Social Media for Social Good, Part One: Twitter

Social media can be an incredible tool when harnessed for social good.  The networks created by social media can provide a powerful means to share facts, share stories, build coalitions, and engage people.  As part of an ongoing series of how social media can be used for social good, this post will examine how one platform -- Twitter -- has been used to effect change.

Twitter is a social networking and "microblogging" site that allows users to share information in short posts known as "tweets."  Tweets can consist of only 140 characters or less that appear on a user's Twitter page and are delivered as a feed to the user's followers.  There are an estimated one million tweets sent per day.

Although the restricted character count of tweets might be seen as a limitation to some, Twitter has found itself to be a powerful site for real-time response to breaking news items.  Trending topics on Twitter capture what most users are tweeting about.  Although oftentimes the trending topics include pop culture references (teen idol Justin Bieber seems to be a perennial trend, for example), these topics can also point to important current events:  the President's State of the Union address, earthquakes in Haiti, plane crashes in Poland.  The speed and ease with which users can post (there are many mobile applications that make tweeting by smart-phone and by text possible) makes Twitter an incredibly important vehicle for sharing real-time information.  One of the features of Twitter that helps this is the "retweet."  A retweet allows users to repeat the tweets of other individuals word-for-word, and helps enhance the speed with which data can be spread.

In addition to sharing information about current events rapidly, Twitter has been harnessed for social good with several campaigns.

Twibbons:  This site allows users to place an image of a "ribbon" in support of particular causes on top of their profile picture.  A yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet, for example, can demonstrate a user's support of Lance Armstrong's cancer awareness campaign.

#blamedrew:  Hashtags -- phrases marked with the # sign -- are used in Twitter to track topics.  One innovative use of the hashtag was started by Drew Olanoff.  Diagnosed with lymphoma in 2009, Drew has used the #blamedrew hashtag to blame his cancer for everything -- from losing his keys to his baseball team losing.  He has encouraged others to do the same, providing not only a viral campaign to help support those touched by cancer, but propelling Drew as one of the leading anti-cancer social media spokespeople.

Twestival:  A Twitter Festival, Twestival combines online and offline fundraising, with local charity events, organized in part via Twitter, raising over $1 million.

Social media isn't the answer on its own.  Virtual activism, whether via Twitter or other social networks, is only a part of what it takes in order to affect social change.  Nevertheless, the potential for social media --  to reach wide audiences, to spread messages for social change, to encourage more engagement and activism -- is amazing.  Tune in next week for the next post in this series, where I look at the efficacy of another social media tool:  the blog.

And I'm also very interested to hear from others on how they use social media for social good.