We encourage our clients to get involved in social media.  It’s an emerging means of communication to a large audience.  I enjoy hearing stories where social media has worked wonders, especially on a more personal level for people.

Recently, I was reading my cousin’s blog.  Since they live in Colorado, it is my way to keep up with their new baby.  In a recent post, they mentioned a blog of another family, the McClenahans; otherwise known as the Macs.  They started their blog in August of 2008 to talk about their new baby girl, and probably did this for the same reason my cousin did: it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.  They began tracking their little baby girl Cora’s life and documenting with adorable pictures.  They are a cute, young couple with a precious little girl.  Their blog posts seemed to take a different tone this past January, however, when they found out that Cora had cancer.  After taking her in for a check up on her ear infections, they were told that she may have cancer and by the next day they were starting surgery.  By the following week, the chemotherapy was starting.  This all came as such a shock to them.  They continued to blog about their experience even through the toughest times, and other family members also contributed to the writing.  The site’s visibility dramatically increased, in fact, “Since Cora was diagnosed, the McClenahans’ blog has had 800,000 hits from people in 50 states and 17 countries.”¹

By early February, Cora passed away.  Her family established another page for monetary donations to go towards building a playground in Cora’s memory.  Not only did this page attract outreach from family and friends, but strangers from all over the map, too.

Meanwhile, a seller on Etsy.com (a site to buy and sell all things hand-made) began blogging about sellers donating to raise money for Cora’s Playground and it caught on.  They launched the Cora Playground Etsy Project and it took off with about 50 sellers donating items.  Cora’s mom began working on crafting and opened her own shop on Etsy, too.  Every time I checked their shop, everything was sold out!  People were buying like crazy in order to help such a good cause!  They have had 176 sales so far and, when I checked this morning, they were sold out again.  Many sellers on Etsy would only dream of having 176 sales in this short amount of time.  Their story was also picked up by the news media.

While the McClenahans’s story may be slightly different than a company trying social media to reach out to their customers, I think stories like this show the amount of people that are using social media as their means to communicate.  It is simple and effective and has a very large reach.  Also important, people use social media as a personal means of communication.  So throwing ads in their face won’t always work here.  Be personal and be a voice for the company.

¹http://www.thekansan.com/news/x1683630990/Newton-couple-wants-to-erect-playground-to-honor-daughter

Photo “Blogging Research Wordle” by Kristina B.