think is the term we use here.
Esther
As you would be. As you would be.
Melanie
Very strongly worded upset at how heinous this particular crime was and how many people he'd have to let down now that he couldn't work. He put it straight up on TikTok, raw and uncut. And he didn't have the largest following in the world. He had a couple of thousand followers, so he wasn't a very well-known person with a blue tick or anything like that. But he had a platform where so many people found him in the For You page because they sensed his anger and they felt empathy for him. And so many brands. So one of the first brands that came up to offer their was replacing all of his tools. Then another brand came along and said, okay, well, let's stop this from happening again and we'll help improve the security on your van, which I was really impressed with, I've got to say. They helped install a cage and they gave him extra security locks. I'm sure they were doing it. I'm absolutely certain they were doing it because this guy was being being seen and he was being shown to a lot more people, but they were also doing it to be good because this literally devastated this man's business. He didn't have anything left but empty boxes. So it really was an awful thing.
Esther
Yeah. But like I was saying, it doesn't have to get to the stage where millions of people are seeing you, and because of that, you're going to help out your neighbours or someone in need. It can be done quietly, anonymously. It can be done in a way that only you maybe know about. I know of companies who donate websites free of charge to charities once a year. They will choose a charity and build them a website for no cost at all to that charity. I know of other places who like to help out in their local community by supporting, for example, the local football club or the local hockey club. Providing these things to your local community can help you be seen more. Yes, it's your aim at the end of the day is to get more sales and get more revenue. But it also gives you that platform of supporting your local community and doing something good. And you can use those things that you do and share across social media that you do them.
Melanie
A lot of you probably already do this, in fairness. So if you see of a local charitable events, a five-a-side football match or a Gaelic match to fundraise for something, and you share it across your platform because it's your local community. Nothing to do with your business, but you're just sharing it on your platforms, then you're already using social media for good because you're thinking about your tribe, your community, and not yourself.
Esther
Yeah. It can be monetary, it can be free, it can be something that just affects you. Like Melanie said, using your platform, maybe to get pets adopted or get donations for local charities, donations of food, of clothing, of things for the food bank, things for the homeless shelter. All of these things can be helpful to your community and to the broader community outside of your little nucleus. You don't have to limit yourself to just your five-mile area or your county or your city. You can expand it to the rest of the country or state, if we're talking about the United States. You can think about helping people in other countries. And how would that look? I mean, I'm not one to go shouting about all the good things that we do. I think that's the Irish in me. We just don't promote ourselves as being very, what's the word, philanthropy.
Melanie
Well, Yeah.
Esther
Charitable. But we do these things and we really should be saying more about it. But I just keep hearing that voice in the back of my head saying, awk sure, what would you be doing shouting about that for sure. Just look at you. Everybody's going to think you're brilliant now, and you're just... You'll get those truths.
Melanie
That's the most Irish accent I've heard you use in five years.
Esther
And I apologize to all our Irish followers. That's the little voice in the back my head that I get when you share something good that you do.
Melanie
There is no harm in talking about something that matters close to your heart, even if it is slightly different from what your your customer avatar is expecting. Because I'm a volunteer with charities. I donate my time to people as well, business and personally at times. I don't talk about it either.
Esther
But if you don't feel comfortable talking about it on your business page, you may feel more comfortable talking on your personal profile.
Melanie
I do it on my personal page.
Esther
It's linked to you anyway.
Melanie
Yeah. That's where I do all my talking about my It is definitely. I'd love the way you refer to just giving there because you can share platforms like that because they're not alone. There are other, like I donate and others. You can share that, you can put that in your email list, you can share that on your socials, if you so wish. It doesn't mean you're suddenly on a gratification tour of some thought. You're just thinking of others just for that one moment, and you're hopefully supporting a worthy cause.
Esther
Yeah. It can be part of your random act of kindness, can be part of paying it forward whatever way you want to look at it. You can use your platform, use your... And when I say your platform, like I say, it could be your personal one. But you have gained all these followers. You have all of these friends. You have all of these people whose eyes are on you, so why not use it for good? Last week we talked about trolls. We talked about the ugly side, the dark side of social media. We wanted to lighten it up, bring about the bright side of social media. Why social media, I think, started in the first place was for the random act of kindness. It was for the good stuff. It was for the let's share something positive. And so try to remember that when you're looking at your social media content, what it is that you're wanting to talk about, what it is you're wanting to share, to promote. Is there a way that you can share more good news than bad?
Melanie
Yeah. And please start using social media in the right way. It's not media social, it's social media. Well, that's us wrapped up for another podcast this week. Thank you so much for all your comments and follows and recent suggestions. We really appreciate them. We'll be back with another podcast next week. Have a great week.
Esther
Bye-bye.
Melanie
Do you think anybody will notice I'm wearing mustard?
Esther
No.
Melanie
No? See, you're branded. Look at you. You're very cleverly branded.
Esther
No. I'm very clever about my name.
Melanie
Maybe I should go mustard and have a branded... I suppose it would clash, wouldn't it?
