Last night, I witnessed and participated in an event that demonstrates another example of the power of Social Media:
I saw this tweet come in….
It only took a few clicks to find out that a group of bloggers were banding together for a live virtual auction and fundraiser to help Feeding America. They would be using the hashtag “GNO” (the group formerly called themselves the Twitter Girls’ Night Out) to track the conversation.
On a professional level, a large part of our client base is non-profit. There are numerous examples of Social Media for non-profit, but the timing was right for me to observe as the event took place. So, I did.
I find the easiest way to track live tweets that are hashtag’d is by using tweetchat, so I fired that up and even before the event started, the tweets were rolling in.
The Community eXperience turned out to be an amazing stream of passionate, supportive, cohesive, gracious and appreciative group conversation among some real people just donating some time to help a cause. Truely, an example of the power of instantaneous collective messaging across numerous disparate boundaries.
I can’t find the effects (yet) of this event, but will update this post when I do - the final tally won’t be out until Friday. But, this even will surely become part of the conversation when I speak to this topic early in the new year.
On a personal level, I have found that through the years you become aware and compassionate about many causes, as life’s experiences help you gravitate emotionally towards particular areas of human suffering that need to be addressed. Food for the hungry is one that goes back to my childhood.
When I was a little boy of 8 or 9, I used to go out Saturday mornings with my Dad to accompany him while he did errands. It was our time together. My Dad was a man of some stature in the small town I grew up in; well-respected and carried himself accordingly.
But if we ever passed a old homeless man (”winos”, “rubbies”, or “bums” my childhood friends would call them) they all knew him and would smile and say hello to him by his first name. He’d give each of them a bit of change (not all of it) from his pocket.
I once asked him why he did that. “That”, he responded, “is somebody’s little boy”.
The timing of this post is to help promote a cause that will continue to raise money until November 21, 2008. As my martial arts sensei once told me, “You can’t do everything, but I want you to do what you can do”.
In the spirit of the Community eXperience, this is my little contribution to the cause. What’s yours?
Thanks for the linkage and support for Podcamp Halifax. I think it would be really excellent if an East Coast flavor of the Virtual Food Drive came out from Podcamp Halifax 2009. For me, the success of the event should be measured in the number of ideas, inspirations, enthusiasms, friends, partnerships etc that come from it, rather than mere numbers etc.
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the event as well!
November 19th, 2008