@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

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Three Easy Ways to Turn Twitter Blurbs into Cash

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You don’t have to be Shaquille O’Neal or Kim Kardashian to make money on Twitter. You may need their celebrity status to make $10k per Tweet, but turning your Twitter account into its own minor source of funding is quite possible for even the most obscure Tweeters around.

SponsoredTweets

On SponsoredTweets users can sign up easily using Twitter account integration and they will not have to worry about their account being used, or unsolicited Tweets being sent out through their accounts. Simply wait for opportunities to come your way via email, and you are free to accept and create, or reject them as you please. SponsoredTweets is one of the few sites that try to avoid making anyone’s Twitter account look like an annoying spammer.  So unless you are mass posting, you shouldn’t have to worry about a large loss of followers.

Once your user score is determined, users are shown how much worth each potential Tweet may hold for them. Don’t underestimate yourself here, but be careful. Having a Twitter account that provides nothing but paid advertisements is likely to cause followers to drop in droves. It is possible to provide a good balance of organic input as well as some automated entries and still retain your credibility on Twitter. SponsoredTweets does go out of their way to be sure any paid tweets are not sent out back-to-back.

TwittAd

TwittAds work similar to SponsoredTweets. TwittAds users are given the opportunity to promote only the content they choose to. Signing up and getting started is once again as easy as using the Twitter integration option. Once opting into a campaign, users are notified via email once there Twitter activity is monitored, if they are accepted for it. The offered opportunity then becomes the choice of the user to accept or reject.

Organic Reviews, Advertising, & Marketing

There can be no doubt that taking the organic path will reap you more valued results. Although these methods may be hit-and-miss, they are also likely to preserve the integrity of your Twitter account more than the previous options.

A great restaurant experience, a perfect vacation get-away, or even new features on your favorite software are calls for legitimate tweeting. So do so. Better yet, grab a web 2.0 site and post a link to your full review of another’s website, products, or opportunities. Businesses that are active in social media marketing know when you do tweet about them, and many business connections have been made in exactly this manner. Your free review could result in future paid reviews from that company or others who enjoy your work.

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Twitter: Business & Brands Now Trending

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Twitter is becoming part of our lives whether we are active users or not. Twitter has found itself as the exclusive information tool, scooping Osama Bin Laden Death and now the latest in business and brands. There are so many uses to this short burst of 140 characters, and new ones are being discovered every day. We cannot ignore its existence because it touches many aspects of our lives.

One aspect of today’s world brought about by Twitter is that secrets are something much harder to keep these days. Tweets by innocent bystanders about a clandestine operation can foil a mission. Tweets of conduct unbecoming elected official find themselves, with one mistaken click of a button, broadcasted to the whole world. A claim of hacking did not hold water in Anthony Weiner’s case and another claim of hacking, this time on FoxNewsPolitics, are being investigated by the security services. On July 4, 2011, six tweets appeared from that source announcing the premature death of President Obama, who was presumably assassinated in a Diner. Jokes aside (“The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated” Mark Twain said so succinctly), it poses a great risk to the validity of news sources.

Theoretically, to prevent foul play, Twitter has a service called Verified Tweets, which has been in existence since 2009. Twitter is using it to prevent confusion by verifying the person behind the account. It has been done with important and famous people and with Twitter’s advertisers and partners. The verification process was open to the public for a short time in beta testing, but it is now closed. “In the meantime, we’re still verifying some trusted sources, such as our advertisers and partners. If you’re one of our partners or advertisers, please follow up with your account manager for details.” It says on their blog. Obviously Fox news is a verified tweeter, so what about trusting the news?

And there’s the aspect of commerce using Twitter. “Promoted tweets” are ones that are paid for by the advertiser. Twitter handles 50 million tweets a day and Promoted Tweets are twitter advertising platform. In Apr. 2010 Twitter.com rolled out a system where ads can appear at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. They are labeled as “Promoted “and retain all the other functions of a tweet. Twitter.com has expand it to Promoted Accounts, in which people and brands are buying their way onto your “who to follow” list.

It seems that while some larger companies are still trying to figure out social media, there are those who already have. Here are some, that experts agree, who excel in using Twitter.

