Why the Dragonfly? – Social Media for Social Good
It started with a story within a book.
The DragonFly Effect is the holy grail guide for how individuals, small businesses, organizations, and companies can use social media to propel social change. It’s a revolutionary book that shows how everyday people, like you and me, can harness the power of Social Media to CHANGE the world!
Social media can be the vanguard of social change. Think about it. Traditionally, information was disseminated and filtered through only a few distribution channels and ads were typically a one way communication street with the main objective to BUY their product. Social Media has now liberated this flow of information and allowed a dialog among producers and consumers creating real conversations.
Social media has enabled each of us to have an audience & to tell our STORY, whether through Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram or even a personal blog. Each of us can now have influence and reach. We can learn from each other and,what’s even more exciting, is this new information can be used for GOOD. These human stories that we share, like and comment on are the ones that move people and propel CHANGE.
Did you ever see the 2008 videos of Where the hell is Matt?
Matt is a 37-year-old deadbeat from Westport, Connecticut whose dancing around the world video captured the heart and soul of audiences around the world. Today, more than 20 million people have viewed his YouTube video, where he performs this goofy, crazy dance with the people from all across the world. And after viewing a few of these videos, it’s hard not to feel a lot more connected to people a world away who share the same common ground and funky dance moves. Matt’s quoted as saying –
“It helps us learn what we’re capable of, that the path laid in front of us isn’t the only one we can choose, and that we don’t need to be so afraid of each other all the time.”
Mashable, is another excellent example of how Social Media for Social Good is working. Mashable is a tech website for digital news and they work with various organizations to foster global relationships to bring about social change. Their website has linked with the United Nations Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UNDP, the 92Y and the Case Foundation to form +SocialGood.
Mashable describes the initiative as “a platform to connect global communities around technology and new media for social change.” +Social Good was born of the Social Good Summit, a conference that takes place during the annual U.N. General Assembly. Groups will convene to discuss far-ranging topics like global nutrition, digital diplomacy and technological needs in K-12 education.
+SocialGood is used to meet people across the world with similar passions for igniting social change.
My personal favorite of how Social Media Awareness leads to Social Action is from Bono’s TedTalks where he shares inspiring data that shows the end of poverty is in sight … and he shares exactly why powerful ideas needs to be spread far and wide.
Check out Bono’s video —>
So if in some way our small Montana company, FlyGirls Media, can help your business harness this amazing power of Social to tell your stories while making the world a little better – then that’s reason enough to collaborate.
“Because the power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.”
-Paul David Hewson-
What story are you telling and how can we help?