altruism

Social Media is a great platform for promoting awareness. The recent breast cancer ‘bra colour’ Facebook campaign is a great example, as is the efforts surrounding the humanitarian efforts in Haiti. Social Media has revolutionised the ‘call to action’ and it’s been great to see the outpouring of compassion to those in need.

When you create such an awareness you’re creating a community with a common cause. The initial excitement and passion ensures that this community can usually achieve something ‘remarkable’. Look at the RageFactor campaign putting ‘Killing In The Name’ top of the UK christmas charts or Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ election campaign. Both remarkable results in different contexts.

What happens once the initial excitement passes though? The UK charts today are filled with music that the ragefactor community would turn their noses up at and Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ has quickly turned into ‘No You Can’t’. Why? The answer is in Obama’s initial catch phrase. It was ‘Yes We Can’ not ‘Yes I Can’. Change might be driven by the individual, but it’s delivered by the masses. Once the initial excitement passes the masses lose their drive and pass responsibility back to the individual. Change halts.

This is where social media comes back in. We’ve seen it’s effectiveness in supporting awareness, now we need to work out how to bring about change.

One man who I think has the potential to help deliver that next step is @chrisguillebeau. The brains behind The Art of Non-Conformity, Chris is a great advocate of change and through his blog he has brought some inspirational stories of people like this one from an Aid Worker in Sudan. But it’s Chris’s latest project that has made me believe I’ve found an example of awareness turning into continual action.

Clean Water for Ethiopia. With this project Chris and his partner charity, Charity: Water are hoping to use Chris’s audience and the audiences of his audiences and so on to bring about real change in the world. When we think of how we can change the world it’s often daunting. That’s the first stage of the masses losing motivation. So the key is breaking it down until it becomes manageable. As Chris explains:

Fact #3: It’s best to tackle the problem one place at a time. The overall water crisis is hard to fix (one billion people!), but when you break it down country by country, region by region, and community by community, it’s not nearly as difficult.

That’s why I think Chris’s project is one that can work. He isn’t trying to solve the water problem for the world; he isn’t even trying to solve the water problem for Ethiopia; Instead he is trying to solve the water problem for two communities. When you look at it like that it becomes achievable doesn’t it?

Chris has set a lofty goal. He wants to raise $500,000 USD over the next 18 months and he sees Social Media playing a key role in achieving that goal.

“Despite going all out, my own contribution will be a small part of the overall fundraising goal. The rest will need to come from friends, readers, and partners who want to be a part of the mission.”

Chris is trying to capitalize on his wide social media ‘reach’ to spread the message and at the same time spread ownership.

“If this mission resonates with you, I would like you to be part of it with me. Many of you have your own circle of influence or your own small army. When you speak, they listen to you because they trust you.”

He also understands the importance of keeping the community engaged and informed.

“Over the next few months, I’ll tell you more about why this project is so important, and more about the specific communities in Ethiopia we’ll be partnering with. In late 2011 I’ll also take a small team to visit the communities and document the work that’s been done in cooperation with local leaders.”

Chris’s project has really invigorated me. He understands social media and he understands how it can be used to help him and Charity: Water bring about positive change in the world today. I’m excited about this project and I’m going to do my utmost to get involved and help it succeed. I really think we have a potential blueprint here for driving positive change in the future!

If you feel the same way then I encourage you to get involved. You can contribute in four key ways:

• Obviously the first way to help is to donate. $20 US dollars can deliver clean water to one person for 20 years. You’d probably spend that on Coffee for a week! Drop the Coffee, Give Water!
• Secondly and arguably more important is spread the word. If you have a blog, write a similar post to mine. If you’re on Facebook tell your friends, If you’re on Twitter, Tweet to your hearts content. Viral spread is the key here, use the communities that you’ve created, use them to make a difference.
• Taking the above idea a little further you can become a partner blog for this project. It involves a minimum cash contribution. Send Chris an email if you like the sound of that.
• Thirdly you can volunteer with the charity Chris has partnered with. Charity : Water have multiple ways in which you can get involved and help. Check out this link to find out more.

The World’s problems can be daunting, but if we all focus on what we as individuals can do to make a difference then change is just around the corner. Social Media gives us all the tools to drive change so let’s help Chris, let’s help him turn awareness into change.

Adam

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