UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging

Chapter 23. Tweetathon

AS YOU HAVE probably figured out by now, if you didn't already know before picking up this book, I love Twitter. Not just because it makes up for my lack of popularity in high school, but for all the incredible people I've met since joining it. It has restored my faith in humanity. No other event has proven this more to me than the day I decided to hold a Tweetathon.

Back in March 2009 I decided to lend a hand to the cause of child hunger in the United States on behalf of Strength.org, which was the charity of choice for the 12for12k Challenge. The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide.

The goal was to hit the fund-raising goal of $12,000 for 12for12k for March (we were already at about $1,600 for the month when we started). So I logged on at 10 A.M. on the Thursday of the Tweetathon and went at it.

Five-and-a-half hours later the $12k goal was hit, and by the end of the 12 hours we had raised around $14,000, all through Twitter. I was overcome with emotion. All these people, strangers in "real life" but friends on Twitter, really rallied together and gave to a great cause.

After everything had calmed down, people started asking me how I had made it so successful. I also started to notice others trying to raise money by doing a version of a Tweetathon, and people were having trouble replicating this success, so I decided to figure out why this one worked so well and where others ...