Solve Some Real World Problems
Threading together some topics that have been on my mind lately, I wanted to bring something different to you for consideration. For all that I talk about social media tools and how they can help businesses, I wanted to look at some real world problems that some of you can help with.
I’m inspired in part by a conversation with Britt Raybould tonight, about how the tech community is fairly insulated in our little fishbowl, and that we’re not really looking at things we could be doing to make a difference.
This was also one of the themes of PodCamp Boston this year, that we needed to take what we learned and start doing something with it. Further, I believe it was Christopher S. Penn who shared/linked to a story by Heather Ryan about what it was like to take her family to a soup kitchen for the first time. I’m also inspired by the work of Beth Kanter, and how she got a bunch of geeks to send a Cambodian woman to college again!
There are real world things you can do to help others while doing social media things. Here are some starting points:
Money Never Hurts
Affiliate Marketers Give Back is a campaign by Missy Ward and others in the affiliate marketing space dedicated to helping fund charitable giving via the affiliate marketing community.
Christopher S. Penn recently posted his new public speaking policy and it involves getting his fee handled in scholarship points to support college education.
Kiva.org is a microlending project, where you can fund several projects with great impact in other countries by giving a reasonably small amount of money in the form of a loan. My wife, Katrina, is involved with Kiva.org, and when I reviewed the projects she’d funded (Kat chose all women’s projects), I was impressed and moved by how much these loans could impact the people in need. Even $30 went a long way with certain projects in certain communities.
Or you could be Angel Djambazov and decide to send a good friend a few Flip video cameras for a generation-spanning project whose goal is only (only?) understanding between grandparents and kids.
There are other ways to help, too.
Startups to Solve More Pressing Problems
I came up with one idea where I feel a startup could make a difference, instead of trying to recreate the next Twitter killer yet again. Most modern grocery stores are all digitized. Every can of green beans is accounted for in a system. There are many people who receive financial assistance to support their food needs.
Could we build a system that automatically calculates the best possible food purchase choices, based on the amount of money available to spend divided by the number of people in the family, and built around the best possible nutrition choices? Could we print that list and even provide aisle/shelf numbers to make it even easier?
I saw an advertisement for a new show on Discovery called Project Earth. Essentially, it’s a science program, where they intend to do really big projects to attempt to impact various environmental issues. Too out there? Though it was a bit hokey and in the vein of reality TV, I give Discovery credit for education efforts via shows like Battleground Earth, where musical celebrities (Ludacris and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee) perform eco-friendly challenges while educating us on how to make a difference in the environment.
Are there other ways we can use our technology and media skills that could benefit people in need?
It doesn’t always have to be a large gesture. Today, the effort with Beth Kanter cost as little as $10, and took up a few minutes of anyone’s time.
Want to see some other interesting and useful causes that could use your help in some small way?
Check out sm4sc- social media for social causes. This has lots of opportunities, especially for companies looking to get involved at a larger-than-individual level.
Check out this list from the nptech site.
So what can you do to help? What blocks us from taking action? How else might you share what you know in a way that would help others?
Photo credit, Joe M500
Raising a Quick 500 for Cancer
In just under two hours, we raised over $500 US for a cancer walk sponsorship for Susan. It was fun getting the word out via Twitter, and I’m SO very grateful to all the people who contributed to the cause. You might remember we sent a woman to college using Twitter for half of the fundraising. This was a similar mechanism. Basically, I tweeted, and asked people to retweet the request until we raised what I set out to raise.
WHY I Did It
Much as I support giving to cancer as a worthy thing, my main reason for getting people to give was more about showing others how they can use Twitter and other social platforms to support charitable causes. Is it sustainable? Not really. Is it the BEST way to raise tons of money for a cause? No.
Did it make a lot of people feel good about themselves for a cost of only $10 - 20 *and* support a worthy cause? Yes!
Don’t ask me to raise money for your cause. Use these tools and your networks and raise it yourself. That’s the major point. YOU can do this. There’s nothing that makes my request any better than anyone else’s. I just sent the request and asked others to spread it across their own networks. Ultimately, people give because it makes them feel better.
Go ahead, make some change in the world, and show them that things like Twitter are for much more than talking about being stuck in traffic.
Social Media Changes Lives Directly
Understanding where to give donations is always tricky. There’s overhead to consider. There are worries about where the best good can be done. And we often don’t realize the impact we make in other people’s lives.
Last October, we helped send a Cambodian woman to college. Superstar nonprofit cause driver Beth Kanter raised half the money in a day, so I asked Twitter to raise the other half in two hours.
Beth has a similar goal in mind here. Read that article and come back, if you want. Essentially, Beth is asking YOU (and I mean you) for $10 (USD) to help another great cause. If you’re sold already, donate here. If not, consider this:
$10 is two latte drinks at Starbucks.
$10 is an appetizer at a restaurant.
$10 is six or seven sodas out of an office vending machine.
$10 is part of someone’s future in your hands today.
Ready to feel good? Donate here.
Why I Support Social Causes
Besides the obvious “it’s the right thing to do” type of answer, my other reasons are as follows: It’s something way more interesting thank talking about Twitter and Facebook (meaning it’s using the tools instead of talking about them). It’s a way to prove that we have power beyond what we tend to believe about ourselves. It’s a way to demonstrate to other parts of the world that those of us with the privilege of technology can do something meaningful elsewhere.
No fuss. No hullabaloo. Let’s just give $10 and go from there. Cool?
