With all of the talk about acting globally, it’s good to remember to act locally as well. This week’s Spotlight is Shauna Causey, who currently manages media relations, employee communications and community relations for Comcast in Washington state and has a real passion for acting locally. This past Saturday, Comcast had their annual Comcast Cares Day and Shauna invited members from the social media community to help out in a non-traditional way. I was happy to be invited to help out. So, I put my kids in their Mister Wong shirts and we headed over to Seattle.

The turn out was great and with the help of Solid Ground, City Year, KIRO7 and all of the volunteers, Comcast Cares Day was a great success. Here is my interview with Shauna Causey:

Comcast Cares Day was started in 2001 and since then Comcast has made it an annual volunteer event, putting in over a million hours of service to local communities. This year, Seattle’s Comcast Cares Day included a “Voluntweetup”, bringing social media users together to help out non-profits. How did the idea come about?

I had been thinking a lot about how we could make the biggest impact to help. Thankfully, working for Comcast, we put a high priority on giving back to the community so I was given the freedom to create Voluntweetup tailored to our social media community and non-profits. The inspiration came, in part, through being on the Board of Social Media Club Seattle and having the opportunity to meet some amazing social media Seattle rock stars (Chris Pirillo, Charl Pearce, Jeff Shuey, Kenji Onozawa, and many others). Andy Warhol is quoted as saying “They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” That’s exactly what the social media group here in Seattle does—we take the initiative to get things done, to make positive changes. I knew that if I helped created an event to us give back, we’d make a huge impact for our local non-profits. Many non-profits are struggling right now, so the timing couldn’t be better.

The response was overwhelming. We had 22 local social media experts come and 15 non-profits over the course of four hours. Bringing groups together–incorporated the talent and passion of our social media community for a great cause– is really an amazing feeling. It really showed that our social media crowd has a heart for sharing talent and giving back.

How do you think social media can help benefit non-profit organizations?

The big question is how much are non-profits missing out by not being involved in social media. Non-profits can network and recruit board members, plan events, raise awareness for their cause, raise awareness for fundraising efforts, mobilize volunteers… the possibilities are really endless. This is a communication tool that’s free (it just takes time) so it really is perfect for non-profits to help get the message out about their cause.

Here’s one example: I recently met Sean from Puget Sound Blood Center on Twitter. He posted a tweet on his page that said: One blood donation saves up to three lives. That got me thinking and I sent him a note about having a blood drive at our local Comcast office. Two weeks later, we had 40 people giving blood. It was a direct result of networking through Twitter and Facebook. There’s a need and I was able to help but I found out HOW I could help because Blood Center joined the (social media) conversation.

Do you feel it was successful and do you see future Voluntweetups in the making?

I think it was a huge success for the social media community, the non-profits and indirectly, our Seattle community as well. Many times people have an interest in volunteering but don’t know how to best use their talents. The day was a great use of everyone’s talents, the non-profit board members and representatives had the chance to meet many of the area’s top social media minds and the event gave the non-profits the confidence and skills to “pay it forward.” Powerful Schools, one of the non-profits that came for training is already putting social media to use. I think we’ll start seeing a lot more non-profits in the Seattle area join the social media conversation in the next few months as we have more Voluntweetup events to help get them going.

Be sure to check out Shauna in the Spotlight and find out more about some of her favorite non-profits and local favorites!

This entry was posted on Thursday, the 30. April 2009 at 00:43 under the category General. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.