Use Social Media to Fight Cancer

During this Thanksgiving holiday, I would like to join my HR Carnival for Charity colleagues and dedicate this blog post to my favorite cause, the American Cancer Society. By becoming a volunteer, I witnessed the vital support that it provides to cancer survivors and their families.

You may not be aware of the depth of the American Cancer Society’s social media influence to mobilize its fundraising and volunteer communities. Here are some of its social media highlights:

Virtual Fundraising in Second Life
For the past five years, its signature fundraising activity, Relay For Life, has taken place virtually in Second Life. This year it attracted 200 teams with 2,000 avatar participants and the event raised over $274,000. Jenifer D. Waldrop of the American Cancer Society stated, “We have used Second Life for successful event fundraising, however, there is a lot more that we can explore.” This video gives a comprehensive look into Relay For Life in Second Life:

Cool and User-Friendly Tools
The American Cancer Society has declared itself as “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays”, because they believe that every birthday represents another victory over cancer. For their More Birthdays campaign, the American Cancer Society has a website with simple ways to support this cause. One can send an e-card, create your own birthday page, promote this cause via Facebook, make a donation, add a badge to your website, create a customized “More Birthdays” Evite and download wallpaper for your Mac/PC.

Active Presence in a Variety of Social Networks
Most charities have an active Twitter account and Facebook Fan Page. The American Cancer Society is also active on Friendfeed at http://friendfeed.com/americancancer and has a YouTube channel jam-packed of inspirational videos.

Live Chat and Interactive Blog
One glance at Dr. Leonard (Len) Lichtenfeld's impressive bio and you soon understand why he is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the national office of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Len also writes the posts and manages all comments on the American Cancer Society's first blog called Dr. Len's Cancer Blog. In addition, Dr. Len conducts pre-scheduled live chats on a variety of cancer-related issues. The blog and live chats provide a much needed forum for thoughtful conversation on cancer topics.

Thank you to Michael VanDevort for allowing me to be a contributor to the HR Carnival for Charity with this blog post. Here's to a world with less cancer and more birthdays.