  • Starbucks – 1.5 million followers and is the most socially engaged. It ranks on top of fast customer interaction. It’s about the relationships with the customer, they say, not marketing. Which is a good marketing slogan in itself. Starbucks hosts polls, contests and shares photos and videos.

  • Southwest Airlines – Tries to replicating the casual atmosphere on their flights into their tweets. The only company that knows how to make someone LUV the company (LUV is the Love Field in Dallas, the headquarters of the company).
  • New York Times – This news organization broadcasts the news in 140 characters. It has subchannels for specific interests and reaches 2.4 million readers.
  • JetBlue – After their nightmare in 2007 (“a day on the tarmac”) JetBlue is keeping constant communication with its followers (1.6 million). It uses tweets to broadcast special deals to their 50,000 most loyal customers. They have 14 people tweeting for the account; assisting, apologizing and solving problems.
  • Zappos – The online retailer keeps in touch with its customers, encouraging anybody, from the CEO to the newest employee to join the party.
  • Cisco Systems – The company shows how well business to business can do on twitter. They ask and answer questions.
  • Bergdorf Goodman – They tweet about New York, fashion and style, engaging their customers in conversations and showing them things the followers would be interested in.
  • Whole Foods Market – They use Twitter to go deep in their customers’ needs and test new concepts. They extend the discussion to the philosophy behind their business.
  • Dell – Getting their inventory and older equipment out the door fast, Dell is using Twitter. It is a fast grapevine that broadcasts the news. The sales are $3 million a year using this method.
  • Home depot – It goes beyond product and store questions to help in many home improvement projects.

A great example of how I have seen twitter impact communication and win business can be seen in these two previous articles:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzyD-cTRoAA]

 

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Lujure: A Fundamental Shift in Facebook Marketing for Small Business

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Lujure’s Assembly Line represents the most profound shift in advertising and marketing that one hopes to continue to see in social media. The power of Facebook cannot be ignored; it represents a marketing tool that has changed the way that we do business and is the pinnacle representation of web 2.0.

It is with great conflict that I prepare this article.

It is not easy to balance the role of entrepreneur and founder of a nonprofit, at least not in a case like this. You see, the entrepreneur loves having been on the ground floor getting insight to one of the most profound business and social tools to ever hit facebook, the opportunity for profit is endless…

However, the conflict comes to an imbalance once I think about the legacy I wish to leave in social media, business and my desire to make a difference. This article displays my commitment to the mission statement of DBMEi.

Like everything else in this publication, I share it with the hope that it finds its way into the hands of others who can use it to better not just their own lives and business, but that of others as well. – Basil C. Puglisi

Web 1.0 was ‘here I am, come to me’. Web 3.0 hopes to be ‘bring your “whatever” with you anywhere at any time’ and I believe that history will show that both pale in comparison to web 2.0’s ability to bring a product, concept, message and dream into the crowd.

The most profound part of web 2.0 is still lost on most and for those that do get it, Lujure is tearing down the barriers that once prevented great ideas, products and causes from reaching the world.

Erik Qualman used the term “World of Mouth” when talking about the Social Media Revolution, and while I believe his claim that social media was “here” may have been mostly accurate, it is only with the help of companies like Lujure that one can truly understand the power of social media.

While there will always be a place for those that master an art or develop a skill for advertising and marketing, technology like Lujure’s Assembly Line is empowering novices into professionals.

While it is now supported by many professionals that social media is an important tool in business, it was still plagued with the class system. While marketers, designers and coders still have an advantage, for some, Lujure just made the gap a whole lot smaller.

Lujure’s product is a drag-and-drop application that allows novice business owners to prepare a custom facebook tab for their business pages.

With little more than the average smart phone, a young entrepreneur can take their idea, concept, or belief and share it with the world. Advances in cell phone technology provided the hardware and social media provided the stage, along with an endless supply of leads. The missing keystone for most was the ability to present professionally and convert leads to sales, supporters, voters, etc… Lujure has done just that.

