Networking for a Social Cause

The protests in Egypt just ended. But what started it all? And how did the word spread so quickly? It was all by harnessing the power of Social Networking. We list four major game changers that have revamped the way social networks have been used.

Pink Chaddi campaign

These are the days when Facebook was used for playing mindless games. The privacy features were weak and Indians were not addicted yet. In Mangalore, very close to Valentine's Day a political party decided to rough up a few young revellers and object to the celebration of the day. That's when a Bangalore-based initiative, which started on Facebook, decided to send the said political parties pink underwear. The Fan page caught on popularity. Thousands of mails containing underwear were delivered to the party's office. It became so popular that a few youngsters were photographed by popular newspapers wearing the article of clothing over their clothes on the 14th of February. There were no more protests by the party that year.

Disaster relief

There was no twitter during Katrina or that would have been the biggest natural disaster response perpetuated through 140 characters. The earthquake in Haiti however, did occur during the time of Twitter. The celebrities took to microblogging. The #Haiti tag took off and was trending through the world as the money poured in. The exact figure of the money donated through Twitter was unknown but it did create a wave of awareness.

WikiLeaks

It burst onto the scene with a discreetly published YoutuAir Force. The WikiLeaks sensation caught some wind in its sails when they started releasing the leaked cables on Twitter, Facebook and a few news outlets simultaneously. After WikiLeaks did it, it just became a normal practice.

Egypt

The #jan25 tag was not about celebrating pre-republic day. It was the first protest rally that vowed to overthrow the Mubarak regime. It started with a Youtube video of a young woman appealing others to join her in protests. It had a million views within 12 hours. It got a huge response on Twitter within 24 hours and attracted attention of the world through the hash tag until Mubarak was forced to step down. The protests in Egypt perpetuated simultaneous sparks in Iran and Jordan. Maybe the next election campaign will be fought through these platforms.