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Positives of Social Media

by Miki Saxon

3085491268_9b8b16bbcf_mAs most of my readers know, I’m not into social media; I am on LinkedIn and my company’s new product Option Sanity is on Facebook and Twitter, but other than the blog posts, I can’t say that any of them are particularly active.

I also freely admit that I don’t really understand how to use them for business (I have no interest in building my ‘personal brand’).

The negative side, especially the bullying, personal attacks, hate and amazing level of active stupidity, that I read about dismays and disgusts me. Beyond the negative much of what I heard was just totally inane; granted, I’m not a celebrity watcher and wouldn’t care what God had for breakfast, assuming h/she bothered posting the information.

Then came the so-called Arab Spring and suddenly social media showed a decidedly positive side.

Right around Thanksgiving I read about Amit Gupta’s friends who started reaching out after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

And so his friends set up a website, amitguptaneedsyou.com, to encourage donor drives, during which the tissue type of potential donors is collected with a cheek swab. The site links to the National Marrow Donor Program website. It provides instructions on hosting a bone marrow dive and provides PDF fliers to promote the events. Yes, there is a Facebook page. Twitter blew up with news of the drives and Gupta’s health. And, of course, there’s a Twitter hashtag (#IswabbedforAmit).

When word of Gupta’s need for a match started circulating, unique visits to the marrow donor program website increased from about 16,000 on a typical day to 40,000. “That’s 21/2 times,” says Dr. Jeffrey Chell, the donor program’s CEO. “That’s impressive.”

I found many other stories of social media’s impact, and lives saved, as a result.

It’s good to know that social media, especially the 5000 pound gorillas Twitter and Facebook, can facilitate more real good than just keeping families in touch.

I guess the good offsets the bad.

Of course, the real problem is the humans that use it; they are just the same as they’ve always been—social media just makes them more so.

Flickr image credit: PUBLISYST Comunicaciones

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