Click here to view the embedded video. Welcome to Social Good Day. Mashable and (Red) are the presenting sponsors of today’s efforts to use social media to raise awareness and brainstorm solutions for the issues that we care about to tackle the world’s biggest problems. Why a Social Good Day? It’s the opportunity for us all to use social media to have real conversations while sharing and learning from each other.
How To Join #SocialGood Day
- Sign up to attend or organize your own Social Good Day meetup for today’s Mashable’s Meetup Everywhere. Over 1,668 events are planned in over 100 countries with over 16,000 people.
- Join (RED) on Facebook and Twitter to share your ideas on how to help fight AIDS in Africa using social media.
- Tweet about what your solution is, using the #socialgood hashtag. Write a blog post and share it.
- Post to Facebook about what you or your company is doing.
- Record a video about your solution and upload to YouTube with #socialgood tag
- Get inspired by watching the 30-minute Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs documentary ‘The Lazarus Effect’ on YouTube. Presented by (RED) and HBO the film follows the story of HIV positive people in Africa who in as few as 40 days undergo a remarkable transformation thanks to access to treatment.
Suggestions of Things To Discuss
- What solutions do you think can express the world challenges, such as the UN’s Millennium Development Goals?
- What’s the most effective channel to spread awareness and generate money for causes: Twitter? Facebook? YouTube?
- How can you use geo-location apps like FourSquare and Gowalla for causes?
- Which social causes are getting it right and why?
- How would you use social media to spread awareness causes you care most about?
Facts and Resources to Consider:
- 33 million people in the world have AIDS. 22 million live in Africa.
- Every day 3,800 people die in sub-Saharan Africa from AIDS – a preventable and treatable disease.
- It costs just 40 cents a day for the life-saving medicine someone living with HIV/AIDS in Africa needs to help them live a healthy and productive life.
If nothing else, you can start here by taking the following message and customizing it for yourself and posting it to your Twitter and Facebook:
#SocialGood Day @joinred @mashable my idea for (RED) is…
So remember, whether you talk, tweet, meetup, post or some combination of all of the above, your contribution matters. At the end of the day, take a moment to reflect how you FEEL. Did you do something today to be proud of, to make today count? Here’s one way to think about it, maybe you did a little something extra today that you don’t usually do. This would be a move to what I call “cause-filled living.” It’s the movement to build cause into your every day life and make those “someday” intentions activities for today.
Mark your calendars now for October 23, 2010. It’s the 20th anniversary of Make A Difference Day the largest national day of community service. Held annually the fourth Saturday of October, Make A Difference Day is sponsored by USA WEEKEND and HandsOn Network. You can start getting involved today by spreading the word, planning a project and getting the resources you need by visiting the HandsOn Network website or by visiting their Facebook page.
This post was originally published on Halogen.tv
Sloane Berrent is a cause-based marketing and social branding consultant, nonprofiteer and budding social entrepreneur. She uses social media, product evangelizing, fundraising and community development services to help for-profit and nonprofit companies with a focus on social action campaigns. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, she has lived in Burlington VT, Boston MA, Rome Italy, and Los Angeles, CA. She spent 2009 as a digital nomad, traveling the world experiencing life and volunteering including stints in South America, New Orleans and three months in the Philippines as a Kiva Fellow.
She co-created “Cause It’s My Birthday” a campaign to raise money (over $19k to date) and awareness for malaria prevention in Ghana. Sloane moved to New Orleans as her new home at the end of 2009 and co-launched NOLAlicious, a weekly newsletter of events in New Orleans. She was recently named the citizen journalist to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for the MySpace and The Wall Street Journal communities. Her consulting practice, Answer With Action, focuses on strategic integrated marketing consulting. She speaks frequently on building community and blogs at The Causemopolitan.
