How to Make Life Become More Meaningful Using Social Media for Social Good

Did you know that 59% of the world’s population uses social media, on an average of 2 hours and 31 minutes a day (Chaffey, 2023)? It seems like a lot of time to spend reading about other people’s lives, looking at their photos, or trying to catch up with what’s trendy. Did you know you could use social media for social good and put all that time toward creating a more meaningful life?

Using social media too much could have negative effects on our health and happiness. But, just like any tool available to us, social media can be beneficial when we use them responsibly and with good intentions.  Next time you are online, how about spending some of your social media time to do a meaningful give? Here are five ideas for using social media for social good.

Use Social Media to Create Impact

Do you like to write, perform, create visual contents, or share your expertise with others? Why not create your very own social media contents that are helpful and inspiring? I have come across many YouTube videos and social media posts that educate and comfort people with illnesses, fight climate change, or inspire people to reach their goals.

Start a blog or write posts on your social media pages about causes that are important to you and want people to know about. Create videos that make people laugh, give them joy, or help them through challenging times. Use your imagination and all the tools available with various social media platforms.

Share Content with Your Social Media Contacts

Don’t feel too creative or feel intimidated about starting something new? Or maybe you don’t have much time to create new content. Not to worry – you can still use social media for good by sharing other people’s creations with your social media contacts.

If there is content that touched your heart, motivated you to do good, or made an impact on how you live your life, share it on social media to do social good! It takes only a few mouse-clicks and a few moments of your time, but you never know how it will change another person’s life or bring about positive social changes.

Check out this blog for ideas to share on your social media: Quotes & Sayings To Do Good and Be Happy

Create or Sign Online Petitions

During past two years, I’ve been zealously reading and signing online petitions. Thanks to social media, I signed over 400 petitions from all over the world. It’s been very rewarding to know that I could support just about anyone from anywhere, and see their petitions making positive differences in the world.

There are many online sites where you can create and sign petitions; and these sites often make it easier for you to share petitions with your social media contacts. Use them to promote and fight for causes you believe in, or visit petitions of others who could use your support.

Start a Fundraiser

Besides the ability to promote social causes, social media is a great tool to raise funds for such causes. Some social media sites have built-in fundraising functionality; since these fundraising tools are right on your social media sites, it is super easy to let your social media contacts know about them.

Pick a cause or a charity that is close to your heart, start an online fundraiser using your favourite social media site, and invite your contacts to participate and support it.

Social Media for Social Good

Social media has many benefits such as the ability to reach many people in a short period of time (Dewey, 2023). It means you and what you do with social media can have much bigger influence on even people outside your social circle. Next time you log into your favourite social media sites, be mindful of your online presence and actions, and come up with different ways to use them for social good. Your 2.5 hours of social media time could do so much good in the world!

For more ideas on how to act for social good, check out the 365give blogs or sign up for daily giving inspiration at 365give.ca.

References

Chaffey, D. (2023, January 30). Global social media statistics research summary 2023. SmartInsights. https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/#:~:text=59%25%20of%20the%20world’s%20population,10%20digital%20marketing%20statistics%20sources.

Dewey, M. (2016, June 29). Social Media for Social Change: 5 Ways Social Media Can Create Social Change. National Network to End Domestic Violence. https://nnedv.org/latest_update/social-media-social-change/