Oct 1, 2009 - Comments: 9

What Social Media is Good For

Posted by Lisa King under Social Media

Or How the Internet Helped Heal My Cat & Get Rid of Drew’s Cancer

The topic I wanted to address this week was social media, community and creating change. Originally this post was supposed to be about Blame Drew’s Cancer as a social media phenomenon, and it still will be, but in a different way than I originally intended.

On Monday night I came home on my way to run what I thought would be a quick errand. Rather than being greeted at the door by Bandit, my cat, there was silence. I went looking for him and eventually found him on the floor of my bedroom. When I pet him, he didn’t even pick up his head, so it was obvious there was something really wrong. Into the cat carrier he went, and we were off to the veterinarian for an emergency visit. Once they determined the problem and it was clear that it was serious, they took him in the back to see if they could stabilize him enough that we could go down to the road to the 24-hour pet hospital.

Bandit

As I was sitting there waiting and worrying, I pulled out my phone and posted an update on Twitter. In short order two of my dear friends were sitting beside me and the time passed more easily with them and the messages of support that started arriving from my Twitter friends.

When we were able to move Bandit to the hospital, it was clear I had a really sick kitty and I wondered if he was going to make it, but I was so glad I wasn’t alone. As we waited for news at the hospital, I posted updates toTwitter and Facebook.

The next morning, my friend Tom posted a note on Facebook to his network with a picture of Bandit asking everyone for their good thoughts and I sent a note to the most famous cat on the Internet – Sockington – who thinks Bandit is adorable. Socks has over a million followers on Twitter, and I hadn’t anticipated the response that a simple request would bring – over 50 people that I don’t know (and from all over the world) wrote me back to express their concern, while others re-tweeted the request for good wishes or followed us on Twitter to receive updates. And that in addition to my friends on Facebook & Twitter who were sending good wishes and support to both me and Bandit throughout the day.

In the meantime, at the office, we were debating how to break some news to a client, and I said (only half-joking), “Let’s just blame Drew’s cancer.”  My colleagues looked at me questioningly and I explained the story of Drew Olanoff, who responded to his Hodgkins Lymphoma diagnosis in a uniquely courageous and hilarious way. After being diagnosed last May, Drew took to Twitter and declared that he was going to blame EVERYTHING on his cancer—from forgetting his keys to Twitter being slow. What’s more, he offered up his cancer as a universal scapegoat for the entire Twitterverse. He invited everyone to blame everything bad on his cancer, using the hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer, with the idea that maybe people could donate charity for each time they blamed something.

I’m not sure Drew had any idea what would happen or how many friends he’d find along the way, but he’s now got a partner in LiveStrong, over 1,500 fans on Facebook, and over 12,730 people have blamed 30,529 things on Drew’s cancer since he started. There have been live music and comedy events, and Drew is hatching other plans to help others in their fight as well.

He’s recently gotten some really good news in his fight and we’re all hoping that continues, but he says the fight isn’t over and there’s still plenty to blame on cancer.

By now I’m sure you’re wondering, what’s this all mean? For starters, it means that social media really can create a feeling of “community” in its most real sense. To date, people have sent goodwill to Drew more than 30,000 times during the course of his illness. And whether you believe that just helps Drew to know that people are thinking about him or focused goodwill can actually influence events, that’s what social media is for – connecting people around the world toward a common goal.

So what do you want to work toward?

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