Twestival

For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to find some truly innovative and grassroots social media uses, that promote or benefit a charity in some way.  I’ve been looking for something that is actually benefiting others on a non-organizational scale, which regular online users have come up with themselves.  Of course there are numerous Facebook groups and causes that people join, which pledge to donate thousands of dollars to an arbitrary, faceless and often unidentifiable charity. However I can’t help but wonder if donations are actually ever made, or if the money ever lands in the correct hands.  Often times many of these Facebook groups that are formed in the name of aid, come off as a ploy to simply get as many people as possible to join a group; almost as a form of bragging rights. I was beginning to think that there really weren’t a lot of well thought out fund-raising ideas that utilized social networks well, until a friend ‘tweeted’ an interesting link to me.  I suppose I haven’t really been looking in the right places for great ideas, but this one is by far the most interesting and contemporary example of a social medium creating social change. Twestival, which was created solely by volunteers on Twitter, has brought together thousands of people from the online community, inviting them to support a clean water projects in Africa.  Over a short period of time, using only twitter, hundreds of strangers organized events in over 200 cities to get people to come together for an evening of fun and fundraising.  The idea was a success and has so far raised over $250,000 dollars.  I can’t comment on the logistics of each of the events, but the fact that this was a world wide function organized in a matter of days is remarkable. The website backs up its efforts with information about the water crisis in Africa and what the money will be used for.  Personally, I think it is amazing that a social medium where most of the people connecting do not even know each other in the ‘real world’, was utilized for something very real.  I hope that we will see more of this in the future both on Twitter and Facebook.  As always, I appreciate any feedback or comments, and would love to hear about any other innovative ideas and success stories! 

   

Social Media vs. Social Marketing

I wanted to clear up the confusion that commonly surrounds the terms 'social marketing' and 'social media'.  I sometimes forget that not everybody tosses around advertising lingo on a daily basis.  Since I am planning to formulate this blog around the effects of social media and social marketing on HIV/AIDS, it might be a good idea to define what these two ideas incorporate, for the edification of my non-advertising readers as well as for myself!  

Social marketing is the use of ordinary marketing tools and principles to achieve a certain behavior or to sell an idea (for a social good), rather than push a product.  The main goal of social marketing is to benefit society, rather than an organization. Social Marketing has been used for years in the medical field for health programs and awareness, particularly birth-control/condom use.  

Social Media, although similar in name, is completely different.  Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. are examples of social media.  They are primarily internet based platforms that allow for discussion, sharing and communication with a number of friends.  

There is no need to go into too much more detail about these terms, but hopefully this clears up any misconceptions.