Social Chain’s Dominic McGregor appointed by government for social media

Dominic McGregor, who co-founded Social Chain alongside new Dragons’ Den investor Steven Bartlett, has been appointed by the government to help drive its social media strategy.

McGregor, who has thousands of followers on his social media platforms, has now been hired by the Cabinet Office to reach younger audiences and groups such as owners of small businesses.

McGregor, 28, is ex-COO of Social Chain, one of Europe’s fastest-growing social media agencies.

Dominic, alongside his co-founder Steven Bartlett, helped grow Social Chain from a standing start to a $200m turnover business with more than 750 staff in offices around the world, including New York, Berlin and London.

He built a client portfolio that saw Social Chain work with some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Amazon, McDonald’s and the BBC, before listing Social Chain on the German stock exchange in 2019.

In April he also joined Praetura Ventures, the Manchester-based venture capital investor, as one of four new operational partners.

In recent years, McGregor has been using his experience of building a business as well as his personal mental health journey such as battling with burnout and imposter syndrome to help other people.

He said in a LinkedIn post: “This is something I’m incredibly privileged and honoured to say I’m working on.

“Last year, after leaving Social Chain, I was approached by No.10 to see if I had any interest in advising the Cabinet Office.

“After a lot of thought, I felt like I had a responsibility to see if I can make an impact within Government. I accepted the year-long role and began in March. Government has such a key role in our lives; providing education, health care and other key services.

“I’ve definitely learnt so much from this role so far and worked with some incredible civil servants – going to number 10 still feels odd! I’m looking forward to introducing some meaningful change within Government and working on something which has a meaningful impact on people’s lives.

“The government has been working closely with social media platforms throughout the pandemic.”

Leading social media platforms popular with young people including Snapchat, Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube, have partnered with the government to promote life saving vaccine information.

It is hoped the new initiative with popular platforms will help drive take-up even higher.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “Our vaccine rollout has been a great success story and is now available to all adults.

“We have worked closely with social media platforms throughout the pandemic to promote life saving vaccine information, and this new initiative with popular platforms will help drive take-up even higher.

“We are also tackling misinformation online through our new Online Safety Bill to make sure people are not bombarded by harmful content.”