“America’s Most Wanted” host and children’s advocate John Walsh will lead the discussion at the event, which is sponsored by Cox in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Well-known social media expert, James Andrews, co-founder of social media communications firm, Everywhere, is serving as a guest panelist. Andrews is an internationally-respected digital thought leader and a frequent contributor on CNN. Both Walsh and Andrews are parents of teenaged sons.

Taylor Davidson
Sarah Evans, Shauna Causey and Sloane Berrent
​

The old adage that ladies get no love in tech is a thing of the past, at least here in Austin, TX. On Saturday March 13, a group of 90 wave-making women gathered at the top of Frost Bank Tower (the building that looks like a giant nose hair trimmer) to honor eight powerhouse female players in tech and social media. Organized by cause-based consultant Sloane Berrent and publicist Sarah Evans, the “Digitini” luncheon celebrated raconteur Cathy Brooks of Other Than That, Altimeter Group’s Charlene Li, CNN’s Jennifer Martin, Read Write Web’s Jolie O’Dell, Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, Comcast’s Shauna Causey, Porter Novelli’s Stephanie Agresta and PGi’s Jackie Yeaney.

Randi Zuckerberg, Cathy Brooks, Jolie O’Dell, Jennifer Martin, Shauna Causey, Stephanie Agresta, Jackie Yeaney, Charlene Li
​Friends old and new, including plenty who were meeting for the first time in real life, praised one another’s work and developed strategic partnerships over martinis and quiche. From coders to account managers to CEOs to entrepreneurs, the women of SXSW Interactive are in business for a reason.
Berrent said an afternoon with boys on the side made for a perfect Saturday. While there was no shortage of gratitude and esteem among the dynamic group of women, the shortage of females at South by Southwest overall was mentioned.

“Men have a lot of opportunities to connect at South by Southwest, and there’s such a smaller number of women here,” said Berrent. “So bringing everyone together in an environment that was really welcoming and empowering was a great for us all to pay our respects to one another.”

During the recognition session, Randi Zuckerberg said she didn’t realize there were this many women at South by Southwest. In response Cathy Brooks said, “There’s only three that aren’t here and they’re all on panels right now.”

But if the speed of tech innovation and the power of Web 2.0 are any indication of what’s to come, it won’t be long before the panels are packed with fempower.

The Twitter phenomenon is still developing and one uplifting use of the microblogging site has come to light, charity. There have been several charitable campaigns that used Twitter’s viral nature to generate awareness and piles of money. World records were broken when #BeatCancer was unleashed for a 24-hour period. eBay, MillerCoors, and Genesis Today pledged one cent for every tweet with the hashtag. Other social media platforms have found ways to benefit charities as well. Fun little games that allow users to buy credits have been used to raise money for children in Haiti. All the while, these apps and tweet drives are bringing a community together and starting countless conversations.

To read the article on The WOMMA Word, click here.

If you’ve had a friend suggest lately that you become a fan of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida, you’re not alone — it’s part of a new strategy by the local nonprofit to get involved in social media.

In six months, the group has created thousands of fans and even seen individual giving increase since it established a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Richard Kelly, 42, the vice president and chief operating officer, dabbled in Facebook for a few months to get an idea of what he calls the “nuance and power” behind the site before the foundation created its page.

Kelly said initially the idea was to delve into social media just to create awareness about the organization, which fulfills wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

“We understand the demographics and the way that people get their news has changed,” Kelly said. “People get their news in many ways and we’re going to deliver it that way.”

In the past year, the local arm fulfilled 479 wishes for the children and families it serves in 13 counties in the southern half of the state.

The staff of the nonprofit, based in Fort Lauderdale, modeled its page after the national Make-A-Wish page, which has more than 86,000 fans.

Once the local page was created, Make-A-Wish reached out to a core group of staff, board members and volunteers and asked them to suggest to 10 friends that they become fans of the Facebook page they created. In the past six months, the page has gained 4,250 fans.

The organization also tells the stories of Florida children and their wishes through a Twitter account (@makeawishsfla) and a YouTube channel, which they also use to promote events and fundraisers, including a link that directs people to donate.

“We’re looking to share our stories and our mission — and if fundraising comes with it, that’s great,” said Kelly, who said they have seen a small increase in individual giving to the local foundation in the six months since they’ve created a social media presence.

The Facebook and Twitter accounts are updated at least once a day by Kelly or other staff, who also monitor the comments and interact with other people.

The local Make-A-Wish Foundation is just one of many nonprofits that have started to establish a presence on social media sites. Recently, an Atlanta-based social media company called EVERYWHERE came up with a fundraising idea: for every mention of the phrase “beat cancer” on Twitter, in Facebook status updates and on blogs, they would have sponsors donate a penny.

Over a 24-hour period that started on Oct. 17, the group was able to get more than 200,000 mentions. The #beatcancer hashtag, a keyword that Twitter users use to keep track of similar topics, quickly became one of the most used terms of the day.

EVERYWHERE’s Tamara Knechtel said the goal now is to use social media to generate large mass donations: “If we were able to generate $70,000 in 24 hours, what do you think we could do in 365 days?”

To read the article in The Miami Herald, click here.

Of the effort, Guinness World Record® spokesperson, Stuart Claxton said, “We’re always on the lookout for new and exciting ideas, and when approached about a mass social media experiment that rallied people to support the fight against cancer, we were happy to oblige in adjudicating this record attempt.” He further clarified that this attempt “will set a benchmark for social media monitoring moving forward.”

