Social media for social good

Hwat wdulo hte lrodw kolo lkei fi ouy ocldu otn erda? Noigmeths kile stih.

Curious what this is all about? If so, click here.

Hint: This was part of a message sent Sept. 22 via Twitter by Room to Read, one of the most popular international development-focused organizations on social media.

Everyone seems to be talking about social media these days. And chances are, you or some of your colleagues have a Facebook profile, blog regularly, or have posted resumes on LinkedIn (and devex.com).

When world leaders gathered in New York last week, there must have been as many tweets sent as there were hands shaken and partnership deals sealed, as I wrote then. Two first ladies — Thobeka Madiba Zuma of South Africa and Ida Betty Odinga of Kenya — sent their first tweets in support of global health and social good. Melinda Gates joined the social media platform as well; her husband Bill is one of the most followed Twitter users.

At the #SocialGood Summit, an unofficial side event to the #UNGeneralAssembly hosted by @Mashable in collaboration with the @UNFoundation and @92Y, @Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg chatted with bloggers for hours about #ICT4dev.

Many within the international development community may find social media hard to read — literally. Here at Devex, we’ve ramped up our social media presence over the past year only — on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, mainly.

Others have been at it a bit longer, and with extraordinary success. (RED), for instance, has been leveraging its combined 2+ million Twitter followers and Facebook fans repeatedly in its campaign against global poverty, as Chrysi Philalithes, the group’s chief digital officer, told us in a recent interview. Nancy Groves, the U.N. social media focal point, told us about the online popularity of live chats and candid images of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In the coming days, we’ll continue to spotlight the most social media-savvy aid organizations on our website (and on social media), including World Vision, Doctors Without Borders, UNHCR and Samaritan’s Purse.

Our conversations with these master communicators are truly inspiring. They showcase how knowing your audience, their language and interests can help you network, learn, fundraise and advocate for a global cause more effectively and efficiently than you may have thought possible. They’ll also showcase how important it is to craft a comprehensive social media strategy, set realistic goals and evaluate performance thoroughly.

We don’t want to stop there. Please tell us about your experience on social media, and the development-focused campaigns you’ve admired the most in 2011. On Twitter, send a note to @devex using #socialmedia4dev, post a message on our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below. Let’s learn from each other how to leverage social media for social good.

Read last week’s Development Buzz on the U.N. summit week.