On DigitalProfile — charity: water Taps Social Networks and Google Earth to Bring Clean Water to the World
Irfan Kamal June 27th, 2008
Today, over 1 billion people in the world lack access to clean water – that’s about 1/6 of the world’s population.
The non-profit charity: water (among others, including Water for People, Healing Hands International, Concern and Water 1st) is working with local organizations in Bangladesh (where I’m from originally!), Ethiopia and other countries to help fund and build wells, improve sanitation and educate people on hygiene. In under 2 years, charity: water has already raised over $3 million and funded over 600 water projects.
charity: water has actively involved social networks and interactive media in building awareness of its mission. Here I’ve listed some of the ways it has creatively and artistically brought the issue of water (and the charity: water brand) to life using conversation-inspiring profiles, video and images.
On Youtube, charity: water’s well-designed channel includes an imaginative video with the tag line: “imagine if New York City’s taps went dry. What would we do?” The video’s received over 650,000 views in less than 3 months:
On Myspace and Facebook (Causes application), charity: water has video, audio and promo materials for friends and supporters, and an active group of supporters and fans — it’s one of the top fund-raisers in its category
On Socialvibe, charity:water allows anyone to deploy a sponsored ad to their social network profile or blog; supporters have raised over $20,000 so far — here’s my Socialvibe badge for charity: water :
Their main site also has some great conversation-inspiring functionality: You can download a Google Earth file of water projects with locations and information — here’s a screenshot:
Their site also provides downloadable images of different sizes with embed code so that supporters, bloggers and others can post images about clean water to their blog or social network profile. And, coming in July, charity: water will be launching a microsite for a 2008 campaign to encourage people born in September to donate (I’m not sure why September, but I’m assuming it’s because there are a lot of people born in that month).
summary: charity: water has created a comprehensive and blogger/conversation-friendly set of multimedia assets, tools and images that (1) persuasively bring the world’s water problem to life using a wide range of video and images on multiple sites, (2) use multimedia presences on key social networks to build brand and issue recognition, and (3) use site features like Google Earth maps to bring people closer to charity: water’s work and create interesting discussion.
It would be great to see charity:water leverage its strong assets to expand its social media presence with:
- increased outreach to cause-oriented blog
- presences on microblogging platforms
- expanded RSS feeds
Here’s are compete.com traffic and omgili buzz tracking graphs:
Click here for omgili buzz graph for charity: water.
Thanks to Nicky Yates at charity: water for providing supporting data. As of the date of this post, charity: water donates 100% of funds raised from consumers to water projects (it supports its expenses through sponsor funding). Charitynavigator has not yet rated charity: water.
- Cause Marketing , Social Media
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