Profile of a Volunteer

I have elected to do a friend of my who volunteers not only in early childhood but also for other  organizations. Her current efforts are for Alzheimer. Her father passed away from Alzheimer which had a big affect on her life. She now participates in many events and is an awesome advocate. She has a team for the Walk to End Alzheimer event. She is always advocating on Facebook on other local events. When ever there is a big holiday or event she is always asking for pop bottle returns. She even offers to go pick them up. She then donates that money for their team which goes to the Walk to End Alzheimer event. She is a great advocate and is not afraid to get the word out their about the horrible disease. 

I feel her efforts have impacted many people. Since she has it on Facebook she is reaching many people. I see many people donating pop bottles to her. The team that she organizes is a big team. She has definitely made people aware of Alzheimer. 

A vital message that I have taken away from her efforts is to just keep advocating. She is not afraid to keep posting things on her Facebook. The more you advocate, even if it repeating your self, the more you will get the word out there. 

Using Social Media to Get Connected

I have been using social media for a long time now. I have been using social media since MySpace. It then went to Facebook and now I am using blogs. I feel that if using social media the correct way it can be very helpful. If using social media the wrong way it can lead to be very damaging.  

I feel that all social media tools can lead to effective advocacy. Sometimes social media is the best way to get the word out there. I feel if advocates use social media the correct way they can reach most of the nation. Most people have a Facebook account, with using Facebook to advocated, the message can be continued to circulate all around the web. 

There are different ways that you can use social media to advocate. If you are using a blog I would write how my advocacy project is going. I would write the data and how it has changed since I started working on the advocacy project. I then would also encourage people to join my efforts. If I was using Facebook I would just post a little picture with a saying on it. Just posting that, people would like and share the message making it so all their friends could see it. For example if I shared a picture over 500 people would see the picture. Looking at one of my friends that is always on Facebook she has over 1000 friends that would see the picture. That is 1,500 people that would see the post and that is just with two people liking the status. 

What would you do if you were using social media to promote your efforts?

Advocacy Messages

One message that is inspiring advocacy message "It can wait". This message was created for those who text and drive. There are many accidents, some are fatal, all because someone is texting and not paying attention to the road. I feel this works to some point. I feel it needs to be out in public more. There are still many accidents that happen because everyone thinks it they are fine texting and driving. I think a big thing that helps is putting a picture of a car with "It can wait". 

A second message that is inspiring is "Take a Stand, Lend a Hand". This message is to stop teen bullying. Though it is inspiring in am not sure if it helps. You always hear about stories of teens being bullied. As a teen it is hard to stand up and lend a hand because you may become bullied. Though if you step up you could save a life. 

A third message is "It shouldn't hurt to be a child". This message if for people to help stop child abuse. I feel this message works for the right crowd.