10 ways social media improved lives in 2008.

Next week, I'll be launching a series of guest posts looking ahead at how social media careers and technology could evolve in 2009. But first, I wanted to look back at some of the bright spots of 2008 by spotlighting cases where businesses and individuals used social tools to make our world a better place.

So here they are, my 10 ways social media helped improve lives in 2008:

1. Gamers and developers raise $1 million for children’s hospitals.
2. Social networking helps find potential kidney donors for a blogger's daughter.
3. Kiva users lend $36 million to low-income entrepreneurs in 42 countries.
4. Vancouver Twitter users meet up to help the homeless stay warm.
5. Last-minute Tweetup gets 100 people to donate blood.
6. Tweetsgiving racks up $11,000+ in 48 hours to expand a school in Tanzania.
7. SocialVibe raises $250K by making corporate sponsorship cool.
8. Six Degrees and Everyday Hero help people generate millions for their favorite nonprofits.
9. Facebook Causes goes mainstream, revolutionizing how nonprofits build support.
10. Disney donates a children's book for every comment on a blog.

Get the details on each one after the jump.

1. Gamers and developers raise $1 million for children’s hospitals.

The Child’s Play charity has been around since 2003, helping buy video games to entertain seriously ill children in hospitals. It's a brainchild of the guys behind the Web comic phenomenon Penny Arcade.

This year, supporters used some pretty innovative ways to raise the money.  There was a special set of Rock Band tracks with all proceeds going to Child’s Play. The Web forum gamerDNA also created a quiz competition to benefit the nonprofit.

Best of all, Child’s Play has made it easy to help your local hospital directly through PayPal donations or by browsing each location’s Amazon wish list. (Here, for example is the list of desired games for our own Children’s Hospital of Alabama.

2. Social networking helps find potential kidney donors for a blogger's daughter. 

 When The Domestic Diva blogger Lisa learned that her daughter might die without a kidney transplant, she turned to her friends and readers for help. What followed was a massive chain reaction, with top-tier gurus like Doc Searls and Chris Brogan even spreading the message.

Lisa said the hospital was soon flooded with calls from willing donors. Just this week, Lisa's daughter underwent the life-saving transplant. While the kidney didn't end up coming from a social-networking source, this is still an incredible example of how powerful these tools can be for those in need.

3. Kiva users lend $36 million to low-income entrepreneurs in 42 countries.

I'm a huge fan of the micro-lending site Kiva.org, which helps make small loans to struggling business owners around the world. So it was great to see that 2008 was such a huge year for Kiva, which doubled both its staff size and its loan volume.

One of the major additions to the site was the idea of Lending Teams. This let contributors work together and even compete to raise large amounts of funds.

If you're interested in making a small loan (the usual amount is $25, which you're sure to get back within a few months), consider joining my relatively new Lending Team, Social Media for Change.

4. Vancouver Twitter users meet up to help the homeless stay warm.

This is one of those stories that shows how simple it can be to accomplish good things through social networking.

When a few Twitter users in Vancouver talked about having a "Tweetup" to chat in person, one suggested that they turn the event into a clothing giveaway for the snow-covered city's homeless. Soon there was a small crowd of relative strangers handing out coats and other warm clothes.

5. Last-minute Tweetup gets 100 people to donate blood.

Similar to the homeless benefit, Twitter users in Austin, Texas, decided to use their networking as a way to encourage blood donations. The result more than doubled the usual number of daily donors at The Blood Center of Central Texas.

6. Tweetsgiving racks up $11,000+ in 48 hours to expand a school in Tanzania.

I realize this is the third Twitter-related item in a row, but I think there's definitely a reason that this simplistic site plays such a central role in efforts like these. Twitter is lightning-fast networking that can make almost any message travel around the world in minutes.

