While marketers flounder about looking for a business model for the use of Twitter, I've seen some recent viral examples where Twitter was used for the common good. In both of these instances the network effect of Twitter made a huge impact.
The first example was the use of Twitter to help identify a potential kidney donor for Marielle, a teenager with failing kidneys, in search of a living donor. Her mother posted a plea to her blog, letting people know of the challenges she was having in getting potential donors tested. That blog post led to a tweet by @chrisbrogan which was later retweeted by many, including Laura Fitton (aka @pistachio). I first learned of Marielle's situation through the @pistachio tweet. Clicking through, I found a form to apply to be a living donor. I filled out the form and submitted it to NY Presbyterian and also retweeted the original message to my network.
The next day I received a call from NY Presbyterian confirming they'd received my application but that they'd received so many requests "from the Internet" that they would get back to me if needed.
Subsequently, through her online outreach, Marielle has found a potential donor match and they are hoping to perform the transplant the day after Christmas. Wow!
The second instance is a great charitable fundraising effort started by Amanda Mooney, a Chicago-based social media maven at Edelman PR. About 6 weeks ago, Amanda began to ask her Twitter followers to give up their Friday cappucino and instead donate $5 to a worth cause. She asked her followers to propose potential causes and chose one each week. My pet cause - Donors Choose - was selected the second week and we quickly raised enough funds to buy two Flip digital video cams for a classroom project. Fast-forward a few weeks and the effort has really taken off. This week's goal was to raise $1,000 for the Staley Foundation, which provides support services for cancer survivors. The Staley Foundation was created by Alicia Staley, herself a three-time cancer survivor, whose website tagline is "Kick ass cancer survivor... need I say more?"
@AmandaMooney posted the first tweet a bit early on Thursday night and I was honored to be the first one to donate. By Friday morning, we'd surpassed the $1,000 goal and @stales quickly doubled the target. The $2,000 target was surpassed that evening and by the end of the weekend, we'd surpassed more than $3,400.
So, why is Twitter so important in this process?
What makes Twitter so critical is the network effect. Sure, we could start a weekly email list where those who opt-in could get a weekly request to make a donation. But it could only grow as quickly as the list grew. Instead, @amandamooney posts a tweet each week, which is then picked up and retweeted by some of her 2,000+ followers, then subsequently retweeted by many of those users' followers and so forth. So, a simple tweet (and subsequent retweets) may easily be read by tens of thousands of people, more than would ever see an email list.
Twitter is beginning to move towards mainstream adoption. With that comes risks that spammers and marketers will muck up a system that's just starting to take shape. Of course, with Twitter, you can't spam someone unless they follow you, so I'm hopeful that the Twitter environment will remain clean for a bit longer so that viral activities like the ones described here may continue to flourish.
Have you used Twitter for the common good? Post stories in the comments please.
