“It’s not always about money; sometimes it’s just about helping others.”
A few weeks ago my friend posted a very moving story on Facebook that ended up touching hundreds, if not thousands of hearts around the country.
After reading the post a half dozen times, I realized it had a natural viral component to it, a feel-good story in a period filled with negative news, murder statistics, and political attack ads. So I posted Breanna’s story on the Cedar Point Facebook wall and opened up a PayPal Fundraiser to send the family to Cedar Point.
In less than 24 hours, the story had over 140 likes, 50 shares and $1k was raised. Within days we hit the $2,000 mark, Cedar Point donated the tickets, and a major local news station in Detroit did a story on the 5 o’clock broadcast.
How was this possible? Social Media.
Likes and Comments are nice, but the Shares are what made the story viral. Every time someone shared the post on their personal Facebook wall, all of their friends were exposed to the story. A perfect example:
A friend of mine shared the post on his Facebook wall. One of his friends, who I never would have met in real life, saw the post and used his connections to personally spread the word to the CEO, COO, as well as the head of national media relations at Cedar Point. Social media connected Breanna all the way to the heads of Cedar Point in a matter of days.
So what did I learn out of all this? People are genuinely amazing and are more than willing to go out of their way and make personal sacrifices to help those who are a little down on their luck. Breanna, the family, and myself, are so thankful for everyone who made this fundraiser a success. It is amazing knowing that collectively we all raised enough money to provide this family a trip of a lifetime.
