susanreynolds

These are tough times for non-profits, especially those looking for the contributions required to fulfill their missions. It’s hard enough asking for people to part with their money, but high energy costs and an uncertain economic outlook make it even tougher than usual. Non-profits can learn a lot from some of the organic, grass-roots efforts that have received attention in the social media space over the last several months. In the case of the Frozen Pea Fund, the American Cancer Society did not launch a campaign to raise money. Instead, those who knew Susan Reynolds, who blogged that she was afflicted with breast cancer, undertook to raise money as a means of expressing their support for Susan, with the funds they collected earmarked for the American Cancer Society. The Austin blood drive tweetup produced a record number of first-time blood donors, but not based on any call to action from the blood center. Instead, it was a program launched by the Austin Social Media Club and promoted by interested individuals through tweets and blog posts. People listen to each other thse days more than organizations. That’s precisely why a bunch of people on Twitter raised money from people who would not have otherwise donated to the American Cancer Society. It’s why people gave blood in response to an appeal from others in their network when they had never responded to a direct appeal from the Red Cross or their local blood center.

Last December, Susan Reynolds, an artist and social media maven, was diagnosed with Breast cancer. She announced on her blog, "I use Twitter to fight Cancer" and without any formal blogger relations campaign, well-known and influential ...

Seeing "me" listed as part of Guy Kawaskai's frienderati continues to crack me up. And I love it :)

"The other day I introduced the panel (Aaron Brazell, Chris Brogan, Doug Haslam, Cathryn Hrudicka and Brian Solis) and the questions on the table. "Before getting to the responses I want to thank Doug, Chris, Cathryn, Aaron and Brian for giving generously of their knowledge. This has been a wonderful experience and I know I have gained a lot from their experience. I am in their debt. "One way that I wanted to thank Cathryn personally was to ask everyone who has read this and gone through the experiment with me to contribute to the Frozen Pea Fund in honor of a friend of hers (and many others including Doug supporting her experience through twitter), Susan Reynolds who is undergoing surgery today to get rid of breast cancer."

"This show is a recording of an interview with Connie Reece of Every Dot Connects blog that Heather and Anna had in New York. Connie takes us through the uses of social media from both a personal perspective and also how you can use it as part of your business marketing strategy. They discuss how blogs can help with your marketing, including tips for fish and chip shops and lampshade makers. They also have an in depth discussion on video conferencing and twitter. So enjoy! Here are the links to the tools mentioned Oovoo - Free video chat and video conferencing Frozen Pea Fund - a full-fledged fund-raising campaign named, in honor of Susan Reynolds "

"Most importantly, Tweeterboard occasionally confirmed my intuitions about who *should* be popular--like Susan Reynolds on Frozen Pea Friday and Barack Obama after he secured the democratic nomination. While Scoble and Jason Calacanis and others who make a point of collecting followers occasionally made it to the top, they weren't there consistently. So I take some satisfaction in creating something that rewarded people for conversation rather than just promiscuous friending."

"One of the most visible efforts in this regard has to be the Frozen Pea Fund . In less than six months, the idea begun by Susan Reynolds and Connie Reece after Reynolds' cancer diagnosis has spread through Twitter, ooVoo, and now Second Life. I attended the BlogHer conference in Second Life this weekend, and was beyond shocked at the amount of non-profit efforts going on there. Coinciding with the conference was the fourth annual Relay for Life in Second Life, and by the time I attended the panel discussion on non-profits in Second Life, the relay had already raised over $165,000."

I love the frozen pea fund (ok and me!) getting mentioned