Blog Action Day: “What’s In It For Me?” Charity Water Meets AOC3

October 15, 2010 Last year on Blog Action Day more than 13,000 bloggers participated from 152 countries to shine the spotlight on climate change. Shaping Youth’s post was all about inspiring kids as stewards of the planet with Cool the Earth and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots school programs.

This year, the topic is WATER, so I figured, ‘what a cinch, I can write about Saved By The Well and Play Pumps International, or about Global Leaders for Justice or my amazing young Masai pal  Sabore Oyie’s outreach to keep kids safe from the lions on their daily trek to access well water…Easy peasy. Plus, our collaborative global marcom team authored the probono Age of Conversation 3 to benefit Charity Water…perfecto!

But when I read the fine print of today’s massive blog action day with fresh eyes and it deeply disturbed me:  “Today, more than 5000 bloggers from 130 countries are coming together for a single day of blogging about a single topic: water.” Wait a sec. Really? Did I read that right? If so, that’s some serious attrition in numbers.  WATER is the very core element of our being, and access to it is one of the world’s biggest global conundrums.

Are people hunkered into a “Charity Shmarity I’ve gotta take care of myself” economic downturn pragmatism?

Are we as a society more concerned about dirty laundry of celebrities than dirty water for children?

I’m gonna go with ‘yes’…AND now convince you why Age of Conversation 3 is a ‘must buy’ today NOT just to selflessly benefit Charity Water, but to benefit YOU.

Here’s how and here’s why, as you glean the best and the brightest minds in social media for your OWN advancement, and oh, yes, by the way, help out Charity Water and Blog Action Day in the process. (whatever works, right? This IS marketing)

As an Age of Conversation 3 author, I’m in my ‘threepeat’ edition of this global project, this time with  171 authors, staging a ‘bum’s rush’ to benefit Charity Water today. (links to earlier editions and write ups at the end!)

As my fellow ‘thrice honored’ author Uwe Hook wrote in marketing-eze:

“Each and every penny of book profits will be donated to charity:water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects. .

…What a deal: You get 171 intriguing perspectives about the shift from Social Media from a hypothetical consumer loyalty tool to a staple in the modern marketing toolbox AND you make the world a better place. How can you resist? Don’t!”

Still need convincing?

At left is a powerful “why to buy” as we used to call it in my ad agency days…(visual courtesy of Paddling Instructor blog with a great post about CharityWater.org)

But since we’re taking the “what’s in it for me” approach, let’s stay with AOC3 co-author Uwe Hook’s “how to” and moreover WHY to in a point by point social media sell that’s indicative of the simplicity and smarts contained within the pages of AOC3 to benefit CharityWater:

How do you join the Bum Rush for Age of Conversation3 to benefit Charity Water?

“Generate more sales of books at Amazon.com. Purchase it for yourself and encourage others to as well. If you work for an organization that hands out marketing gifts that stimulate the brain, get them to buy multiple copies. They make great gifts for people that want to understand how the future of marketing will look like.

You can buy the Kindle version (all Amazon links are Charity Water affiliate links.). While you download the e-Book, purchase the paperback and hardcover version. Thank you! Wait, that’s not everything: (marketers always say that, don’t they? ‘But wait, there’s more! 😉 Kind of a self spoof, gotta love that in an ad guy!)

1. If you have a blog, register for Blog Action Day.

2. Write about Blog Action Day, the dire water situation and mention Age of Conversation: Time to get busy. Use the same affiliate links that are in this post so that charity:water can get their well-deserved donation.

3. Join the conversation on Twitter. Use hashtags #aoc3 and #BAD10 for your comments about the book.

4. Trackback or comment on today’s post about the Bum Rush at Age of Conversation.

5. Digg, Stumble and bookmark on Delicious.com all the posts you see about the event, including yours.

6. Become a Facebook fan of Age of Conversation 3 (”AoC3″) and interact with us on Facebook.

7. Send an e-mail to all your friends and colleagues to join the cause.”

Thanks Uwe…and hey, dear friends, THAT is ‘how it’s done.’

