On Thursday, March 19, 2008 I had the privilege of watching history take place. Yeah, I know you have all heard that before. THIS is different.
Good guy Danny Brown (@dannybrown)is the brainchild behind 12for12k – raising $12,000 for 12 charities in 12 months. Each month a different charity is picked, and money is raised in support of that charity. Someone happened to his idea this month. That someone was Scott Stratten (@unmarketing). Scott organized a 12-hour Tweet-a-Thon for 12for12k’s March charity, Strength.org.
For 12 hours, Scott pushed the envelope on Twitter. Through the combined efforts of many, spearheaded by Scott and Danny, in 12 hours $13,000 was raised. $13,000 in 12 hours, that is more than $1000/hour in donations.
You know, many people talk about social media not being worth the time or effort. Others talk about how it can and cannot be used. Yet still some say it is a passing fad, just as they do with anything that is “new”. Yesterday, I witnessed the social media micro-blogging service known as Twitter blow so many myths and rumors about ways to do things, what can and can not be done and rules simply shattered.
We MUST NOT label tools because we can all use them for the ways we want, and purposes we want, short of being a snot-nose-spammer – that’s wrong no matter what the tool.
I don’t personally know either Danny or Scott. I do know this – I seen something amazing on March 19th from these two, and I know they are good people from what they did. There were countless people helping to Tweet and retweet calls to action. Each one of us making a small difference, that collectively raised enough money to help feed over 500,000 children over summer break here in the United States. That is power my friends – when you can use a tool to accomplish that type of feat in ONE DAY, in 12 HOURS no less.
It is not about the number of followers, the number of readers or any numbers at all. It is about the passion of connecting, interacting and creating positive value for those who are in your network. Seeing Scott’s and Danny’s passion yesterday was awe inspiring and humbling. Seeing the passion of those tweeting and retweeting was the same. If we only use the tools as a way to get as high of number as possible on readers and followers, just to broadcast our messages to I think we are going to miss quite a few GREAT things that people are doing.
Don’t believe me?
Why don’t you just try it for yourself. Instead of using tools and gimmicks to gain mass followers to whom you merely broadcast yourself and your message to, why not build your followers by way of engagement, interaction and conversation. Sure, it does take longer. In the end though, when you call your network to action, they will do just that ACT. March 19th proved that to me.
To me, Scott and Danny are Twitter & Social Media ROCKSTARS with an exception – they are EXCEPTIONAL people who INTERACT, ENGAGE, CONVERSE and CARE about their networks – it is NOT just a numbers game to either of them.
