Social Media Genius Week

Social media gets a bad press. Yet, as we have frequently seen, it can be a powerful force for good. Just this week we saw a 22-year-old footballer champion the cause of hungry children about to have their lives made even more difficult by the proposed cuts to food vouchers, watched him win his campaign by using his influence on social media, and indeed many of us helping him do it. And we cheered him on. It was social goodness right there in front of us, and we want to celebrate more goodness, more genius, and help more brands and businesses - and their people - do better.

So we bring you Social Media Genius Week.

Social media genius week

Social media genius week is our way to highlight the good, to give back to our community, to do some social goodness. It is a celebration of all that is good about social media, so we can help redress the balance a little bit, as well as being a way to explore what makes social media good - what good looks like. We have also put together a fun vote for the best Social Media Genius campaign of the last decade. It was a struggle editing it down to just nine, and you may disagree and think we have missed your favourite - if so do share! Always good for all of us to hear what others rate and why.

We will be talking about the various strands that make up true social media genius, from the best campaigns that plug into the zeitgeist and influence hearts and change minds and what we can learn from them, to how social media can influence communities and be a catalyst for change for good, to how brands can use social media properly to give them a voice and increase their visibility. A big part of becoming visible is because your brand is important to people in their everyday lives, which is a challenge for most brands when consumers wouldn't care if 77% of brands were to disappear.

However, with great visibility comes great responsibility. We look to brands to provide leadership, we expect them to strive to do the right thing and if brands fail in these expectations, we can turn on them very quickly - as every business who’s been the focus of a social media crisis will tell you. What people ultimately expect is for brands to show what I call social goodness.

Social goodness

Social goodness is the term I coined in 2015 to describe when people and brands are walking the walk on social. Brands acting on their values, not just having them mothballed somewhere in the marketing file, people ensuring that they doing good within their communities, companies championing the causes and companies concerns of their consumers.

In other terms, using influence and wealth for good.

Why would brands do this?

Because it’s what consumers want them to do. There is a rapid shift happening at the moment where consumers are driving change by their expectations. Increasingly brands (and their leaders) that don’t embody social goodness are being ignored; brands that act badly are called out and shunned. Consumers are voting with their eyeballs and wallets and everything that has happened so far in 2020 has simply accelerated this trend.

We used to say people bought from people they liked. Now it is truer to say that people buy from brands they love and RESPECT.

Want to find out more?

Tune in at 8am on Monday 22nd June 2020 and each day that week. We will be focusing on a different segment every day, with insights, statistics, resources and interviews. And don't forget to vote!

Time to unleash your inner social media genius.

https://www.socialmediagenius.org