Meet David Neff of the American Cancer Society, Austin Social Media Club, 501 Tech Club of Austin, and social media true believer. This is David Neff demonstrating how social media and social networking are becoming increasingly effective in actually accomplishing social goodness in a busy and fast paced world.
The picture you see of David is his current avatar, his online image, on twitter (he’s @daveiam), Facebook, LinkedIn, and wherever else he can be found online. The message is clear. Send him a message and David will tell you how you can help do something about hunger. Hunger Bytes is the creation of the Capital Area Food Bank in Austin, Texas, and links the high tech crowd to the very critical issue of hunger. According to the folks who work at the Food Bank we’re in a time of critical need because of the state of the economy.
Following our successful tweetup blood drive last month, some of us have rallied around increasing awareness of the work Lisa Goddard (@lisa_goddard) and others are doing at the Food Bank. We’re having a tweetup in conjunction with Hunger Awareness Month and calling it a HAM-up. We don’t care if it sounds silly or even if we look silly, the cause is worth it. Judging by the success of the blood drive we think our approach just might work. September 13th is the HAM-up date.
Already we’ve had a major food manufacturing company step up to the plate after hearing about it online. They are going to write a blog post about the HAM-up and then donate 100 pounds of protein products for every comment, up to 360, they receive on their post. That adds up to a truckload of protein for the Food Bank, which happens to be something they desperately need. This is such a great contribution that I plan to do a separate post on just them in a few days.
Message David if you can help. Message Lisa. Message @MichelleGreer. Message me, @MikeChapman, @ConnieReece or @SheilaS. Create your own avatar like David did and spread the word. Add a comment below. Then be ready to help on September 13th in person if you can. The net effect of all of our activities can exponentially expand our impact. It works. Let’s see just how well we can make it work by working on it together.
~Mike Chapman
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Thanks for this post, Mike. I hadn’t heard about the food manufacturer, so that is great news. I’m so happy to be a part of a community here in Austin that really pitches in to rally around social causes, and I encourage everybody on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn — and other social networks — to rally their friends to help out.
Plus, as you know, I do have a bit of “ham” in me, so a HAM-up sounds like something right up my alley.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Sweet! Mike, you totally rock. So excited about this!
August 25th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Sept 13th it is! Can’t wait to hear more about it.
Working on ideas now to make this even more special (e.g. how to get food donations from people I know).
August 25th, 2008 at 10:40 am
You guys in Austin have it going on. A great example for connected communities around the world.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Mike puts the “Hook” in “Hook-up”. Your council is invaluable. On behalf of the staff here at the Food Bank and the 40,000 people relying on our services each week, a heartfelt thank you.
- Lisa Goddard