Influence for good
As the world responds with despair to the war in Ukraine, we are seeing people actively use their influence for good purpose to drive awareness and support where it’s most needed.
Last Sunday David Beckham handed his 71.5million followers on Instagram over to a Ukrainian doctor. Throughout the day his stories featured, Iryna, a child anesthesiologist and head of the regional perinatal centre, posting pictures and video to show the realities of working in the war zone. The Instagram takeover was the latest in a raft of initiatives Beckham has undertaken to raise awareness and donations to his Unicef fund for victims of the Ukraine invasion.
Influence is all about context, and whilst Beckham can speak with credibility and authenticity about sport or fashion, by handing over his audience to Iryna he allowed her to show a bomb shelter in war torn Kharkiv where pregnant women and new mothers were evacuated during the first day of the Russian invasion. She posted photographs of newborns in the intensive care unit where they relied on oxygen generators donated by Unicef to show the positive contribution of the charity. It brought the message home to Beckham’s wide global audience, connecting with their hearts in the aim of driving donations. Whilst celebrities have taken to social media to decry the war this approach was rooted in authentic coverage to inform people and showing how they can give tangible support.
This sort of action is a counter-balance to the other side of the social coverage called out by American journalist Taylor Lorenz as Scammy Instagram ‘war pages’. These pages claim to be by journalists, but are a cynical means of capitalising on the Ukranian conflict to gain eyeballs through hyper-real battleground footage with little to no context. It’s a pretty gruesome, not to mention deeply unethical way to gain followers, and one the social platforms need to contain.
Therein lies one of the key challenges of our times - free speech versus authenticity-hand-in-glove-with-accountability.