Cancer Awareness IS Social. #cancersucks

It’s October so you’re either seeing alot of orange, black and purple for Halloween OR you’re seeing alot of pink. I bet you’re seeing both! October and breast cancer awareness are like peanut butter and jelly, crudites and hummus, tortilla chips and guacamole. You think of one and the other resonates.

Social media plays an instrumental role in the public outreach of cancer awareness across the board, not just for breast cancer awareness.

Here are some examples of social media efforts for cancer awareness:

• Movember USA: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Mustaches!
• SU2C: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Launch a Star for as little as $1
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Check out their 31 Days of Pink. Love that!
• Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
• Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Check out their Volunteer for Progress campaign.

It’s not the number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers that warrant the success of social media and cause outreach. Sure, there is alot of “reach,” but what if only a small percent of fans/followers take action and spread the message? That’s not very successful. A stellar awareness campaign involves effectively promoting the organization’s efforts and providing EASY ways for people to take action. The social media efforts of an organization should be aligned with the offline efforts in order to have a cohesive message. I think the above organizations do that and so do many others!

What are some organizations that you think do a great job of using social media to raise awareness? Leave a comment below.

Follow and use these hashtags to join the cancer awareness conversation on Twitter: #cancersucks, #breastcancerawareness, #movember, #GotheMo, #pinkforoctober, #vol4progress, #cancersurvivor, #childhoodcancer, #cancerprogress.