Learn About Social Media and Do Good

Written by Jill Manty  · January 28, 2011

Today, I want to introduce you to someone using social media for a very personal cause. Jeffrey Reidy is raising money to help build his Mom a home. His main avenue? Harnessing the power of social media. I first met Jeffrey on #UsGuys on Twitter. I was moved by his story about his Mom and his dedication to helping her. At the time, he was starting a chip in campaign to get help for her. But now he’s come up with several other ways to raise money for her. One thing he’s doing is hosting a Social Media Webinar on February 8 from 8-10 p.m. CST . You’re definitely going to want to sign up for this. It’s only $29. It’s for a good cause. And you’ll get answers to lots of questions that you may have about how to make this social media thing work. I asked Jeffrey to tell me a little bit more about him Mom, his webinar and his advice for those new to social media.

1. Tell me a little bit about your Mom’s situation and what you’re doing to raise money to help her.

My mom was disabled years ago after a back operation for a sciatic nerve. Since she couldn’t work again after the operation, she had to start relying on a fixed income from social security. She couldn’t afford to keep living where she was prior to the operation so she found the only place that she could afford on the income from social security.

We didn’t know it at the time but the building she moved into was contaminated with toxic mold and she became really sick from it. Now she’s at the point where she needs oxygen to sleep at night and has a lot of seizure activity in her brain so even something like driving a car could be dangerous for her. She’s at the point where she needs to get out of there asap, and with money tight all around, I knew that I needed to do something big.

So I came up with the idea to run in the Disney World Half Marathon in January 2012 and tattoo sponsors’ logos on my body in order to raise money to build her a new house that she can live safely in.

I’m also holding some other events in the coming weeks and months such as social media webinars and anything else I can come up with to try to help her out.

2. What are you doing to train for the half marathon?

I just started a program called Couch to 5K this week and that will have me running about 3 miles in about 2 months and then I will step things up from there. It’s going to be a long road and a lot of hard work, but it’s my mom we’re talking about so I have to do whatever it takes to succeed.

3. How did you get involved with social media and how did you decide to use social media to help your mother?

I’ve been involved with social media for a few years now. It started out with me just using social media sites for personal use but then I added it to the consulting work that I do for businesses. I’ve seen so many great things promoted successfully with social media, so it just seemed like a natural route to go in promoting the events for my mom.

4. How’s that going so far?

It’s going very well. The support I’ve received from people has been tremendous and it hasn’t even been a whole week yet since I announced the Tattoo Run.

5. You’ve got a social media seminar coming up with the proceeds going to help your mother, who will be on that seminar?

We have a great lineup of speakers on the webinar… Michele Price, Chase Adams, Nicholas Cardot and Christopher Porter, plus some of the other #UsGuys founders might join Chase and the rest of us as well.

6. What topics will they be covering?

The topics that will be covered on the webinar include community building with social media, connecting with your customers via social media and friendship marketing using social media. We might touch on some other subjects as well.

7. Why should people sign up?

People should sign up because they’ll be getting a ton of great content and information that they can implement in their social media strategies. I like to tell people that this webinar offers real social media advice from real social media experts.

8. What one piece of advice would you offer for people just getting started in social media?

The best advice I can give someone that’s just getting started in social media is to just get out there and network with people. Interact with the people that you follow and the people that follow you, participate in #hashtag discussions and definitely focus on the “social” part of social media. You’ll make a ton of great friends and have a lot of fun along the way.

9. If someone wants to use social media to help their favorite cause, what can they do?

The biggest thing someone can do is to show people that you care about them and that’ll give people a reason to care about you and the things that you care about.

Thanks for the input, Jeffrey. Now, I highly encourage everyone to head over to Jeffrey’s blog and sign up for the Social Media Webinar. You’ll learn something for a great price and help Jeffrey help his Mom. Oh, and seating is limited and going fast, so get over there and sign up now!