Doing Good with Influencer Outreach

Last week on Media Bullseye, Connie Reece wrote about the overnight success of the Frozen Pea Fund, a charity that sprang to life in response to the cancer diagnosis of fellow blogger and Twitter community member Susan Reynolds. If you haven't done so, please take a look at Connie's article, to get the full story - I couldn't possibly do it justice here.

She concluded her post by alluding to ooVoo (a client of my employer, crayon) and the promotion that we called My ooVoo Day With... In short, we asked two dozen bloggers, podcasters and authors to use ooVoo to connect with their respective communities to talk about anything they wanted to. And as a way to thank them for their valuable time, ooVoo generously agreed to give $1,500 in their names primarily to the Frozen Pea Fund (or to any charity they felt passionate about).


The event was a major success, with over 450 seats filled over the course of 10 days, resulting in some 187 blog posts about the program in the month of February, as well as 1,600 mentions of ooVoo on Twitter. Many of the posts and mentions were from participants on the chats, so our idea of using the technology to influence other influencers was borne out.

More importantly, we helped out some other great charities in the process, thanks to these hosts: Scott Sigler -$1,500 to the Disabled American Veterans; Irina Slutsky - $1,500 to Pie Ranch; C.C. Chapman - $750 to Whitney Hoffman's Ma Chen Autism School fund; David Meerman Scott - $1,500 to the Massachusetts Air & Space Museum; Karen Putz - $750 to Hands & Voices.

But the biggest news is for the Frozen Pea Fund. On Saturday night in New York City, at the famed Blogger Social, I had the honor of presenting a check from ooVoo to the Fund in the amount of $30,000 in honor of: Mitch Joel, Steve Hall, Bob Garfield, Joseph Jaffe, John Wall, iJustine, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Connie Reece, Chris Thilk, Erin Kotecki Vest, Dave Delaney, Geoff Livingston, Allan Cox, George Parker, Chris Brogan, Susan Reynolds, Laura "Pistachio" Fitton, Drew McLellan & Gavin Heaton, Robin Good, C.C. Chapman, and Karen Putz.

Photo courtesy of ck_epiphany

Susan Reynolds' husband Bill and daughter Kate were on hand to accept the check, as well as Connie Reece and Cathleen Rittereiser, two of the board members of the Fund, which now officially a 501(c)3 corporation. To say that this money has made a difference in the future of the Frozen Pea Fund is an understatement. I join ooVoo and crayon in taking great pride knowing that this gift will make a difference in the lives of many people suffering from cancer.

One final note. In his absence from the dinner (he was under the weather), Joseph Jaffe had been lampooned all night on Twitter by the attendees. I decided that, rather than be taken in vain, Joe's name should be used for good, so directly after the check presentation, I held an impromptu auction of his name badge. After some pretty aggressive bidding, Geoff Livingston went home as Joseph Jaffe for the sum of $500, payable to the Frozen Pea Fund.