The Good Co posits itself as “one of the world’s leading positive content platforms,” and sets itself apart in an industry primarily focused on the negative by focusing specifically on content that reflects and shares a positive message. The company, which began life as a humble Tumblr blog, but has blossomed in the last 5 years into a collection of digital platforms with over 20 million users, recently announced the launch of its social and marketing digital agency, which has been set up to provide businesses and brands with decidedly positive influencer-led marketing campaigns that resonate with global audiences.
The Good Co. media agency will take on clients and brands with a distinct interest in the self-help, consciousness, well-being, and health industries and work with them to deliver bespoke campaigns across The Good Co.’s already established digital platforms (The Good Quote, The Good Vibe, The Good Fitness). As part of their core service offering, the agency will create video content intended for sharing across social media channels; with a specific focus on utilising Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram’s increasing engagement rates. The content will also simultaneously be seeded to the agency’s network of influencers with relevant target audiences, harnessing a combined reach of over 100 million!
The Good Co's origins reach back to 2010 when founder Meggan Roxanne dropped out of Uni in 2010 due to depression and began searching for inspiration online. She coped with her demons by starting a Tumblr blog, which created memes using quotes sourced from hip-hop songs. She wanted to create the place online that she was desperately seeking, and wanted this platform to validate other people’s emotions, raise awareness of mental health and prevent people from feeling alone. This exploded in popularity and built the foundations upon which she began developing other platforms with the same goal. Fast forward to 2017 and The Good Co has almost reached Meggan’s long term goal of becoming the largest positive platform in the world, providing original, informative, wholesome and positive daily content in order to connect the world’s most inspiring people.
On the eve of the launch of The Good Co. media agency, I caught up with company founder Meggan and managing director Wale Kalejaiye to discuss the new venture, which will tap into the Good Co's vast range of social media influencers to create and spread content for client and brands that makes the end user “feel better.”
Meggan Roxanne
In your own words, can you tell us a little about The Good Co. What do you think is the primary factor that sets it apart from the competition?
We are an agency that is built on PURPOSE and to service the millennial generation. We create and focus on building and distributing digital content that helps the end users feel better. This ultimately helps these users build an emotional connection with the brand and enables relationship selling to occur. In addition, our business is an advocate for conscious capitalism, so all our projects involve independent charities, ensuring all projects we are involved in helping to make this world a better place.
How do you find and choose your influencers? Is there a vetting process and how many people are involved in the process of choosing who and what you seed content to?
We only select and use influencers that are promoting similar agendas and content that resonates with our audience. We work with exciting writers and poets such as Lewis Howes, Najwa Zebian, Rachel Wolchin, R.H.Sin, Samantha King, and Prince EA. We discuss their aims and objectives first and then we create a promotional plan around their content and then seed this all over our social channels. The content that creates the most engagement is always authentic and meaningful. We almost always reach out to influencers ourselves, follow them for a couple of months ensure that they are credible and have something interesting and positive to say. We always collaboratively with them based on similar ideals – this works really well for us and we’ve seen some of our influencers really grow and dominate their space.
I understand if it’s too painful to discuss, but as someone who has suffered from depression my entire adult life (and also actually dropped out of education because of it), I understand what a burden it can be to overcome. With that in mind, what do you think it was specifically about the internet and social media that drew you out of your shell and inspired you?
We have noticed in recent years the negative side of social media is affecting the general population's perception of reality and information. We are failing to appreciate our small progress and have become accustomed to comparing our lives to others, which is causing us untold levels of harm. The main benefit of social media is that it has allowed us to become even closer to each other and really understand the plights of others around the world. This has helped build a generation of conscious teens and adults who are becoming more courageous and active in social issues. This side of social media inspired us to create a purely sacred place for people to receive good vibes daily and to feel a sense of pride for their own individual journey. It is also a platform to encourage individuals to find their true purpose and live their best life.
Your numerous digital platforms have managed to amass an audience of over 20 million, how do you think you’ve managed this?
We managed this by being consistent in delivering excellent content tailored towards people's emotion and our ability to source talented writers/thinkers around the globe. We post 24 times a day across 20 different platforms and it has been a daunting task to achieve for the last 5 years. Our community has identified our social media platforms as a place for them to feel uplifted and be positive about their life. We believe in higher vibrational living and we have been lucky that we have helped push the word VIBES into pop culture.
When it comes to your digital platforms, do you feel there’s more value in diversity, cohesion or a combination of both?
We believe there is value in combining both ideals, but we tend to lean towards focusing on cohesion as our message is aligned to world perspective due to having such a diverse audience from all over the globe. It is important that we focus on the message of peace, love and vibes to keep our audience engaged with our story. Our personal work outside of the business tends to focus on promoting diversity at work places.
As the name suggests, you obviously want to spread positivity in a world where negativity and pessimism appear to be very much the norm. Do you truly believe in the transformative power of positive thinking? And do you think it’s contagious?
Of course! It changed our lives and having a personal mantra that you continue to repeat to yourself daily will completely transform your life. My personal mantra is: “I am flexible and flowing, open to the new and changing, at peace, and I trust in the process of life. Every moment is a new opportunity to become who I am. I move, with life.”
Is it sometimes difficult to operate as a company that prides itself on strong ethics and values in an industry where such things are notoriously largely absent?
It is the long route and we have turned down significant amounts of money from large corporations that were trying to use our platforms to take advantage of our community. Our policy and the protection of our community has allowed us to build an unparalleled relationship with our audience and any products that we do sell to our audience are well received with an extremely high conversion rate. In order to continue growing and remain authentic as a business, we keep focused on the long term goal to create the most positive platform on the internet that heals millions of people a year. Therefore, it is important that we focus on protecting our community and presenting content that is aligned to our ideals.
How do you feel the social influencer industry has developed over the last few years and where do you personally see it going in the next 12 months?
It could be argued we are standing on the edge of a major shift in human evolution, where current and future generations are focused much more strongly on living with purpose and meaning. We are arriving at a point where even science and spirituality are meeting to create new possibilities for humanity. Therefore, there will be an intensity with brands and companies to reflect this in their product offerings and advertising campaigns. Subsequently, the prominent social media influencers have slowly been replacing the influence and power of TV Ads on big channels and with the right company be the vessel for these brands to spread their message (as long as the ad or product reflect their personal views). It has finally been accepted that social media platforms are the new “TV channels” and these individuals are the “TV presenters/Actors” who will continue to grow in strength and influence millions of people. Social Media Influencers have caused a significant disruption in the way we receive content and information. Hopefully, we will see more unique shows, positive personality and talent arrive through the mediums of Facebook LIVE, Snapchat and Instagram. These are extremely exciting times to be involved in the content industry.
A bit of a blanket question, but on balance, do you think social media has been a force for good or a force for bad?
It can be a bit of both, it all depends on the objective of the content provider and their personal story. Social Media is simply a platform for you to present yourself and your ideals to the world. It is up to the individual whether they want to use that platform to spread good vibes or negativity. I believe you need to be careful of your consumption diet and try to consume a balance between staying informed and being motivated. This would help determine what energy that you present to the world. If you consume a lot of negativity and follow bad influencers then it will change your outlook on the world and have a negative impact on your life. Our agency is simply trying to create more content and partnerships that help people consume an alternative information and content that adds to their life in a positive manner and convert these consumers into fans of the brand.
Finally, are there any tips or pieces of wisdom you’d care to impart to anyone considering becoming an influencer and working with The Good Co?
Spread love. Stay Consistent. Be Brave. Tell your STORY!
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK who would like to thank Meggan and Wale for their sincere and insightful responses.
