Power of the People to abolishcancer

Power of The People To Unite For A Cause

Yesterday was another amazing day on Twitter. We hosted another Twitterthon with proceeds going towards @46Mommas, a wonderful group of ladies who are on a mission of keeping our children cancer-free.

If you are unfamiliar with how our Twitter feed, @abolishcancer, works, here’s a quick review. We created our Twitter feed last November with the intent of raising awareness and money to fight cancer. We ask for sponsors of our site, for a day, with the purpose of pledging to donate $1 for every new follower we get towards a cancer fighting charity of THEIR choice. Since November we’ve had 17 sponsored days with a total of $17,500 raised for various cancer charities JUST BY TWEETING.

On Friday Debra Goldberg @Goldie22 agreed to donate a max of $3,000 towards helping @46Mommas. The Twitterverse was filled with tweets such as this “For every new follower today of @abolishcancer, @Goldie22 agrees to donate $1 to @46Mommas to fight cancer”. In fact, this tweet was so prevalent that it became a “top tweet” according to Twitter.

The morning started off rather slow (we are on eastern standard US time and have many west coast as well as international followers) with about 100 new followers shortly before noon. The tweeting intensified after lunch with a unified team of 46Mommas pushing to get others to support our cause. By early afternoon we had about 600 followers and were wondering if we would get to our 3,000 goal.

Then the tweets went viral. With the support of some passionate tweeters, like @mamaplug, several prominent individuals started to pick up on our message.

First was Chris Brogan.

then ….Michael Cuddyer

…..Pat Forde

…..Ron Artest

…..Sophia Bush

…..Jenni Woww

…..Erin Andrews

and then Lance Armstrong.

That’s about all it took. After these last three tweeters gave us a Shout Out we gained over 2,000 new followers in less than a 2-hour time period.

What’s amazing about yesterday’s Twitterthon was not only the fact that we got some influential tweeters to have our message go viral, but the idea that every person made a difference in the battle vs. cancer. Thousands of individuals became new followers of our mission, and thousands of tweets were sent out to raise more awareness for our wonderful sponsor @46Mommas. (see more about 46mommas in our previous post)

Twitter has truly provided a unique opportunity to create community of cancer fighters, all doing their part in the fight to abolishcancer. We now see the evidence that everyone can make a difference in this fight. There is the power of numbers to support a common cause combined with the power of the ONE to make change.

What’s the future hold for us? We believe it’s unlimited. We truly believe that we can unite a global community to take on this enormous challenge of defeating cancer. We are not doctors or research scientists, but we are a devoted community experiencing a point unlike any other time in history, where revolutions can be formed to unite and conquer- through the support of social media.

Yesterday was fun and rewarding and put the spotlight on another great cancer charity at @46Mommas. It also helped demonstrate the devotion of the “common man (woman)” with Debra Goldberg @Goldie22 sponsoring our day.

Cancer, you better watch out, we’ve only just begun.

“Power of the People, through Twitter, to @abolishcancer

Darah Bonham is the creator and president of @abolishcancer, LLC and can be reached on Twitter at @abolishcancer, or @darahbonham or by email, bonham.darah@gmail.com