Technology has steadily become a part of our daily lives, and most of us can’t even imagine a world without our phones and gadgets. These days a smartphone can help you connect with people, pay for bills, check your email, and many more. It’s almost unthinkable how much you can do with just a single piece of technology. What more if you had many?
The potential uses of technology are endless, and social entrepreneurs are beginning to see that. It’s why they are now starting to turn to technology as a tool to tackle the many social problems that we are facing today. To name a few are poverty, lack of healthcare, unemployment, and limited access to technology. These social issues persist and are still so far away from a solution. But with the help of social entrepreneurs and technology, there may be a ray of hope for those affected by social issues.
Here are some technologies that social entrepreneurs utilize to combat the social problems that still plague our world.
Big Data
Nowadays, just talking about your vision for the social impact you want your company to have isn’t enough for any social enterprise to secure funding. Modern stakeholders and investors prefer having concrete data presented to them as a basis for them to identify if your project is feasible and legitimate.
Because of that, modern social enterprises try to invest in having a database that can help store data that they collect from their social projects. And if they can pair that with SQL server monitoring technologies, they can ensure that those research-backed data are always accessible 24/7 to investors, stakeholders, or even the general public. These measures help social enterprises to secure funding and begin operations faster.
Solution Development
Technology can help develop new solutions that do not yet exist. Through thorough research, development, and prototyping, social entrepreneurs can create new solutions to social problems from the ground up. After all, it’s in an entrepreneur’s DNA to make things themselves if they can’t find what they need. And if they are lucky enough to stumble upon a technological breakthrough, they can positively affect many lives and transform the world and make it a better place.
Digital Marketing
Everyone has probably stumbled upon an ad or two online that promotes a social enterprise or a noble cause. That situation is no coincidence. Just as much as digital marketing is an effective tool to widen the reach of a business, social enterprises can also use it to spread awareness about their causes. You might be part of the target demographic that they are targeting.
Digital marketing tools such as a website, a blog, social media platforms, and the likes are some of the most effective ways to communicate to people what your social enterprise is all about. A website can serve as an online database where people can access all the information they need to know about your social enterprise and its cause. Social media can become an avenue for you to communicate with people who want to know more about you. You can even run social media giveaways or raffles that could incentivize people to share your page or post information about your cause through their accounts.
The reason why digital marketing is so effective is because of the sheer amount of people online. At the time of writing, the online population consists of approximately a little under five billion people. That’s a lot of people that your social enterprise could potentially reach. With more people paying attention to your cause, you have a better chance of receiving support from many different sources to help you achieve the social impact you want to have.
Scalability
Scalability is a crucial factor when developing solutions to social problems. It’s because you want to scale that solution just as fast as you want it to reach more people. Whether you’ve developed a product or enhanced a process or service, technology can help scale it so it can improve lives and communities faster.
A current and relevant example is the development of the vaccine to covid-19. If vaccine development had to go through a manual process, it would take way too much time and cost too much. That would translate to lengthier lockdown periods and more people suffering from the virus. But because of technology, scientists were able to develop a vaccine in less than a year and produce it fast enough to get it to as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.
We can get lost in the many gadgets and devices that technology has given us, but we must not lose focus on what technology is. It’s an instrument that helps us improve human lives, not just ours, but also everyone else’s. We all have a part to play in the world to affect change for the better, and if you feel like you haven’t done your part, it’s not too late to try.