It is not just the product that has been impressive, Nathan Latka, a co-founder and CEO shows the type of commitment to innovation and quality that resembles the impact that Steve Jobs had for Apple. I noticed this the first time at the Likeable Conference during Internet Week and found it reinforced in a recent Facebook wall post:

“It really comes down to business owners staying focused on giving value to their communities. Master this and everything else falls in place. Cheers!” Nathan Latka to Basil Puglisi July 14 1:33AM.

Nathan’s selflessness is exemplified where in private communications he takes the time to share:

I couldn’t have done this without my incredibly bright co-founders, Josh Gunter and Brian Putt.

I was fortunate to get some (off the record) insight from Nathan Latka as to his ambitions for Lujure and I see promise for the future of this company and its products. If Lujure remains a service solution based company it should innovate with the world even if Facebook does not.

Lujure draws upon the best that Social Media has to offer, enabling facebook pages as viral marketing tools to connect via LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, YouTube and more. It also offers ecommerce tools to help navigate successful conversions.

What makes Lujure’s Assembly Line platform so impressive is the ease with which the average person can use it. While I support the argument that designers, marketers, and coders are still an advantage, Lujure has given the playing field a big tilt back towards center for entrepreneurs and small business owners lacking these skills.

This product is and will continue to be a key part of how I help businesses, organizations, and political candidates reach and share with their communities and the world. I believe that Lujure has captured the very essence of the “World of Mouth” concept that makes the social media revolution a reality. Lujure made room at the table for anyone with the inspiration and courage to create on their own.

To Nathan and his team, congrats on making small business owners your priority and building a business and platform around solutions, not just a trend.

To those who have a cause, dream, believed or created something but didn’t know how, or could not afford to spread the word to the world… meet Lujure!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHwUih6dLCk]

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ReferralKey Can Help to Grow Your Business

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Tapping into the largest referral network available, ReferralKey has previously been described as a skillful collaboration of Angie’s List and LinkedIn, the social business network.

This system of referring business owners, among business owners and consumers allows users to build a network of contacts while building list of reputable businesses with reliable contractors and other professionals.

ReferralKey focuses on one prime element: You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. It also relies a bit on depending on others to have as much net etiquette as you do. While users build a network of contacts, they also refer those they know. Hopefully, those who get referrals will be kind enough or happy enough to promote you in your industry in return. In this manner, everyone is able to enjoy the benefits of this simple but valuable exchange.

Sign Up for ReferralKey

Signing up for ReferralKey is easy and requires no more than the basics. Once signed in users are brought swiftly to their dashboard where they can make decisions on elements of ReferralKey such as:

  • Profile Creation
  • Adding Colleagues
  • Setting Rewards for Referrals

When first visiting the dashboard users should select their settings options and choose how to receive alerts, as well as profile and other privacy options.

Users can also advertise their businesses, by location and industry on ReferralKey. Doing so will also register your listing with several search engines. This will also increase the odds of other consumers finding the listing.

Although users can create their own free profiles and accounts, users are only allowed to receive three referrals before they are prompted and required to purchase a paid account. There are different plans depending on user choice.

The light plan, referred to as the Silver Key, is $10 USD per month, the Gold Key plan cost $20 USD per month. Users should study the difference in plans before making an educated decision about which would be best for their small or growing business.

This service can be solid and quite successful if the referrals help a user’s business to generate a lucrative amount of revenue. With the easy-to-navigate and use site, while providing a great deal of helpful information regarding your own contacts and in your industry.

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5 Top-Notch Marketing Conferences

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A great marketing conference will offer one-of-a-kind perspectives on trending insider information in traditional and digital marketing. Speakers will help to lead and enhance expert learning sessions for a great full-bodied conference program that should focus on marketing strategies, business and consumer relations management, and other vital elements of your company’s marketing campaigns that is carried on, offline.

Marketing Conferences 2011

There are quite a few marketing conferences that can benefit anyone from the smallest business owner to a well-known public brand.

