We know that social media connects us as never before. The ability to disseminate real time information and to have it spread at warp speed has brought the world closer together. (RED) uses social media to carry the message for us. This strategy has already helped us achieve real results in our mission to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS in Africa. Take the last World AIDS Day, for example. For the first time Twitter changed the color of its tweets, and over half a million went red, with thousands of Facebook profiles following suit. In a single day, this kind of momentum allowed us to drive a global conversation that involved hundreds of thousands of people, provoking thought, dialogue and action -- both online and off -- around our cause.
As the name of the Mashable Summit suggests, social media is emerging as a tremendous force for social good. Thanks to social media, (RED) has an audience of 2 million people who engage with us daily and help carry the (RED) message. We have turned the web (RED) through the support of innovative partners such as Twitter, Facebook, Google and Mashable, and we raised $100,000 in just four and a half hours when Yahoo’s Penalty Shootout Game turned (RED). The scope of the involvement and the capacity for our online actions to help change the world are without boundaries. Now more than ever, social media has the ability to transform possibilities into results. We can all choose to amplify our voices and our social media presences to effect social change.
If you’re in New York, you can start by attending the Social Good Summit on Monday. If not, you can still participate by checking out the live stream coverage from the event. And anyone, no matter where you are, can participate in Social Good Day on Thursday September 23. (RED) has teamed up with Mashable to declare Social Good Day -- a call to everyone to get involved and attend or organize a meetup in your community to celebrate, share, engage, and discuss how to create solutions for the world’s challenges by using social media for the common good.
Check to see if there is already a meetup underway in your area, and if not, organize your own. I personally invite you to get together and ask yourselves: How can I use social media to help eliminate AIDS in Africa?
Brought to you by the Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit
This post was brought to you by the groundbreaking Social Good Summit. On September 20, as global leaders head to New York for United Nations Week -- including a historic summit on global issues known as the “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) and the annual General Assembly -- Mashable, 92nd Street Y and the UN Foundation will bring together leaders from the digital industry, policy and media worlds to focus on how technology and social networks can play a leading role in addressing the world’s most intractable problems.
Date: Monday, September 20, 2010
Time: 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET
Location: 92nd Street Y, New York City
Tickets: On sale through Eventbrite
More Social Good Resources from Mashable:
- 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty
- How Non-Profits Can Maximize a Foursquare Account
- 5 Cool Non-Profit Uses of Location-Based Tech
- Are Social Media Giving Contests Good for Non-Profits?
- How Open Data Applications are Improving Government
- HOW TO: Turn Slacktivists into Activists with Social Media