I want to share with you another great story from the world of social media, just in case anyone still thinks it’s nothing but a bunch of geeks self-promoting and tweeting into the wind. David Armano, or @Armano on Twitter, an influential blogger, last night posted a plea for help to his 8,300 followers. His Romanian friend, Daniela, and her three children are staying with he and his wife after separating from an abusive spouse. They were in a desperate situation with no money and in need of living space. David asked his followers for $5,000. What happened over the next 24 hours is phenomenal.

He “made his social network pay” as Brian Morrisey writes on AdFreak, turning David Armano, overnight, into the don of the social media mafia of compassion.

Magically, people in Armano’s network and beyond started sending donations, and within 2 hours, they’d raised $4,000! As I write this, just 24 hours after the plea went out, the account is up to fourteen and a half thousand dollars and Daniela, David, and their families are blown away by the generosity of the online community.

I’ve only been on Twitter about seven weeks, and with no influence whatsoever managed to get 10 people in Los Angeles to participate in TweetUplift, helping street people on Christmas day. Armano, with his mob of 8,300 managed to pay one family’s rent for a year. Imagine if everyone used what little or large influence they have to help someone else…

It’s incredibly heart-warming to know that behind those 140 character tweets and the technology blogs are real human beings with real hearts who have joined online communities because they want to be a part of a community. And that community is proving itself to be powerfully compassionate.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Filed under: Feel Good Stuff by Tags: — Moira on January 8, 2009