My Story: Mariann Forgács

By Mariann Forgács

From Agency Founder, AI CEO to Public Educator: The hard path to meaningful change

Hard to believe that it’s been 16 years since I founded BeSocial, Hungary’s first social media agency. We started small with local businesses & expanded to multinational companies, teaching our clients how social media works – from organic posts & online community participation to paid social ads & today’s influencer marketing.

During that time, Hungary also experienced 16 years of democratic backsliding, confrontations with the EU & rejection of humanist values. More than once I felt quite tempted to take my business to a more welcoming & civil environment, along with all the deep knowledge gained about how social media really works & how it shapes people’s decisions.

After much consideration, not only did I stay in Hungary, but started leaning into our social engagement to educate the public in a truly significant way. At BeSocial, we began by mapping social media usage habits in the country. Later, we focused our research on the digital behaviour of teenagers, then young adults and most recently added the online habits of senior generations. Using the information we gathered, I started making regular media appearances to try to make the digital world safer and more human. This work became especially important in the last 2 years of election campaigning when the state-controlled media distorted social issues & spread false information to voters nationwide.

With digital education front of mind, we launched our startup, Skillbot, in 2023 with the goal of making AI simpler and more accessible for small business owners. We first started building this solution in Hungary, and continued developing our vision on an international level. I’ve also continued in my role as the professional lead of the Online Marketing Academy to ensure that more entrepreneurs, marketers and professionals have access to practical, up-to-date digital knowledge.

My current focus is on digital child protection & how social media affects children, young people, families and society as a whole. On RTL Hungary’s morning television show, as the resident social media expert appearing on screen every week & use that forum to speak clearly about difficult topics to educate viewers about a variety of issues on social media as well as AI.

I am truly grateful to be a nominee in the Rising Talent category. Your recognition confirms that choosing the hard path by staying in Hungary to build & create meaningful change has value & meaning beyond borders.