Twittering About Frozen Peas
Dec 30 2007
A fascinating thing happened to me and many a folk on Twitter last week. I went from 30 followers to over 175 followers worldwide in just over 24 hours all because of a woman known as @SusanReynolds. Susan blogs at Artsy Asylum and started a new blog called Boobs on Ice to document her journey fighting breast cancer. A woman who I have mentioned frequently on my blog, Connie Reece, helped start a campaign called the Frozen Pea Fund. You can see a great interview of Connie on this particular topic called PEAS and Passion on Thom Singer’s blog. Connie also helped start Frozen Pea Friday where people change their twitter avatars to “peavatars” in support of Susan Reynolds and to build awareness of the Frozen Pea Fund.
As I mentioned in my Social Media Mania – What’s A Gal to Do? post I joined Twitter on December 13, 2007. Near the end of last week, I saw @lizstrauss, @princess-belle and others making challenges that they will donate money to the Frozen Pea Fund if twitterdom would help them get to X number of followers within a certain time period. I decided to join in late on December 27 and put forth the challenge of 175 to donate $50. I had 30 followers at the time. It was down to the wire but just as midnight was closing here in US CST on December 28 a tweet went out to some Aussie twitter folk and I ended up with close to 180!
I would have donated even if I didn’t make it to 175. I was having so much FUN seeing people take action based on 140 character or less tweets to help fight cancer, a worthy cause. Talk about instant gratification for almost all parties involved! I donated my $50 right then and there. To me, the Frozen Pea Fund endeavor has been the best example of a social media campaign I have seen or been a part of. Kudos to people like @conniereece for taking the time to show us how social media can be used to make a difference!
Now I’m going to see if twitter can help me find a good reference for a beginner yoga class to take in 2008. I’ve got a lot to do in 2008 and Yoga will be a big part of it. I even saw that they are offering a Deepak Chopra Center Yoga Retreat at the Crossings in March.
If you’d like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @aruni. If you’d like to see how I figure out how attempt to use social media to help build awareness of my company, Babble Soft, you might want to subscribe to this blog’s feed. If you have any suggestions on how to reach our target market, please don’t hesitate to send me your ideas…they are always welcome!
Happy New Year! Oh and don’t forget to donate to the Frozen Pea Fund…
Author: Aruni | Filed under: charities, social media, social networks, twitter | Tags: american cancer society, breast cancer, connie reece, frozen pea friday, frozen pea fund, frozen peas, peas, peas and passion, social media, social networks, susan reynolds, twitter | 6 Comments »
I am one of your new followers. Your post is a good summary. Twitter ans Frozen Peas Funs is one of the many tings that social media and mirco blogs will help with. I m amazed at the help you get if you just ask.
Happy New Year
What is truly amazing is how fast all of that happened too.
Susan was diagnosed the first week in December. On December 6th, she noticed a mass, on the 7th, it was diagnosed as Breast Cancer – on the 21st, the first Frozen Pea Friday – she went in for surgery for the mastectomy.
So within 2 weeks, you have an entire community pulling itself together and getting behind the cause.
The power of social media is incredible.
BTW: at one point, we had ‘plans’ of doing a similar software to what you seem to have done – I’m truly envious that you somehow managed to get it in there during motherhood!! My daughter turns 5 next month and I’m still not sure where the time has gone.
I was wanting to get back with you on this – and will in a bit – but I have a few ideas for you on a few areas to market to via the ‘net.
p.s. very nice to meet you!
[…] Frozen Pea Fund viral outbreak on Twitter. @Aruni at entrepreMusings summarizes it well in a great post with links. It hits close to home for me as I have my breast exploration surgery next week. The […]
Hi Shashi – thanks so much for stopping by. It was a truly amazing experience!
Hi yndygo – it is so impressive how fast everything happened. OUr son is 5 and our daughter is 2 1/2. I’m not sure how we got Babble Soft started…sometimes it’s sort of a blur to me. 🙂 I feel like I’m finally emerging from some pretty bad sleep deprivation. It’s great to meet you too and thanks again for the peavatar!
Great post Aruni. The whole Frozen Pea thing has been an amazing thing to watch. It is a true example of how people can cause action to really happen if they care in their heart.
Thanks Thom. I have even gained more followers since…am up to 248. Still fascinated by twitter and frozen peas!