  1. Contagious: The Science of Word-of-Mouth Marketing Conference is held on June 30th, 2011 in NY, New York. This unique marketing conference provides industry expertise about findings into what really influences consumer decisions and how to use the old fashioned method of word-of-mouth advertising to build a larger audience.
  2. The PRSA 2011 will be held in Orlando, Florida on Sunday October 16th. This conference with the intriguing title of Bringing Sexy Back to Marketing is focused on show-and-tell presentations that are loaded with real case study information on maintaining great offline marketing campaigns as well as integrating online and offline efforts for greater possibilities.
  3. The American Management Association produces many conferences and seminars all around the U.S. regularly. One of their most vital seminars is the Fundamentals of Marketing: Your Action Plan for Success course. This course takes those new to marketing and gives them a thorough overview of exactly what they need to know, the most basic fundamentals behind successful marketing campaigns. Important marketing skill development begins here. Since these are covered in cities in the U.S. at various times it is best to check there schedule for this program.
  4. The Direct Marketing Conference is held October 1st through 6th in 2011 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts. This global event focuses on learning how to effectively develop successfully integrated marketing campaigns. Increasing the understanding of how to leverage data and other attributions. Networking with many peers from over 50+ countries can be quite an experience for any visiting this conference.
  5. The International Professional Communications Conference is an incredibly beneficial tool to any offline marketing campaign. This yearly conference held on the University of Cincinnati campus October 17th through October 19th can be an imperative element in training your entire marketing department on how to communicate effectively, and proactively with your possible consumers.

Over 90% of retail sales and word-of-mouth referrals still happen offline. It may be a dire mistake to put all of your marketing eggs into one digital basket with statistics like this still lingering around.

More than 93 percent of retail sales and 90 percent of word-of-mouth referrals happen offline. Yet, brands seem obsessed with using the latest and greatest social media tools to build customer loyalty. It is time to bring sexy back to word-of-mouth marketing and implement communications plans that fully engage customers, both online and offline.

  • Experience a show-and-tell presentation loaded with case studies and actionable best practice advice on how to engage and encourage customers to tell others about the brands they find talk-able.
  • Uncover the importance of investing in a strategy that engages employees and customers first, before you think about your technology plan.
  • Learn the importance of integrating online and offline programs, and tips for implementing both.

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Why Online Videos are Important to Your Business?

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Videos are increasingly attracting huge audiences online. People love to share online video content, especially young people. They post them on social networking sites or spread them through e mails. Marketing people say that if you are not using video in your marketing campaign, you might soon be behind the crowd.

Why is that?

Think about this simple fact: 1 minute of video equals 1.8 million words, as demonstrated by Dr. James McQuivey of Forester Research. The amount of information contained in one single frame can take 3 pages to describe. The mood, the colors, the message is seen immediately. It is a known fact that people engage more when they watch a video and tend to stay watching it. They are also happy to pass it along.

Since e commerce has become so impersonal, a video that shows the business owner, the business itself and the products makes it more personal and human. There is now a face behind the business. The choice of music in the background makes the experience fun and uplifting, retaining the audience.

How big will online video be in a marketing campaign? It will be huge the experts say. Statistics done by Cisco.com and Invodo.com reveals some amazing facts:

  • In their estimation video will be about 90% of all internet traffic in 2013.
  • 64% of retail site visitors who view video stay two minutes longer in average compared to a site that does not contain video. In the e commerce world, the longer a visitor stays on the site, the greater the chances of him turning into a buyer.
  • Between January 2010 and January 2011 viewing time of videos grew by an amazing 44.5%.
  • Video in e mail marketing has been shown to increase click through by 96%!
  • With the right optimization, video increases the chances of a front-page Google search result by 53 times.
  • Internet retailers report that visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy the product than visitors who do not look at videos.

With these kinds of numbers, no wonder many experts turn to video in an attempt to get to the first page of the search engines.

Studies reveal the need for engagement from the viewers, and videos provide this kind of engagement. Just like comments and reviews on product pages, YouTube looks at the number of comments to a video when it decides which video should be on their front page. It’s more than just broadcasting, videos engage audiences and sends them to your site if the video is insightful, funny, gives information, educates and talks about people – how your product can help others to be more… what they want to be.

Where do most of those videos originate? On Google, 82% of video originate from YouTube, 3% from DailyMotion, 2% from MetaCafe, 1% from Google video and 10% from other sites which support self-hosted videos.

On Bing, 38% of the videos come from YouTube, 37% from Bing, 9% from Vevo, 4% from Fox News, 3% from CNN and other news organizations. The others, about 5%, come from different sites.

