YOU might have noticed in social media networks the past few days the posting of videos of people dumping ice water on themselves. If you look into it, you’d understand why. This is probably one of the most effective viral campaign I have seen and it is generating not only a lot of money but also a lot of publicity for a disease that is known as ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
It is a motor neuron disorder more known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was named after a famous baseball player in the 1930s who was one of the first celebrities to suffer from the disorder.
The mechanics of the fund raising and awareness campaign is simple. A person dumps a bucket of ice water on himself and then challenges at least three other people to do the same.
If they don’t want to do this, they can opt out by donating a hundred dollars to the ALS foundation. If they do it, then they can record themselves and challenge three other people to do the same. It became viral the last week as more celebrities opted in and challenged their other friends who were also celebrities.
So you have now videos on YouTube of such people as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook CEO and COO Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former CEO Steve Ballmer and other celebrities like Justin Beiber, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. Even the Kennedys have joined in. The only person whom I know opted out was President Barrack Obama, who opted to donate $100 instead.
Everybody seemed to be having a kick about dumping iced water on themselves, and this is rapidly increasing the awareness of ALS. For instance, the video of Bill Gates (the world’s richest man) appealing people to support ALS and dumping iced water at himself have garnered over 10 million views, and so far it was reported that in just the last few weeks, ALS foundation have raised over 20 million dollars in funds.
This is one of the most effective use of social networking, and it was so cleverly done that it became viral. I hope there are other worthy causes we can use to publicize and use social networks for the public good.
(www.twitter.com/wilsonng)