And you now have 171 marketing minds ready and willing to ‘teach and tell’ so you can leverage all of that social media goodness for your OWN self interest, business, blog, kids’ prosocial products, or nonprofit cause.

Is that enough reason to get you onboard?

Help charity: water through Age of Conversation3. It’s a win-win. Something for all of us. For them. For you. And…most of all, for the kids and the future of our planet.

Want more?

Here are links to my posts about our Age of Conversation probono global blogger team headed up by our illustrious editors Gavin Heaton in Australia and Drew McClellan in Iowa…Amazing gents, and generous souls one and all.

Our illustrious leaders: The Age of Conversation 3

+More AOC3 Resources

AOC3: NOW ON AMAZON

Editor Drew McClellan: (“tells stories, asks questions, milks sacred cows”…)

Editor Gavin Heaton: (“born on a boat in the Indian ocean…”)

How It All Began: Drew, Gavin, and a Vision

AOC3: 171 Authors Take the Online Marketing Conversation to Print

AOC3: Meet Our Publisher: Channel V Books

Age of Conversation 1, 2, & 3 on Shaping Youth

Age of Conversation: eBook for Variety the Children’s Charity (4-07)

Launch of AOC: A Youth Social Media Primer (7-07)

The Age of Conversation Goes Ka-Ching! Using Social Media for Change (9-07)

Using the Age of Conversation For Social Good (3-08)

AOC2: A Tribe of 237 Leading Change (10-08)

STILL want more? Okay…

Here’s MY “why to buy” and water mused ramblings of ‘why water matters’  with a reprise of my interview with Suneet Bhatt’s from Dream Village’s socially responsible picture books as I wrote about World Water Day this past season…

Saved By The Well by Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth, co-author of Age of Conversation 3 to benefit CharityWater.org

“…Awhile back I wrote about the ‘virtual walk’ for World Water Day to raise awareness of those in water-stressed regions who often walk six miles or more to bring water to their villages.

When kids brush their teeth with gushing faucets on, or we wash our pets, cars, hair and dishes with ease, it’s hard to remember that over a billion people don’t have access to this thirst quenching goodness that we so often take for granted. So this year on World Water Day, I’m thrilled to share the first ever book to web creation by Dream-Village.org (the social enterprise who won the IdeaBlob competition I wrote about) to educate and activate kids about the need for Global Water.

Saved by the Well is the first in a series of socially responsible “you vote, we give” book-to-web interplays, that help kids explore important global issues while empowering them with ways to take action on the true stories within the pages.

Part literacy, part philanthropy, with a dollop of 21st century digital fun, the book comes alive as the characters tell the story of Play Pumps International, the nonprofit known for kids merry-go-round play structures harnessing kids’ playful energy to pump for potable resources. Fun! It’s a brilliantly positive use of multi-media in a mashup that has a sum total power that is greater than its parts.  Just love it!

Suneet Bhatt and his team of alliances at Dream Village (including Pervasent for a mobile app, and BeamCamp, an offline summer camp “place to build & brighten for boys & girls”) have managed to create a powerful way to reach and teach without the guilt and gloom (esp. knowing that close to 4000 children die each day from disease/sanitation issues tied to lack of drinking water!)

Today, on World Water Day, I invite kids and educators to get to know founder Suneet and his Dream Village team from the inside out, because this model for sustainability and interconnectedness of all beings and resources is one that we’ll no doubt hear time and again as we forge forward toward the 2015 Millennium Development Goals…”(originally published here Mar 22, 2010 World Water Day…)

Continue reading part one here about Dream Village and continue with this two-parter on Shaping Youth about the necessity of water and how to impart the importance to KIDS.

Meanwhile…when you’re brushing your teeth to start your day, think of those who literally could be ‘Saved by the Well’…and appreciate that tap! (Also see Charity Water’s PSA with Jennifer Connelly in a poignant ‘what if’ to drive the point home in this YouTube below…)

Help CharityWater.org today with your purchase of Age of Conversation 3, right here, right now!

CharityWater.org PSA: What if NYC tap water dried up? Think on it.