Does it mean we all need to become film makers? Not necessarily. There are many ways to create sales and promotions video; telling a story (which is the most complicated), using a simple camera and following the owner around, using screen shots, animation or just captions with music in the background to explain a complicated point. The big companies have been doing so for some years now but with modern technology, cheap cameras and free software, everyone can do it too.

Videos are an Information Experience:

Here is a law firm talking about the importantce of video, almost as if the lawyer is selling the product he just bought!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t2RmvrfV7k]

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Google +1 Goes Live with Adwords

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Google Experimental Labs has been testing its +1 feature, similar to a Facebook “Like” for a few months now. For those participating in the experiment, a +1 box at the end of each website’s title on a search engine query display allowed them to give their digital stamp of approval to sites they enjoy.

So far, the Google +1 experiment has fared reasonably well during its beta term. When participating in the experiment any user viewing a search engine query display can see where anyone in their network has given their virtual thumbs up on a site.

Adwords +1

Now however, Google has plans to add the +1 feature to their Adwords advertisements. This means that if your business has an Adwords campaign, any viewing this ad can choose to give it their approval with a +1 click. This also means that anyone in that persons network who sees the same ad, will see that their friend has also given the ad their approval.

How could this be beneficial to your business? If, for instance, you are in the travel business and are using a Google Adwords campaign to advertise your seaside hotel in Florida, and a group of office workers in Illinois are planning a visit to your area, likely many will take to the net.

If office worker A’s daughter took a trip to the same area last year, loved your resort, and gave the Adwords display a +1 click to show her approval, perhaps office worker A, will also give it a click, check into your resorts amenities, and decide upon you for their impending stay.

This worker also likely has their co-workers in their network, so as their co-workers do their own searches, and see your ad, they could see the same ad, +1’d by their trusty co-workers, and now you have several who are on the way to your resort as quickly as they can get there.

+1 Your Landing Page

Business owners will now also want to take advantage of adding the Google +1 option to their landing pages, right next Twitter and Facebook most likely. Adding this will give viewers the ability to +1 your site from the inside, and not just from their displayed search engine results.

This gives those who are fans of your website the ability to share with their friends without intrusive interaction. They will simply be able to see whether or not any of their friends connections would choose your site out of a list of sites, or advertisements, when queried. 

Early critiques attack the need to be logged into a google account to particiapte or see the results, but prticiaption issues exist with facebook too. Even more intereting is that the latest trend in sharing seems to be LinkedIn. While the +1 has done well in the early beta stages, only time will tell how google’s answer to the facebook “like” will playout over time.

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Social Media Trends in Europe and Russia

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The use of social media is certainly not limited to the United States alone. In fact, for some internet users, social media networks may have been their first experience in connecting to someone outside of their own local, state, or even country.

Russia has a significantly different social media audience in the simple fact that in comparison to the U.S. it is extremely small. The total online population of Russia is just under 60,000 and only 42% of that population is using online capabilities at all.

Russian Demographics

According to eMarketer, 61.9 million people in Russia will use the internet by 2013. This would be a significant jump from 2009 where the number rested at 45.8 million. Although the minor numbers may seemingly indicate otherwise, Russians are actually the most arduous social networkers when it comes the length of time spent on social media sites per user.

Odnoklassniki, Russia’s main social network has a reported user-base of around 30 million. The site helps to connect classmates in Russia and the Ukraine and has over 8 million visitors per day. Nearly 75% of the online population of Russia visited at least one social networking site during the month of the study in August of 2010.

Russians are spending more than double the worldwide average time of 4.5 hours on social networking sites. This makes it rank high at #1 among all countries with reported social networking statistics and open social media option engagement. Following Russia is Israel with an average of just over 9 hours per visitor. Israel is followed by Turkey with 7.6 hours per user spent on social networking websites.

This means that in spite of Facebook’s worldwide powerful command in social networking sites, in an overall majority of this specific internet market, Facebook actually ranks fifth in Russia with just over 4.5 million users. However, recent years have seen increasing growth in Russian internet users who utilize Facebook as a social network option.  This is causing Facebook to quickly outpace the other five top social networking sites. 

