The Real Benefit of Social Networking

Everyone’s talking about social media these days: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn. Chances are, if you’re reading this blog or any blog for that matter, you’re not just familiar with these sites, but have been using at least one them for quite some time. Parents wonder what their kids are doing on these networks. Analysts want to know the long-term effects of these sites. And businesses large and small have jumped on board, believing that these tools are great ways to reach their customer bases.

It’s still a little bit early to tell for certain if sending tweets is just a fad or a new mode of communication that’s here to stay. Many business owners are still scratching their heads trying to determine if all of this blogging or micro-blogging someday will translate into sales. But it’s been my observation that social networking has succeeded in one arena: philanthropy.

It seems that most of us use social media for at least one main reason: we like interacting with other human beings. Generally, we are a sympathetic bunch who when given the opportunity to lend a hand, will extend one. Just one tweet or post about someone in need, a cause, a foundation needing help, really can ‘go viral’ and go a long way.

Case in point: In April, Ashton Kutcher urged his Twitter followers to tweet about malaria and the organization Malaria No More. He pledged to donate 10,000 mosquito nets if he beat CNN in the race to acquire one million Twitter followers. As a result, millions of people became aware not only of malaria in the world today, but also the organization created to fight it. According to Malaria No More, all of the tweeting and retweeting generated awareness about World Malaria Day, a surge in traffic to their web site, a 10,000% increase in Twitter followers for @malarianomore, and individual mosquito net donations from people from 42 countries.

Many non-profit organizations have also turned to Facebook to spread the word about their causes. By creating a page on the social networking site, organizations can give “fans” updates on their causes, initiate fundraisers and ultimately generate more fans through their current ones. Amnesty International USA has 93,000+ Facebook fans. The American Cancer Society has over 167,000 fans. Organizations that create Facebook pages not only have a great outlet to distribute news about their causes, but these pages also serve as great ways to engage fans by allowing users to make comments and post their own stories about their involvement.

Last week, while I was on Twitter, I saw a tweet about voting for one of this year’s CNN Heroes. The sender was trying to generate more votes for one of the top 10 heroes, Betty Makoni. So I clicked, because I’m usually interested in learning about good causes. I learned about Betty and her organization, the Girl Child Network. She is a woman from Zimbabwe and a rape survivor. Through her organization, she has helped rescue 35,000 girls from abuse. I tweeted about her too and now follow her on Twitter. You can learn more about Betty and her amazing work and vote for her here.

So far, social networking has proven to have real power in connecting people. We use it for keeping in touch, meeting new people and generating new business leads. Hopefully its ability to help people and causes will have staying power as well.