Managing Partner of EVERYWHERE, Tamara Knechtel, who came up with the idea for #BeatCancer says, “We understand very well the power brands have to deliver messages in the social media space. We wanted to score the first Guinness World Record® by using social media for social good. I’m a cancer survivor and just about everyone I know has a close family member who has suffered from the disease. That said, we only had a matter of days to pull this off in time for BlogWorld & New Media Expo. We are grateful to our sponsors, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors who stepped up to the plate offering a penny per #BeatCancer mention. In the end, they both gave far more than a penny per mention!” EVERYWHERE is now the first social media agency to develop a Guinness World Record for online impressions.

All money will be donated to non-profit 501(c)(3) cancer organizations including SU2C (Stand Up To Cancer) (a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation), Alex’s Lemonade, Bright Pink, and Spirit Jump. A listing of all organizations and a live stream of postings can be found at www.beatcancereverywhere.com. While the campaign is over, individuals may still donate at the aforementioned website.

Supporting partners include WhatGives, a company that promotes corporate philanthropy, Slash7, the design and development company that built www.beatcancereverywhere.com, and Radian6, the measurement firm that provided all of the real-time tracking for the campaign. As of this release the current impressions total over one million mentions of #BeatCancer including tweets sent by athletes and celebrities including P. Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, Larry Fitzgerald, MC Hammer, Perez Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Maxwell, Alicia Keys, Shawne Merriman, and Denise Richards.

For information contact:
EVERYWHERE
Tamara Knechtel
tamara@beeverywhere.tv
(404) 862-8240

EVERYWHERE
Danica Kombol
danica@beeverywhere.tv
(404) 580-1566

Guinness World Records
Philip Robertson
philip.robertson@guinnessworldrecords.com
(718) 513-7268

eBay/PayPal
Annie Lescroart
anlescroart@ebay.com

MillerCoors Brewing Company
Julian Green
414-243-8562

EVERYWHERE, a Social Media Marketing and Content Development firm based in Atlanta, GA set a record October 16-17th for the most widespread social network message in 24 hours. According to Radian6, the official online monitoring company, the phrase #BeatCancer set the record with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. This translates into an estimated number of impressions generated during this 24-hour period at over 100 Million. Attendees at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which featured some of the biggest names in social media, were asked to send tweets and issue Facebook status updates with #BeatCancer in their posts. This massive viral effort spawned a worldwide online message that spread and quickly became the #1 most trending topic on Twitter. Not content to just perpetuate a hashtag followed by a message, EVERYWHERE sought out sponsors to raise money for non-profit cancer organizations. Sponsors eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors Brewing Company and Genesis Today were financial contributors to the #BeatCancer campaign and in the brief 24 hour period, over $70,000 was raised.

Of the effort, Guinness World Record® spokesperson, Stuart Claxton said, “We’re always on the lookout for new and exciting ideas, and when approached about a mass social media experiment that rallied people to support the fight against cancer, we were happy to oblige in adjudicating this record attempt.” He further clarified that this attempt “will set a benchmark for social media monitoring moving forward.”

Managing Partner of EVERYWHERE, Tamara Knechtel, who came up with the idea for #BeatCancer says, “We understand very well the power brands have to deliver messages in the social media space. We wanted to score the first Guinness World Record® by using social media for social good. I’m a cancer survivor and just about everyone I know has a close family member who has suffered from the disease. That said, we only had a matter of days to pull this off in time for BlogWorld & New Media Expo. We are grateful to our sponsors, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors who stepped up to the plate offering a penny per #BeatCancer mention. In the end, they both gave far more than a penny per mention!” EVERYWHERE is now the first social media agency to develop a Guinness World Record for online impressions.

The money raised will be donated to four different non-profit cancer organizations including SU2C (Stand UP to Cancer), Alex’s Lemonade, Bright Pink, and Spirit Jump. All of the non-profits are 501(c)(3) organizations and accredited by The American Cancer Society. A listing of all organizations can be found at www.beatcancereverywhere.com. While the campaign is over, individuals may still donate at the aforementioned website.

The measurement firm Radian 6 provided all of the real-time tracking for the campaign. As of this release the current impressions total over one million mentions of #BeatCancer including tweets sent by athletes and celebrities including P. Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, Larry Fitzgerald, MC Hammer, Perez Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Maxwell, Alicia Keys, Shawne Merriman, and Denise Richards.

Click here to read the article on BlackWeb 2.0.

She is back. Rihanna, hitting the airwaves with the first single “Russian Roulette” off her upcoming album entitled Rated R. It’s her first solo song since her altercation with then-boyfriend Chris Brown on February 8th. Twitter’s reviews are in: @monicareyhani tweets verdict on “russian roulette“: rihanna should have chosen a dance song as the first single, but i bet we won’t have to wait long for one.

The hot twoppic of the day is balloon boy. Yes, it is believed to be an elaborate hoax planned by the Heenes, who were hoping to land a reality TV show. Charges have yet to be filed, but the main issue now is the children. @ trexy79 tweets I feel bad for the “balloon boy“…how ,much therapy is that poor kid gonna need when he’s grown up?

According to internet chatter, one group found a way to use twitter for a seriously good cause. #beatcancer is the hot twoppic of the week, a campaign started by Beat Cancer Everywhere, a website that works to raise money for breast cancer research. The goal was to set a Guinness Book World Record for the distribution of the largest mass message through social media within 24 hours, from October 16-17th. For each mention of #beatcancer, one cent was donated to breast cancer research. Facebook and blog mentions counted too. According to Radian6, the official online monitoring company, the phrase #beatcancer set a record with over 200,000 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts with an estimated 100 million impressions over 24 hours and over $70,000 raised.

Those are your hot twoppics, on FOX News Radio.

To see the story on FoxNewsRadio.com, click here.