August 23rd, 2008
SM4SC: Social Media for Social Change
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It seems that I’m not the only one toying with the idea of using social media for social change. Here is SM4SC or, literally, Social Media for Social Change (via Chris Brogan) —
The social media world has proven that, though still a young and small community within a multitude of industries, we have the power to exact great change. But what about change for the greater good? Social Media for Social Change was born of the idea that the social media community, these “agents of change” can get together for one night, to support one cause.
The first SM4SC event will take place on October 10 at Boston (Eventbrite) to raise funds to benefit Jane Doe Inc. , a Boston-based anti-domestic violence organization.
You can follow SM4SC on Twitter/ MySpace/ Facebook/ LiveJournal/ Flickr or on their blog.
I like the idea of SM4SC but I’m wondering if it will scale.
What do you think? How would you use social media for social change?
We are also running the United Nations Millennium Campaign on social media for a social change. Need support and sponsorship. But, seems not a single Indian corporate want to practice CSR (corporate social responsibility) on social media. Any help!
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Breakthrough India (http://breakthrough.tv) is on the verge of launching a huge multimedia campaign with a strong social media component to end domestic violence. I think it will be big. Watch for it. AND they *do* have corporate sponsors, @EndPoverty2015. (Try banks, check karmayog’s CSR list at http://www.karmayog.org/csr) (Similarly, Breakthrough USA has launched a game with social media around it about immigrant rights. ICEDgame.com. Do check)
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also, Gaurav, why do you think it won’t scale? What’s your analysis of the problems/challenges?
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@EndPoverty2015 Actually, a lot of Indian corporates have CSR extensive initiatives. They may not understand “CSR on social media” but that’s only because they do not understand social media to begin with. All Tata Group companies, for instance have extensive CSR initiatives.
@Chhavi: Thanks for sharing the Karmayog CSR list. I’ll check out the two Breakthrough initiatives. My understanding of SM4SC is that it’s an event that social media types attend with the proceeds going to a charity. It is an interesting idea, because we are all sneezers and if we attend an event like this, we are likely to talk about the charity on social media, starting a positive spiral. However, it is only one (limited) use of social media for social change. I think that to be truly powerful, a social 2.0 initiative needs to be mobile, scalable, and self-sustainable. More thought on this theme soon.
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