I still meet people every day who wonder if Social Media will ever be anything of significance.
I shake my head…They have no idea.
Social media is a digital extension of our lives and the world we live in – EXCEPT- It’s this “social layer” that gives us UNBELIEVABLE SUPER POWERS.
To date we’re only just seeing the beginning of these powers. Like the at-your-fingertips-power to organize millions of supporters to help win a political election (Obama), Like virtually connecting a country and the world to start a revolution (Egypt) . Like beaming your donations and support half a world away to victims of a natural disaster (Japan). All significant things done from PC’s, laptops and mobile phones all around the world.
I’ve particularly developed a fascination, or maybe an obsession, for how we can use these super powers for good, ways to take digital influence, inspire movements and create meaningful change in the physical world. An examples of just that is Share Our Strength’s Dine Out for #NoKidHungry online movement.
An Epic Example of Social Media for Social Good.
Last year we put out a video call to action to “Use Your Online Influence To Help End Childhood Hunger in America.”
The call to action was focused: “Raise Awareness for the Dine Out for No Kid Hungry and drive consumers into participating restaurants.” We targeted the communities who care the most about this cause (the restaurant industry and it’s advocates) and went after online influencers and consumers who care and want to make a difference. Over 1,000 people helped spread the word, posting over 10,000 tweets about the campaign in just one week. Those 1,000 contributors did their part to help Share Our Strength and the restaurant industry increase funds raised over prior year by 108%,raising 1.5 million dollars to help end childhood hunger in the United States.
This year Share Our Strength’s goal for the Dine Out for No Kid Hungry is to raise 3 million dollars with help of 5,000 restaurants. So the team decided to rally our online advocates once again, but this time for restaurant recruitment. The single call to action this time: “Ask your favorite restaurant to participate in the Dine Out for No Kid Hungry.” We did “TwEAT Outs” where our online street team encouraged people to ask their favorite restaurant to participate in the Dine Out.
Supporters shared their strength by asking their favorite brands in their own way to participate.
On June 21st, in just ONE DAY the community of almost 1,000 people came back together online to send out well over 5,000 Tweets, leaving over 40 million impressions and reaching around 5 million followers on twitter (the equivalent of the population of Norway or Singapore.)
The #NoKidHungry hashtag was the #2 Trending Topic on Twitter for 3 hours straight, ahead of the ever popular #TheVoice hashtag!
While this raised a ton of awareness for the cause, it also achieved results – getting 52 restaurant registrations during the time because of the TwEAT Outs.
And generated dozens more leads and hiked interest among other restaurants.
But… the thing that impressed me the most is how the cause bonded a community together. The Share Our Strength team brought together communities, advocates and influencers made it empowered them to make a difference and cheered them on along the way. In turn it bred a level of commitment from the community and made a powerful impact on the lives of all who participated in making this meaningful change.
“With great power comes great responsibility” – Ben Parker in Spiderman
My question to you is this – how are you using your digital superpowers for good?
You can take the No Kid Hungry Pledge here to join this movement.
You can join the Be The Change Influencers team to be a part of more movements like this one by clicking the join the revolution link at the top of this page.
*We are preparing a special THANK YOU for all of you that gave and continue to give your time, talent, and passion to this cause. In the meantime I wanted to say thanks and give a special thanks to Jessica Northey who played a HUGE roll and set the example in this last TwEAT Out. The results would not have been the same with out you. Thank you Jessica!
sexythinker 
