Social Activism combines forces with Social Media

There is no question that Social Media has permeated every inch of our lives with sites like Facebook and Youtube driving traffic patterns on the web that were unheard of just a few years ago. Over 100 million videos are watched on Youtube every day, I think the entire US and Continental Europe follows Ashton Kutcher on Twitter and more than 500 million facebook profiles have been set up. Add in a newly released hit movie "The Social Network" and I think we all get the picture; Social Media is here and it is here to stay. With this new social web comes a host of problems (age old spam, viruses, shareware and trojan horses) but also a new evolution in the past couple years of heavy Social Activism. Numerous charities and public voices are leveraging this movement to share their messages with friends, local communities, countries, and political leaders.

Movember
Being smack dab in the middle of Movember, we should probably start off with Prostate Cancer. Started in Melbourne in 2003, a couple buddies decided to bring the mustache back to fashion (The "Mo") for the month of November while raising money and awareness for Prostate Cancer. Every year since, and this year in particular, the Movember movement has grown. Facebook is literally filled with donation requests and photo updates of everyone's progression. I'd have to be Gillette is taking a little of hit. The Movember movement has become prominent through the creation of individual sites, groups and teams within their website. Combining charity, awareness, social networking and any reason whatsoever to give guys an excuse to grow facial hair has served this particular charity extremely well.


Climate Change
Later this week in Mexico the United Nations Climate Change Conference is scheduled to take place. Numerous dignitaries, media and environmental activists will converge on Quintana Roo near Cancun to discuss in particular the reduction in Greenhouse Gas submissions by member countries into the environment and provide a progress update on Kyoto. As can be expected, documentation, white papers and progress reports are linked from the Conference home page. Students from Guelph University however, have not been particularly impressed with the policy management approach of the Harper government leading up to this conference and have turned to Youtube to voice their concerns. The Harper government denied the passing of Bill C-311 despite it being passed in the House of Commons. This video will bring awareness and also provides the viewer with a mode of action. Email addresses and a direct phone number to Prime Minister Harper are included in their protest.





Tiger Summit
On the other side of the planet, President Putin hosted the World Wildlife Fund this week in an effort to double the population of Tigers in 13 nations over the next ten years. $50 Million was committed by the World Wildlife Fund over the next five years to support this program. While numerous blogs followed the daily activities of this epic summit, the twitter community also chimed in, and in, and in. Lead in part by Leo DiCaprio who I've now started to follow on twitter, micro blogging pushed for additional funding from both the private and public sector. DiCaprio himself kicked in $1 Million to fund Tiger conservation. Sending tweets to increase social awareness over animal extinction just seems a little more relevant than the latest "Where's Shaq today" updates. Too bad the Blue fin Tuna did not have a celebrity in its corner. The city of Lights hosted a similar conference with significantly less progress. If you had to gage the degree of enlightened thinking between Russia and the Western World a week ago, the general populous may not have come out with these results. I guess Europe and North America's demand for a good Tuna Melt has to be satisfied some how.


Charity Water
In the spirit of the season (the Charitable season, not the Social Media season for those of you keeping score at home), I've also signed up to raise awareness and some funding for Clean water projects in the third world. A billion people still do not have access to clean running water in this world. You can click HERE to donate :). Water born diseases are the number one killer of children in Africa and Charity Water has set up a social media site designed to assist in alleviating this problem. Charitywater.org allows individuals to set up their own campaigns and link them to friends, groups and into popular social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. Scott Harrison has also successfully integrated Youtube and some celebrity assistance into his mission.

Blending traditional fund raising, the power of youtube and social media only helps these programs raise awareness and funding. It is a great message for today's facebook users. Connect to your friend, families and colleagues, but also connect the areas of the world that can use help, with those that can help them.

Todd Price
www.Wayoverpriced.com
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