Jeremy Pepper snapped us out of our navel gazing recently with a well-deserved question. “Can Social Media Do What It Claims?”

One of the more exciting opportunities for social media is how it can enable non-profit organizations to boost awareness and support for their causes with powerful stories. Rather than a .org telling you how your support will help someone, the very people you are helping can show you.

So when I saw Tara Met Blog’s request via Peter Shankman’s HARO service, I was excited to participate in a project that will help answer Pepper’s question.

What Do You Stand For?
According to Tara: "My colleagues and I came up with the idea of showing a bunch of images of people holding signs that say why they are standing up to cancer…and why they are tired of this disease affecting their life and taking life. Thus, showing how we are all affected by cancer. After all, no one is immune to the effects."

To be clear, all I did is take a picture telling my story and send it in. The video below is the powerful result of Tara’s efforts.

This is one part of an effort for Stand Up To Cancer (SUTC) that culminates with a telethon on September 5th. You can get involved here. SU2C does not answer Jeremy’s question yet, but I suspect they’ll be able to show that social media can move the needle.

tags | SU2C | Stand Up To Cancer | social media | consumer-generated media