Sure, the race to a million twitter followers is “so last week.” But what an interesting week it made for celebrity philanthropy. While the race to a million came to an end with Ashton Kutcher pulling ahead of CNN Breaking News, many in the “twitter-verse” and beyond hoped that celebrities posturing for attention would just go away. But could this be a new and important trend in how celebrities are using their power to inspire millions for social good?
In case you missed it, here’s how things unfolded. Last week, Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) realizing he was only a few tens of thousands of followers behind CNN (@cnnbrk) decided to take the network on and create an online movement to help him obtain the first twitter account to reach 1 million followers. At first, Ashton committed to prank Ted Turner should he beat CNN to a million – but quickly the philanthropic side of Ashton kicked in, and he raised the stakes. If Ashton beat CNN Breaking News to 1 million followers he pledged to donate 10,000 anti-Malaria bednets during World Malaria Day. As Nathanial Whittemore asked on his blog Friday, did this have an impact on the results? You bet it did.
Not only did Ashton commit to giving back and supporting the great work of Malaria No More but what’s more, he introduced millions (via twitter, plus his appearances on Oprah and Larry King Live) to the idea that every individual can be part of making decisions that lead to global change, in this case the eradication of Malaria.
Twitter helped raise awareness and launch a movement that got the attention of everyone from my neighbors to Oprah Winfrey. Millions are now aware of the efforts to control the spread of malaria worldwide – and a campaign launched on Change.org last week is giving individuals everywhere an opportunity to get involved in the action.
Personally, I use Twitter because I think it is a useful, engaging way to connect with other people and participate in a global discussion. According to comScore, Twitter more than doubled its users in March, reaching 9.3 million. And this growth is the reason that so many of your friends are now logging on and checking it out – granted, the majority of those folks are probably fans of Ashton or Oprah.
So, how do we keep the conversation on Twitter meaningful and relevant? For me, Twitter has inspired blog posts, introduced me to new people in the social media and social change space, and given me a place to connect and learn from others who have been at this for much longer than me.
As Nathaniel said in his post last week, “it's easy to be cynical about this, but what if we thought about it different. Changing the world is damn hard, and the responsibility we owe this planet and the billions of people we share it with should never be taken lightly. But there are lots of incredibly easy ways that even normal folks can save lives, and we should never let the difficult of the big picture stop us from making incremental change along the way.”
As my colleagues and I are thinking through some new programs at the Case Foundation, we often think about how celebrities can help spread the word and influence others to take action. What have your experiences been involving celebrities in your campaigns and outreach? At the end of the day, does a celebrity endorsement of a product or cause even influence your decision?
