HOW TO: Use Social Media to Champion International Causes

Dana Oshiro is a Canadian PR strategist and writer who began her career in social media as an anti-poverty and public health advocate. She blogs regularly at
Villagers With Pitchforks.

For many, social media updates are akin to breathing. A 140 character emotional weather report might get geo-tagged and posted to Twitter, but by the end of the day it’s retweeted, aggregated and bookmarked to a much larger audience. A social media junkie’s network might span between 300-10,000 viewers. Essentially, your social networking profile makes you a public figure, and like Brangelina, you too can champion an international cause.

Given the current economy, you may be considering overseas work. If you’re a social media guru with an interest in international projects, below are a few ways you can contribute to humanitarian organizations.

Know of additional international volunteer opportunities? Let us know about them in the comments below.

SalaamGarage: Social media for change

Amanda Koster’s
SalaamGarage is one excellent project where social media gurus leverage their networks for good. Koster leads amateur photographers to developing countries to document the work of grassroots service organizations. One recipient organization,
Vatsalya, provides food, education and health care to street orphans in Jaipur.

Through
Facebook,
photo blogs,
Flickr,
Twitter and
YouTube, SalaamGarage has helped Vatsalya gain seven new onsite volunteers and media exposure in major outlets including the
Seattle Post Intelligencer. Trip photos have been featured in Vatsalya founder Jaimala Gupta’s book “Eighteen Million Question Marks: Street Children of India” and a 2009 calendar – publications that have raised $15,000 towards the organization’s work.

Meanwhile, in the US, trip participants continue to raise funds and awareness through exhibits, presentations and conferences. On the West Coast, Cynthia LaRowe, Conrad Chavez and a few other Seattle-based SalaamGarage photographers have exhibited their works in a number of cafes and galleries. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Danielle Williams fundraised over $2,000 for Vatsalya by selling her prints from Washington, DC-based coffee shop Love Cafe. These same works will be on display at the
Gandhi Memorial Foundation in Fall 2009.

“We’ve only really skimmed the surface,” says Amanda Koster. ?Imagine what the Web 2.0 community can do for these organizations. Blogs, web sites, pocket video cameras, and BlackBerries; as well as electronic and physical communities, everyone has the power to create powerful stories and intentional content that will spread into the world, raise awareness, and cause change.?

SalaamGarage has
upcoming trips planned for Guatemala this June and India in September.

Choose your own adventure

If you’d like to build your own charitable tourism project, below are a few ways you can creatively contribute to great NGOs:

1. Showing construction progress: As a social media expert, you can use presentation tools like
SlideShare,
Animoto, or Slide’s
Slideshow to show construction progress through pictures.

HOW TO: Use Social Media to Champion International Causes