DOING GOOD → “How to use social media to benefit our society”.

Everyday we see corporations attempting to use social media to make a profit for their company, often with selfish intentions. It is rare to see the corporate world put forth media campaigns in the interests of both themselves and their audience. To this day, years after the release, I am still blown away by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign. ALS is an absolutely terrible disease and it is comforting to know that social media can have a positive purpose in society.

The challenge was simple, accessible and safe making it very easy for everyone to join in. To participate you simply had to dump a bucket of ice over your head. The challenge spread like wild fire raising millions of dollars for the disease. It is these moments where you realize the powerful effects that social media can have and if we use it properly we can create immense positive change within the world.

By creating this campaign they were able to make a profit while simultaneously touching the hearts of millions of people around the world, which in the eyes of its audience made the campaign worthy of their contributions and their attention. It is for this reason that social media stunt made such a massive impact on society.

It is arguable that this stunt was a combination of canned and planned content. It was planned in the sense that it was well thought through with personal, unique, and relevant qualities. Creating an active challenge is not a random and quick means of releasing content, however, all of the audience entries were held qualities of canned content as they were spontaneous, quick, and mainly copied material.

Overall, I hope to see more thoughtful corporate media schemes like this one. Campaigns like this bring the world together and remind us of why social media was created in the first place.