by guest Blogger Hanna Watson

Social media is being used for just about everything these days from keeping in touch with friends to promoting a business. While it works well for these uses, it can also be a great tool for doing good and making a change in the world as well. Perhaps the biggest and most successful example of this is the use of social media in the Obama campaign and in the recent health care debate. It worked for them and it can work for you too. Here are some reasons why you should consider it, if you’re not already utilizing social media tools for your charity, group or organization.

• You can spread information rapidly. Social media is a great way to get the word out about what you’re doing and what you support. Information on blogs, Facebook and Twitter is copied, pasted and spread around quickly, making it easier to inform.

• Let people know about real events. Using social media, you can easily let people know about real events in the community that your organization is taking part in. They can add it to their personal calendars and get updates and reminders about it as well.

• You can find new supporters. Every time someone links to your profiles, articles or videos through social media your organization gains a potential new supporter. Many people may not be familiar with your organization or what you support and the whole social aspect of social media can be a great way to spread the word.

• It’s easy to post a variety of media. Some people will be especially moved by photographs while others will require the action of a video to be engaged. Social media makes it easy to employ all of these different kinds of media in one place.

• You can support other charities as they support you. Social sites are called such because they support online communities, and as part of that community you can help lend a hand to other groups by supporting them through your site as well. When you help them, they can help you back and you both will get the support you need.

• It’s easy to get feedback. With social media it’s easy to get feedback from your supporters (or opponents) on what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. It can make a big difference in the success of your future endeavors.

This post was contributed by Hannah Watson, who writes about the distance learning colleges.

She welcomes your feedback E-mail: HannahWatson84 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Post from: Social Media Vision

How Social Media Can be a Valuable Tool in Promoting Your Cause

Bloggers, Twitters & Social Media Marketers Unite

The powers of Social Media can be very frightening.  We all know how news can travel fast but with the help of Social Media news can not only travel even faster than normal communication methods but can prove to be more devastating.

Example #1

A famous example of this is when friendly Real Estate Blogger Vlad Zablotskyy got sued from Eperks(Real Estate Ad Co.) Vlad was hired to write a review of Eperks from Sponsored Reviews.  Vlad wrote about the review here which just consisted of his opinion and an honest review but Eperks was livid and was determined to cause agony to Vlad.

Fortunately in the Social Media-Sphere, word got out pretty quick that Vlad was being hassled, threatned and eventually sued from Eperks.  The Social Media World united with Bloggers uniting to help support Vlad, Tweets going out lending a hand and helping spread awareness.  

The power of this online wave was powerful and was a force to be reckoned with. Take a look at these support sites.  Andy Beards review, Inman news review, and Bloodhound Blog’s support.

Example #2

Another good example of this is the recent news story of the Moms and Motrin Ad backfire story.  Motrin had recently created an ad that outraged many Moms in the real world in how the ad portrayed of carrying babies as “fashion”, being told it looks “crazy” and finally being told “in theory” carrying your baby around is a good idea.

This of course caused an uproar effect that trickled to the consumers across the world particularly Real Life Moms.  The one thing about Social Media is that everybody has the potential to communicate effictively and quickly to get thier point and feedback regarding about this subject.

Bloggers United and demanded boycotts, The Twitter world helped micro-blogged in disgust and called for a micro twitter revolution, and finally Social Networks like Myspace and Facebook were posting updates to the personal sites all across the world to voice their opinions.

We are now in a world where we are not limited to traditional media sources to get the word out and rely on the the power of traditional media sources to relay stories of uproars.  We are in the Social Media Age where information is being transmitted in real time and spread like wild fire.  Be careful who you mess with.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Bloggers, Twitters & Social Media Sphere Unite