Discover how Social Protect combines business innovation with rigorous product-market fit and trust-based technology to drive business growth.
Social Protect offers a solution to detect and delete abusive social media comments in real time. With a strong focus on supporting customer privacy, they help protect people from online abuse on social media platforms.
In 2025 they won the Telstra Best of Business Awards National Building Communities Award, recognising their impact and business success.
A focus on excellence and building trust with customers has been key to unlocking growth for Social Protect. Their journey offers lessons for technology business leaders hoping to build relationships with enterprise customers.
Social media abuse is a growing problem in Australia and globally. It can impact everyone from celebrities to school kids.
Data from the Australian Office of the eSafety Commissioner shows the scale of the issue. School-age cyberbullying complaints surged 456 percent in the past five years. In the sporting arena, a World Athletics study has highlighted the growing number of abusive social media posts across major events.
Shane Britten, founder and CEO of Social Protect, saw the impact of online abuse firsthand and decided to do something about it. He created Social Protect with the ambition to protect people from abusive messages sent on social media platforms.
Making Social Protect’s services available to as many people as possible required careful consideration of business models. Shane saw an opportunity to work with sports associations and clubs on a commercial basis in a way that would enable funding of free services for the general public.
When Social Protect was first designed, the plan was for the system to access the targeted individual’s social media accounts and screen messages. But the feedback from potential clients was strong. They did not want to give passwords and full account access to a third-party.
Rather than push back, the team redesigned the product around this feedback. Instead of using the individual’s password, Social Protect connects through different social media platform's official technical integrations.
This approach offers customers important safeguards. Social Protect cannot:
The result is a product that helps filter out abusive messages and protect users’ privacy. Simply put, it places what customers value the most at the heart of product design.
The decision to reengineer the technical foundations transformed conversations with potential customers. Social Protect notes that when Shane and his team present the offering to athletes individually, more than 95 percent of them take up the offering. In most recent sessions with sports associations, 100 percent of athletes took up the service.
We have athletes join us because we respect their privacy. They get protection and keep their privacy.
Shane Britten – Founder and CEO, Social Protect
Shane identified that privacy was a critical customer concern and built the product around that need. It’s a lesson that extends well beyond sport. Understand your customers’ needs and their priorities. Then design solutions that reflect those priorities to help create trust and a positive customer experience.
Growing businesses can face pressure to add features and chase adjacent opportunities. Many of Social Protect’s potential competitors operate in the broader social media management space. They offer content scheduling, automated replies and engagement analytics. To stand out in the market, Social Protect stays focused on a clear value proposition.
Our expertise is in protecting people from online abuse and hatred. We stay hyper-focused on what we're good at and that comes through in our value to clients.
Shane Britten – Founder and CEO, Social Protect
Social Protect’s single-minded focus on driving social impact through identifying and removing abusive comments from social media accounts has been key to helping drive business growth.
Social Protect’s discipline and purpose has created real differentiation. Their clarity of focus means Shane is able to engage with CEOs rather than social media and marketing teams. The conversation centres on risk mitigation and duty of care rather than marketing.
Social Protect’s story shows that staying focused can help your business scale. If you're wondering whether to expand your offering, consider whether it adds to your purpose.
Imposter syndrome can be common among small business founders. Shane experienced it too, especially when pitching to large organisations.
In the early days, I found myself apologising to large organisations for the cost. But I realised it’s a fraction of their budgets and the benefit we’re offering for the individual is invaluable.
Shane Britten – Founder and CEO, Social Protect
A turning point for Shane was learning to connect the product's value to each customer's priorities.
Sporting associations often see participation rates as a key success metric. But social media abuse can discourage people from playing sports. Framing Social Protect's impact in those terms enabled Shane to shift the conversation from cost to value.
Identifying the most strategic success metrics of your customers is key to unlocking opportunities for your business.
Social Protect's approach, combined with a willingness to let prospects trial the product, has driven strong conversion and opened doors to grow the business in global markets.
Shane can also use data to prove Social Protect’s value. In the past year alone, Social Protect removed 14 million abusive comments, up from 1.3 million the year before.
For any business leader that finds themselves questioning the value of their offering, Shane’s experience offers some useful advice. The key things to remember are:
Social Protect is a great example of how communicating your value helps create business success.
For small businesses approaching enterprise clients, Shane’s advice is clear. Understand what matters to each decision-maker, frame your value in their terms and don't apologise for the price.
Social Protect offers an example of how to grow a small business in Australia and internationally. Shane is scaling his technology business by being clear on his purpose and pursuing it with discipline.
The team designs products and services around what users actually want and have confidence in the value they deliver to their users.
Business leaders in every sector should consider what they can learn from Shane’s experience. His journey shows that:
Social Protect's journey shows that commercial success and social impact can reinforce each other when focus and trust are at the centre. Their recognition as the 2025 Telstra Best of Business Awards National Building Communities Award winner reflects exactly this approach.
Find out more about the benefits of entering business awards and how the Telstra Best of Business Awards could help boost your business.
Celebrating the people, purpose and bold moves behind Australia’s best of business.
Whether it's your own business or one you admire, now's your chance to celebrate the most extraordinary of Australian small and medium-sized businesses.
Nominations close 5pm AEST Tuesday, 28 July 2026.