In November, the innovative nonprofit Epic Change decided to leverage Twitter's role as a modern communications hub by hosting Tweetsgiving. Participants were asked to help make small donations within 48 hours, with the goal of raising $10,000 to expand a school in Tanzania.

The goal was met and exceeded, with more than $11,000 coming in over two days.

7. SocialVibe raises $250K by making corporate sponsorship cool.

SocialVibe uses a slick blend of corporate sponsorship and social networking to help raise money for a wide range of charities. You just pick your favorite cause — from the World Wildlife Fund to the Children's  Miracle Network — then post a badge on any of your social sites (blog, Facebook profile, etc.)

SInce launching its open beta in April, founder Joe Marchese told me the site has raised more than $250,000, and he expects 2009 to be "huge" as more people learn about it.

8. Six Degrees and Everyday Hero help people generate millions for their favorite nonprofits.

One of the cornerstones of social media is personal choice, and these are just a few of the brilliant online tools that help connect people with the causes they feel most passionate about.

Though they lack the corporate involvement of SocialVibe, Six Degrees and Everyday Hero are stellar services that link you to almost any nonprofit around. Six Degrees (part of Network for Good) says it has raised over $2.5 million for charities. Based in Australia, Everyday Hero pegs its total donations at a whopping $7.7 million. (Thanks to Juliana Wong for pointing that one out to me.)

9. Facebook Causes goes mainstream, revolutionizing how nonprofits build support.

It's true that Facebook Causes actually launched in 2007, but there's no denying that 2008 was a massive year for this powerful nonprofit tool.

Causes has grown from 4 million users in late '07 to nearly 14 million at the end of '08. That's a 250% increase in popularity over just one year.

Now Facebook's third-largest application, Causes lets nonprofits coordinate supporters, gather donations, plan events and harness the unlimited growth potenital of social networking. These days, if you're running a nonprofit and you're not using Causes, you might as well not have a Web site either.

10. Disney donates a children's book for every comment on a blog.

This wasn't a huge charity outreach, especially for such a massive corporation as Disney, but I wanted to highlight it because it shows how easily companies can help make a difference (while building buzz) through social media.

To promote its new Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories, Disney offered to donate a book for every comment on blog post by the nonprofit First Book. The post tallied 744 comments — a staggering number for any blog, especially one run by a children's nonprofit. 

Judging from the fact that Disney was willing to go as high as 250,000 books, it's likely we'll see the company try this admirable approach to buzz marketing again soon.

Well that's my list. Sorry it turned out to be a bit epic, but I'd still be intrigued to hear some of your examples in the comments.

Today's photograph is from Epic Change's blog about the Tanzanian school benefiting from Tweetsgiving.

Comments

[Scott Mahler-Datex Media]

Wow! This blow me away. Being a website developer, I'm always looking at the user's end of programming, but this takes that to a whole other level. I know how much better communication is because of technology and social media, but I never conteplated how it could help move and organize people to such amazing causes. Thanks for giving us all something to think about in the new year.

[Nick Arnett]

I thought my former employer's support of Tulane after Katrina was pretty cool, too (and it continues).

See http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=6884

[bob ashley]

Positively inspiring article to launch the new year! Also enjoyed your intro to twitter presentation. Gee, some of the stuff in your "improved lives" post might have also improved your twitter tutorial! Pretty persuasive.

bob
@bashley

[Elena]

I would add #HoHoTO raising $25k for the Toronto Daily Bread.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvyAk1erxuc

[Wendy Soucie]

I hope you are working on 2009 best of as well. This is the kind of list I should show people who look at me oddly when I say I work with social media.

I also have been trying to collect a list of social media tools that can make our lives easier. Some I have collected are Carepages.com - helping those with illness stay connected to those who care; conference 2.0 - allows conference attendees to connect with others before, after and ever after communities. A new one is xeesm.com which is in the earlier beta as a social relationship management tool.

Can you think of any others for my list?

Wendy Soucie
http://www.xeesm.com/wendysoucie