This year’s World Aids Day was marked by many thousands of people from countries across the globe, raising awareness of the illness, its context and the people it affects. Social media played a big part in that work, and so here are some resources which show how different organisations made use of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to raise money and increase knowledge about the condition.
Stand Up and Stand Out
The Terrence Higgins Trust is marking World Aids Day by asking people to donate or participate in its existing campaign to stand up to the prejudice and discrimination often faced by people who have HIV. The charity changed its Twitter header image to include information on World Aids Day, and made use of the hashtags #WorldAIDSday and #WAD2012, and encouraged people to upload their photos of World Aids Day, wearing red ribbons and participating in other campaigning events to Flickr.
#1Share1Condom
Condom manufacturer, Durex, have launched the #1Share1Condom campaign to encourage people to share messages about Aids and HIV via Twitter, Facebook and the Chinese social network, RenRen. For each message shared, one condom is donated by the company to projects which aim to help prevent the spread of the illness. With the campaign name already a hashtag, it’s no wonder that tweets using that tag have reached nearly 850k followers (according to Hashtacking.com), and the linked Durex USA Facebook page shows that campaign images have attracted over 1100 likes and shares.
There’s more on this campaign from Mashable and All Facebook.
(RED) and ONE
The charity (RED) already campaigns to reduce new HIV infections. To mark World Aids Day this year it has produced an album with DJ Tiësto. The album is downloadable from iTunes and Tiësto will donate up to $100k dollars to match sales. In the social media space, the Stereosonic Music Festival in Melbourn, Australia, has been streamed on YouTube.
ONE is a charity that campaigns to reduce disease and poverty experienced by many people around the world, and particularly in African nations. Its It Starts With Me campaign asks supporters to upload a short video to YouTube explaining why campaigning for greater accessibility of treatments for HIV and Aids is important to them. A compilation of videos is available on the One YouTube channel (including a good collection of celebrities) and you can also browse other videos individually.
Read what Mashable thinks about this campaign here.
Other social media resources to check out:
- The National Aids Trust has lots of WAD2012-related content on its Facebook page, including photos of Bake Aware items, quizzes and messages from supporters.
- The World Health Organisation has plenty of resources about Aids and HIV, including content posted to its Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+ channels.
- If you want to see what world politicians are doing to mark World Aids Day, then pop over to YouTube to see messages from President Barack Obama or Prime Minister David Cameron.
Did your organisation mark World Aids Day in social media?
