Tweeting to #BeatCancer: 200,000+ Tweets So Far

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By Pete Cashmore on Mashable

Twitter has been virtually taken over this weekend by a great cause: #BeatCancer gets brands to donate 1 cent for every tweet containing that hashtag. It’s been a huge success so far, with 200,000+ tweets being posted since the launch yesterday.

The campaign aims to break a Guinness World Record for the most social mentions, although it’s unclear where that record currently stands.

As we wrote yesterday:

The concept is rather simple. For every tweet, Facebook status update, or blog post containing the #beatcancer hashtag, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors will be donating 1 cent to cancer research. With a captive audience of social media addicts, the hope is that the campaign will go viral and raise significant money for several charities.

More details are available on the beatcancereverywhere.com website, along with badges that you can embed on your blog to further expand the reach of the campaign.

Of course such campaigns could lose their effectiveness if overused – it’s also against Twitter’s Terms of Service to add unrelated hashtags to Tweets, since this is a common tactic of spammers wishing to turn up in Twitter search results. Nonetheless, as a one-off charity campaign, #BeatCancer appears to be an inspired idea that’s raising thousands of dollars for charity.

To read the article on Mashable, click here.

Social Media Campaign to Beat Cancer Eyes Record in Guinness Book

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By Adam Ostrow in Mashable

Over the past few months, there’s been a tremendous amount of activity in utilizing social media for charitable causes. Perhaps the most notable recent example is Drew Carey’s bid of $1 million for the Twitter name @drew, with all of the proceeds being donated to cancer research.

Today, using the collection of hundreds of bloggers currently converged at Blog World Expo as an impetus, a social media fundraising effort is underway looking to set a Guinness Book World Record “for the distribution of the largest mass message through social media” in a 24 hour period.

The concept is rather simple. For every tweet, Facebook (Facebook) status update, or blog post containing the #beatcancer hashtag, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors will be donating 1 cent to cancer research. With a captive audience of social media addicts, the hope is that the campaign will go viral and raise significant money for several charities.

More details are available on the beatcancereverywhere.com website, along with badges that you can embed on your blog to further expand the reach of the campaign. The site is also tracking total mentions, so you can see how the campaign is progressing throughout the day.

To read the story on Mashable, click here.

The Wall Street Journal: Firms Get a Hand With Twitter, Facebook

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Wall_Street_Journal

Entrepreneurs Hire Consultants to Promote Business on Social-Media Sites, but the Extra Cost Is Big Question

Sylvester Chisom began paying a consultant last summer to blog on Twitter, post status updates on Facebook and run marketing campaigns on both sites for his auto-detailing business.

He thinks the service, which costs $450 a month, is worth it. “It’s just better having somebody else dedicated to thinking of stuff to put up,” says Mr. Chisom, co-owner of Showroom Shine Express Detailing LLC in St. Louis.

Some small-business owners, overwhelmed by the time commitment required of marketing their products and services via social media, are hiring consultants to lend a hand. But the price of such support can vary widely based on the extent of work involved, and many entrepreneurs with already meager resources for marketing and advertising may need to think carefully before taking on the extra cost.

The start-up 3 Green Angels, for example, charges clients a $400 fee to organize Twitter parties — real-time discussions on specific topics. Everywhere LLC, another specialty firm in Atlanta, charges clients up to $20,000 to arrange three streaming video press conferences led by popular bloggers.

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