The Facebook Guide to Social Good

How Mark Zuckerberg’s Philanthropy shows us what it means to be a Purposeful Company

By Ryan Crockett, 20 November 2015

The mission of Emergent Digital is to use the digital marketing to make the world a better place. By using marketing tactics developed for the Fortune 100 to help purposeful companies and nonprofit organizations, we strive to make this vision a reality. With deep Silicon Valley experience directing online advertising strategy for some of the largest companies in the world, Emergent seeks to use this expertise for social good. This was the genesis of Emergent Digital. We are here to help nonprofits and companies with purpose grow and thrive online in the internet age – but what exactly is a “purposeful company”?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently provided us with the perfect example of what we mean when we call a business purposeful. The unquestioned king of social media for years, Facebook has recently passed 1 billion active daily users and overtaken Google for the highest driven traffic to media websites worldwide. With a wealth of new services, features, and functionality, Facebook has taken an even further lead in the digital-social marketplace as the undisputed media leader, social authority, and hub of online activity.

However, it is not Facebook’s influential strides in the technological world we are most impressed with. It is Mark Zuckerberg’s recent ventures in philanthropy and social enterprise that make Facebook the purposeful company archetype. Zuckerberg and pregnant wife Priscilla Chan recently announced plans for “The Primary School” in Palo Alto, California, a K-12 nonprofit institution that will provide full healthcare to students from birth to graduation. The social media power couple have a donor-advised fund to help guide their charity endeavors in order to provide the greatest impact on social good for humankind. Zuckerberg also leads a nonprofit foundation called Startup:Education, which was founded five years ago and just committed to donating $120 million in support of educational programs for under-funded communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Our hats are off to you, Zuck. That’s how you make a positive difference in this world.

Facebook is Giving Back, Driving Social Good the Right Way

In a recent post on Mark Zuckerberg’s public Facebook page, the maverick of social media made an endearing, thoughtful statement reflecting on his wonderful recent philanthropy work undertaken with wife Priscilla. These words seem quite touching, a genuine and personal expounding of what he is trying to accomplish for the whole of humanity. The focus on children, personalized education, and unlocking human potential through their nonprofit work set a clear outline for their company’s mission and their delineated purpose of social good.

This is precisely what we mean when we say we want to help “purposeful companies” with their digital marketing and social media presence. These great acts of social enterprise are not required of Mark Zuckerberg, they’re not being accomplished as a publicity stunt. This is a tech innovator who changed the world of online communication, one who has vast amounts of wealth due to the valued service Facebook provides to humanity… and he’s using this financial influence to make the world a better place.

That’s a company with purpose, a man with vision, and a true force for social good. Do you know of other such purposeful companies? Let us know, we’d love to highlight them!