Social Media For social Change: The Power Of the Crowd

The Not for Sale Founder's Story from Not For Sale Campaign on Vimeo.

It’s difficult to imagine that other than using your Twitter account to let your friends and followers know about your weekends activities and sharing things that are interesting to you, that you can actually use your Social Media channells to make a difference to a whole lot of people in the world. Take the organization called Not For Sale, for example, and consider how they are using social media to expose and inform the world about forced labour, in effect slavery.

Unbelievably more than 30million people today are sold as slaves, more than any other time in history, most who are women and children. Not For Sale are utilizing smart activism also known as open source activism, meaning that they want to encourage individuals to use the resources available to them, be it Twitter, Facebook, or your University degree to make a difference.

Open Source Activism from Not For Sale Campaign on Vimeo.

How does social media help you ask? David Badstone, founder of Not For Sale explains best as follows; Well online media tools, provide us with 3main tools: Transparency, communication and empowerment. Transparency in letting the truth be known, communication in that it allows us to spread the message of social change in ways that are way beyond what any of us would ever be able to achieve on our own and empowerment in that it allows us to empower individuals across the globe in making a significant and real change. 

The Power of Social Media from Not For Sale Campaign on Vimeo.

Coupled with the power of the crowd, social Media can make a real difference in social change and in the field of Human Trafficking when used properly. Are there any socially responsible organizations that you know of that use Social Media in such a way that it benefits the crowd?