The awesomeness of social networks

Perhaps the best way for me to answer our latest social media question assignment is to inform of how I am currently using social networks, how I have used them, and how I plan to use them in the not so distant future.

In my project that I am doing in a couple of weeks on micro lending, I have opened an account with perhaps the largest Internet social media micro lending service provider in the world, Kiva. I have given two small business loans of $25.00 each. Typically, each $25.00 loan goes to a pool of loans from different people for various purposes of the groups or individuals involved. I will explain this charitable service more in depth when I give my presentation to the class, but with Kiva, I am able to invite other friends and family to join in through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (with your own channel), Friendster, MySpace, and Squidoo. You can almost launch your own marketing campaign within these social networking sites just to get the word out there on the impact that Kiva is making. If interested, please click here for the Kiva homepage (http://www.kiva.org/?_redirect=true&page=home).

For my volunteer work this past summer in South America, I used Facebook myself to raise awareness and attain donations for mission work I did. I had a link for Creative Corners, the organization I was working with, so that people could give donations to me directly through the form of an electronic check or through the use of a credit card. I created a Facebook group for my personal trip and also for Creative Corners to invite all my friends to join. I posted videos and regular updates. I used this source of communication primarily for people to pray for me…for safe traveling and the work I was doing. If interested Creative Corners, please click here for homepage (http://www.creative-corners.com/our_work/).

I have recently joined a club at Auburn known as Mocha Club where you donate $7.00 dollars a month (literally perhaps the price of two coffees from Starbucks or another coffee shop). This has been very successful at college campuses across the country because most college students can afford such a small sum to help other people. Mocha Club permits its members to choose different causes for what you would like to contribute to, such as clean water, education, HIV awareness, and so on. On Mocha Club’s website, you literally have a social network right there that works similarly to Kiva. I can create a team of people I have invited to join this cause for $7.00 a month. You can literally send invitations through all the major existent social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster, and about ten other online social or service organizations. If interested, please click here for the Mocha Club homepage (https://www.mochaclub.org/).

When I graduate, I will be writing a book this summer, and I am seeking to become an inspirational speaker so that I may travel around the world to speak on various topics in relation to my life and the adversity I have faced and overcome. I seek to use social marketing to promote my new book and my name in efforts to attain an agent and a book contract. I am not really sure how all this is going to work, but my hope is to build an Internet audience of followers so that my reputation is spread in the unique message I am hoping to send and talk about.

As you can notice in my entry, social networks are a very powerful tool to raise money for any worthy cause. Social networks are a powerful marketing tool to spread the word about anything for any purpose. The extent to which you use social marketing is really up to the person who seeks to attain a specific goal. If you are looking to inform, promote, or spread the word, the ability to do so is really limitless with new technology through social media.