European Social Media Statistics

Currently, the top ten countries for social networking are ranked by the time spent per visitor. The current worldwide average time for visitors spent on social networking websites is 4.5 hours. In a 2009 Rapleaf study, it was shown that females are far more active in social media than men. However, this study was focused on the U.S. A newer study from Comscore showed that the same rang true for European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It should be no great surprise that the younger set of females ages 15 to 24 spend the most time of all age groups on social sites than their male counterparts at a generous 8.4 hours each month. What may be a bit more astonishing  is that the next age group on social media time consumption lists isn’t the 25 to 34 year olds, but the older group in the 45 to 54 year olds. The studies actually showed that the 45 to 54 year olds spent more than double the amount of time on social networking sites than the males of the same age group.

The short top ten list of countries leading in social networking capabilities are:

  1. Russia
  2. Israel
  3. Turkey
  4. UK
  5. Philippines
  6. Canada
  7. Indonesia
  8. Finland
  9. Spain
  10. Puerto Rico

Many European countries utilize social media websites that are not commonly used by U.S. internet users.

Friendster is relatively popular in Russia, while Hi 5 is frequented visited by users in Spain and Italy more often. Netlog is also highly popular in Spain and an unfamiliar sight for U.S social media users known as Studvyiz, is Germany’s most popular social media outside of Facebook and Myspace.

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Transparency & Social Media

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Embracing social media 100% may be the best investment, you as a business owner, can make for your company and brand. However, businesses already renowned in the social media world, can also be considered pioneers of this method of advertising and marketing.

Although many have heard of the benefits, fear of possible damage may have kept them at bay long enough that they are just now dipping a toe in the proverbial social media pool. Some of these businesses may be ultimately considered about the meaning behind the transparency of social media  as well as the implementation of.

Social media marketers speak about social media transparency and the importance of being open, authentic, and honest about their company’s brands or opportunities. However, keeping in mind that it is all about the people, and little of the product, that is the most important element of maintaining a balance in social media transparency.

What is Social Media Transparency?

Commonly, this phrase is used in reference with news media to inform the public why and how the business gathers information from a variety of sources. This is really no different than providing the name of which reliable source told you what. We already regularly do this in our daily rumor mills. The discussion of odd or unusual details may illicit a “who told you that?” Social media transparency only makes this a proactive measure. “This is what I heard, and here are the reliable sources that support that notion.”

As a business, sometimes your only role is to provide those details, the who as important as the why, and for many companies, being a reliable source of sources is just as important to their visibility. Regardless of the stepping stones of sources, the point is to lend credibility to your message, and build trust with your consumers.

As an individual we check-in and tweet with data, photos and more, so if we are transparent, we expect business to do the same right?

Transparency in Digital Media

When considering this element in relation to social media and most certainly when it comes to covering or reviewing products, or social business blogging, the main focus is to be open and honest in all elements of what you share. Are you doing a review for the new iPad? Share right away with your viewers that you received an iPad to research and blog about their product. As long as it breaches no contract, it is also good to share if you may not have received a free device to do your review, but that your review was paid or sponsored by another source.

It can also be used as a simple means of saying “Hey, I heard about this idea from a post at www.referencedsource.com and thought I’d share my opinion, thoughts, or review of this idea.” Not only is this the transparency that should be focused on, it is also good netiquette. It is the acknowledgement that while your post or blog is not created by a specific expert in a field, it is based on one, and here is the person who wrote the material that inspired your own.

If your business or brand is highly followed on Twitter for a specific reason. Perhaps because you are the go-to company who helps to determine the safest toys for children. Advertising a toy as ‘safe’ because you were paid to do so, without sharing that you were paid to do so, is not only misleading, but can be the beginning of the end of your brand and every consumer who values its sources.

Can You Trust Me?

Although not all reasons behind transparency can present such dire consequences as the reference to children’s toys, the lack of transparency can indeed cause a shining company to fail simply due to lack of disclosure.

Social media is no doubt, a double-edged sword. The same format that can make your company’s brand a vital one, can also hammer away at it until transparency transforms into invisibility.

