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Ed Brew Of Hello Management Shares His Thoughts On The Importance Of Stop Cyberbullying Day

Ed-Brew-Hello-Management-Stop-Cyberbullying-Day-interview

Ed and the team at Hello Management have been integral to the success of Stop Cyberbullying Day 2018. Everybody at Cybersmile and our community of Cybersmilers all over the world say a big thank you!

Hello Management are Official Partners of Cybersmile. Tell us more about why you decided to forge that partnership?

Cyberbullying is an issue that we have experienced in many different capacities – as individuals ourselves, as managers responding to our clients receiving negativity, and simply as users of the internet. When we came across Cybersmile we saw an opportunity to help minimize the presence and impact that cyberbullying can have, and to use our connections to help Cybersmile spread messages of hope, positivity, and to bring out the best in people whilst nurturing creativity.

You’ve been working with Cybersmile on Stop Cyberbullying Day. How was Stop Cyberbullying Day received by your roster of influencers?

As avid users of the internet, our influencers are extremely familiar with the dangers of cyberbullying and the struggles it causes people, so they were excited to get a chance to be part of a big campaign and to make a lot of noise in the hope of inspiring change or at the very least instilling a sense of hope for those affected.

What are the qualities you look for in a good social media influencer when you want to add someone to your roster?

I mean, talent is always going to be a top consideration for us of course! But one of the most important qualities for us is someone who takes great care of their fans. If an influencer already understands the value of their audience and is investing their time in building that relationship and interacting with their fans, then that is a huge “tick.” The amount of fans is probably one of the last considerations we have – it’s all about the relationship with their fanbase which is, in essence, their influence.

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to become a social influencer and is worried about toxicity and abuse online?

Putting yourself out there can be very daunting and I think younger influencers will naturally find it tougher as the internet can get particularly savage if the wrong people come across you. HOWEVER, in our experience, the love always makes way more noise than the hate. You will never be able to please everyone – no one is “abuse-proof,” even your favorite icon/celebrity/influencer – you just need to get used to focusing on the positivity coming from your fans instead.

How important is it that social influencers acknowledge the power they have over young internet users?

Once you have your own audience, it is really important to understand the responsibility you have not to treat them as your own personal army for vendettas or to spread negativity. It’s disturbingly easy for one comment or joke from an influencer to escalate and result in fans sending barrages of abuse to someone, in a misplaced attempt at loyalty to the influencer. The younger your audience, the more vulnerable they are, and it’s your responsibility as an influencer to not abuse your fans’ trust. Build a positive community, not a toxic one.

What is your favorite social media platform?

Well there was a time when it was Vine (RIP), but nowadays I would have to say Musical.ly simply because it empowers creativity to an incredible level. It goes a lot further than lip sync videos these days, and I just wish a content tool as powerful as that had been around when I was younger too! That said, this answer would vary greatly across our team depending on who you asked as we work with all platforms closely. I think each platform definitely has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s not a case of “one platform to rule them all”….yet.

Where do you see social media going in the next few years?

I think as the volume of content creators continues to increase, the quality of content will be forced up as the audiences will be drawn to those who edit their content in the most consumable formats. Attention spans of the main content-consumer demographics will continue to decline, and the standard piece of successful content will be short, very edited and very fast paced in order to accommodate that. I also think a new form of content will emerge that is more engagement-centric and is a lot more inclusive than TV shows or other existing content. As platforms continue to increase their investment in their own content, I think the higher budgets will allow for the creation of a new type of content whereby fans make decisions that influence the outcomes of the content itself. This type of setup is already present in a more basic form thanks to Instagram polls for example, where influencers will give their fans a degree of control over their lives such as by voting on which outfit they should wear etc. I think we’ll see more tools developed to nurture that.

Any projects we should be aware of for Hello Management in the near future?

Too many to mention! One of particular note is an awesome platform we are currently working with called Post For Rent which helps connect brands with influencers from around the world of all kinds of follower size. What we love about it is that it helps influencers monetize their following and acknowledges the value of micro-influencers, who are too often overlooked by brands as they may not have the huge follower numbers, even though they still have strong influence over their audience nonetheless. It also saves us a huge amount of time when we’re running larger scale campaigns with lots of influencers as it allows us to manage all the campaigns in one place, end-to-end and even lets us generate results reports in a single click!

In 10 words or less, why should anybody reading this get involved with Stop Cyberbullying Day?

It costs nothing to help make the world safer.

It has been a pleasure working with everybody at Hello Management for Stop Cyberbullying Day and we are looking forward to continuing our partnership and doing more work together with a huge social impact! For more information about Cybersmile and the work we do, please explore the suggestions below.

We cannot thank Ed and Hello Management enough for all the help they have given us since becoming official partners – we love working with you!