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Ease and accessibility of Facebook Causes making birthday wishes come true
By Justin Goldsborough | November 17th, 2009
The first time I ever got to see Shel Holtz present on social media in the fall of 2007 at Sprint, he showed a slide that said: “It’s not just for nerds in pajamas.” Fast forward and it seems like there’s a new story almost daily in the mainstream media detailing how people are using social media not just to talk to keep in touch with friends in high school, but to make the world a better place.
Brad Sugars is one of those people and the New York Times covered his story last week, a story about how Brad is using the Facebook Causes application and its birthday wish feature to raise money to fight cancer. On his 38th birthday Brad, a cancer survivor himself, decided to message his 3,000 friends and ask them to donate at least $38. Brad then matched each donation and raised more than $8,000 for the cause of his choice.
No doubt what Brad is doing is very special. But how unique is it? Social media is introducing us to more and more Brads every day because applications like Facebook Causes make it so easy to create a community around a cause. And it’s even easier to join that cause and donate.
Have you ever created a Facebook cause before? I hadn’t until I built one for #Jaeli the other day. And it literally took 15 minutes to find the Causes app, set up the page and share it with friends.
How about donating via causes? All you need is a credit card and about five minutes. Oh, and only a few dollars as well because the nature of Facebook causes are that people donate a little here and a little there all to be a part of something big.
Now, combine the ease of creating a cause with the ease of donating and you have the Facebook causes birthday wish. I’m not sure how easy it is to set up the wish — Haven’t done it before, have you? –but check out the pictures below to see how easy it is to donate, leave birthday greetings and be part of your friends’ “birthday wish community.”
If we’re connected on Facebook or Twitter, then you probably know I haven’t been the biggest “fan” of Facebook lately because of the constant changes they make. But I couldn’t be a bigger fan of the causes and birthday wish changes I’ve seen recently.
A friend commented today that she’s started to notice more and more social media campaign these days are associated with a cause. We’re going through an evolution in the way people use social media. It’s not just for fun anymore, it’s about making a difference. And it’s so easy, anyone can do it, which is a good thing.
It’s definitely not just for nerds in pajamas anymore.
National Blog Posting Month 30 Causes in 30 Days
- Apartment Fund for Daniela’s Family (@davearmano)
- 12for12k (@dannybrown)
- #Iamsovereign Twitter Birthday Project (@jasonstoddard)
- Jaeli’s Syndrome (@AngEngland and @BrandyBrow)
- #GebenGives (@prtini)
- 11-11 Veteran’s Day (@JoeTrippi)
- #stopdiabetes (@JessicaLHansen, @AmDiabetesAssn)
- #noahbiorkman (several thousand people)
- #applebeesvets (@scottmonty, @arikhanson, @valeriesiimon, @prtini, @sonnygill)
- #movember (@jasonfalls)
- Harvesters Thanksgiving food drive (@TackleHungerKC)
- #getwellliz (@DebNg, @GeekMommy, @JennFowler, @KrisColvin)
- Aflac Cancer Center for pediatric cancer research (@AflacDuck)
- Facebook Causes and Birthday Wish (@causes)
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