Sunday, April 25, 2010

5 Ways to Support World Malaria Day Online



While on Mashable today, I found this article about World Malaria Day, which I just found out is today, April 25th. According to the article, the “ international malaria community has less than a year to meet the targets of ‘delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria,’ as set forth by the United Nations.” As ways to reach more people and raise awareness, the article points out five different things you and I can do to help out.

1. Text to Donate $10 and Retweet an Official Message- If you’re really short of time then you can text NETS to 864233 which will see $10 charged to your phone bill.

2. Retweet to Donate $10-Thanks to the RT2Give twitpay service you can retweet one simple message to donate $10 to Malaria No More, which is roughly the amount required to buy one mosquito net.

3. Download the Nothing But Nets Toolbar-If you’re an Internet Explorer or Firefox user the downloading (and crucially using) the Nothing But Nets browser toolbar will mean that every time you use the toolbar to search and shop online, you will raise money for Nothing But Nets

4. Follow the Social Media Envoy-The Social Media Envoy group, organized by the United Nations, is a collective of people who have agreed to spread the word about malaria prevention through the medium of social media. The group includes the likes of Bill Gates, Biz Stone and Kevin Rose.

5. Raise a hand to End Malaria with DailyBooth-DailyBooth is asking people to pass on the simple message to “End Malaria” with the simple gesture of writing the phrase on your hand, snapping a pic and sharing it with the hashtag “#endmalaria” which will mean the mosquito icon will appear on your photo, and in your friend’s dashboard.

I really like the use of social media in this endeavor, and the way they are using twitter to help such an important cause. The last way they mentioned to help, also seems pretty interesting in the sense that a lot of young people would probably be interested in doing this, which would further spread awareness and get the word out.

4 comments:

Sara Roberts said...

This is a great way of how to use social media. Social media has let companies,brands,non profits, people and even World Malaria Day rise to new heights when it comes to marketing and advertising. Ten years ago the promotions of World Malaria Day would be marketed through mail, television PSAs,print ads etc. I feel that the tactics in which they are collecting donations are brilliant. They make it very easy for everyone to lend a hand. The marketing team has made social media the prime outlet for support and i believe that it is a great campaign. I am in the process of researching their hashtag to see all of the pictures. This is a great way of getting everyone involved which makes the campaign very personal and creative.

Michelle said...

Wow, I love that Mashable has an article about this. People need to be more informed about the dangers all around the world and Malaria being one of the number one killers in the world is such a tragedy. Anything we can do to help whether its donating $10 or $1000 just know that you are helping a child and family in need. I love how Social Media is being used for good and help around the world! Fantastic!

Dallas Social Media said...

Its amazing how fast social media spreads the word for charities and no profits...not too mention how it cuts the costs for sending out printed mailers fliers etc..

Dallas SEO

Unknown said...

I really like the use of social media in this endeavor, and the way they are using twitter to help such an important cause.

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