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Social Media is Saving Lives & Raising Awareness

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Has social media proved itself beneficial to your business? What if it actually saved your life or the lives of your children? Would you be a believer then?

Haiti Earthquake

We heard plenty of stories after the earthquake in Haiti last year of survivors under the rubble tweeting their locations, pleading for rescue. We may have even seen a few of the Facebook fan sites that sprang up in order to help direct rescuers to the most needed locations such as the Hotel Montana, a bit away from the epicenter but still desperately in need of help.

Many participants on both of these social networks also actively helped with the recovery effort by following and reporting request for supplies such as much needed first aid, food, and water to the Red Cross and other organizations that were headed into the devastation zone.

There can also be no doubt that Haiti also received an incredible amount of donations for their recovery by users on Twitter and Facebook who simply provided the information on how to donate quickly.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

The tragic earthquake and its subsequent tsunami that leveled large parts of Japan’s coastline earlier this year was also a widespread and viral topic on social media networks from the moment the news reports came rolling in.

Users on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social networking sites played major roles in more early warning systems, sharing information, reuniting family members, and the much needed donation gathering.

As their infrastructure began to fail and TV stations were knocked out, many of the people of Japan took to the social media networks to get their information, news, and knowledge of what was going on with the rescue efforts.

Some even used Twitter to advertise their safe locations, inviting others to join them. Hiroshi Matsuyama of CyberConnect advertised his safe zone on Twitter by tweeting that they had television, some food, and beverages. He gave his location, stated he had room for around thirty people and asked that others who needed help to reply via Twitter, the only means of communication he found he could rely on. 

Residents of Japan utilized Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and more to locate loved ones and shelters that were opening in affected areas.

So while there are a wide variety of technologies that can help to help us isolate ourselves from our fellow human beings, social media tools have absolutely shown their capacity for uniting us and bringing out the empathetic aspects of human nature.

It seems Japan and it’s unfortunate tragedy has only concreted the idea that a friend or follower in need can inspire true acts of generosity, empathy, and honor, something many find lacking in our daily dealings with those that we do deal with, even face-to-face.

The Good Fight

It doesn’t always have to be an immense tragedy to gather the attention of those who may help. Sometimes, it may only be a personal one.

For many Leukemia patients, the only cure available is the transplant of bone marrow from a matching donor. Finding a donor though has been a huge source of frustration and disappointment for those who are suffering, or those who have to watch a loved one do so. The highest probability for those sufferers is finding a donor in their same ethnic pool.

Caucasians in this situation can count themselves the luckiest, as 80% of them will be able to find a matching donor listed on the National Marrow Donor Program registry. However, of the 6.8 million registered, 20% are minorities and a meager 1% of those listed are South Asian. So for South Asians who are facing this type of personal devastation, the odds on finding a matching donor are pitifully low. To compound matters, many countries, like India, with a population of over one billion people, there is simply no registry at all. 

For those unfortunate sufferers, options were nil. That is, until social networks became an option. Now those who are unable to take advantage of opportunities to heal that may be available in some countries but not others, have an outlet.

Social media can provide those seeking help and their loved ones with the infrastructure to begin looking for options in previously unconventional methods. Enacting strategies that include building instant awareness and coupling it with mass micro-mobilization. This allows those who may have previously been voiceless, to grab the attention of the media, engage their viewers with videos and photos, powerful story-telling and blogging, and then to take action, whether it is in the form of a bone marrow drive, build a concerned community, and network possibly life-saving options.

Business and Charity Awareness

Sometimes little things can make a big difference, take the small change that Petri Plumbing and Heating made in June 2011. The company had offered a variety of coupons for discounts for various reasons, traditionally it was for unions, teachers, military etc. Then in June Petri Plumbing took their Facebook page and added entire tab dedicated to raising money for “Make A Wish” of Metro NY.

“We already donate to a bunch of charities as individuals in the community and as a business, this seemed like a great way to increase awareness about the cause… at the end of the day both my customers and my staff feel good about ourselves…we’re doing something more than just helping ourselves” Mike Petri

Petri Plumbing currently offers a 10% discount on work, if you make a donation to the Make A Wish foundation of metro NY. Clearly this is using social media for a higher social cause.

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