Social Media for Social Good – How Influencers Are Putting their Reach to Good Use

Posted by Mike Small

When celebrities say something genuine and real that resonates with fans, the impact can be huge, especially when their messages have social justice and societal change at their core. If you’re big enough to have a global audience hanging on your every word – or tweet – using that power for good can have great results.

The following five celebs are using the power of social media to get their positive social messages out to the public. And the results are admirable.

Sophia Bush

Sophia Bush for Fuck Cancer

The One Tree Hill actress understands very well that when you have the ability to speak to a large audience, you should project more than just, as Matthew McConaughey’s character in The Wolf of Wall Street so famously puts it, “fairy dust.”

While Bush often uses her social media channels to promote herself and her work to her nearly one million followers, she just as regularly posts about human rights, drums up support for good causes (she represented Fuck Cancer in a Firefox Challenge campaign and netted the organization $25,000) and overall just seems to really care about the wellbeing of others. A quick glance at her Crowdrise page confirms that beyond a doubt.

Lauren Pareskian

Lauren Pareskian's Kind Campaign

Who’s that you ask? Pareskian is the wife of everybody’s favourite meth cook, Jesse on Breaking Bad, a.k.a, Aaron Paul. While not the megastar her husband is, Pareskian directed and starred in the documentary Finding Kind, which explored the “mean girl” phenomenon that can plague young girls.

Pareskian is also the founder of the spinoff Kind Campaign, a program that travels across North America to bring awareness to bullying, girl-on-girl crime, and the power of kindness and positivity. While her personal Twitter account might not be as robust as others, you can also follow her on the Kind Campaign handle, the Kind Campaign Facebook page, and the Kind Campaign Instagram account, all of which have very high engagement levels.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio Loves the Environment

Spend only a few seconds on DiCaprio’s Twitter feed and you’ll quickly realize how much importance he places on the environment. Whether it’s tweeting about aquatic life, clean energy or global warming, the superstar actor is invested in raising awareness about the planet we live on.

We may not know much about his personal life, other than his penchant for supermodels, but through his sparse posts to social media, it’s clear the environment is top of mind. When you only tweet a few times per month, each one carries massive weight. And with over 10 million followers, DiCaprio’s posts are guaranteed to have a lot of visibility.

Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel Donates to the MaxLove Project

While he’s started getting some fierce competition from Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel has been the undisputed master of YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms. From fake twerking accidents to Handsome Men Clubs, Kimmel knows how to get a reaction - and how to promote himself and his show. But building such an efficient social media machine comes in handy when Kimmel turns his attention to more altruistic endeavours.

Case in point: Kimmel has been heavily promoting a bit on his show in which he asks viewers to send in homemade rainbow looms – rainbow bracelets made out of rubber bands – that he can use to create a suit. Because of the staggering amount of responses, Kimmel was able to create hats, ties and other pieces to go along with the custom suit. The late night host decided to put the suit on eBay, with all proceeds going toward the MaxLove Project, a nonprofit organization that supports children with cancer.

Ian Somerhalder

Ian Somerhalder founded the IS Foundation

If you thought the hunky actor who regularly steams up the screen in The Vampire Diaries couldn’t get more irresistible, you should know he also founded the IS Foundation, an organization that raises awareness about environmental issues and – wait for it – animals.

Look at this picture. And this one! Are you telling me you wouldn’t support this guy in supporting the wellness of animals? Puh-lease. Somerhalder regularly posts about his love for animals, and with his massive Twitter following (more than 4.5 million), has been able to do a lot of good for our furry friends.

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