Twitter “#beatcancer” campaign shows social media’s debated potential for philanthropy

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PayPal tried to beat cancer, one tweet at a time.

The online payment company donated five cents to Bright Pink every time a “tweet” was made including the hashtag “#beatcancer” in a tweet mentioning Livestrong’s Twitter account.

Hashtags are phrases prefixed by a pound sign used to denote topics on Twitter. The one day campaign was on Oct. 15.

Bright Pink’s website said it is devoted to providing “education and support to young women who are at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer.”

Jackie Reissman, a PayPal spokeswoman, said in an e-mail the goal was to raise $20,000 for Bright Pink via Twitter.

CMU alumnus Nicole Yelland, brand manager for Livio Radio, said she thinks social media can be a great way to raise awareness for causes, such as the “#beatcancer” cause.

“One of the great things about social media, is that it’s a great way to get the word out about anything, whether it’s cancer research, or anything else,” Yelland said.

Social media is a great way for people to get involved in something like cancer prevention.

Alan Rudy, associate professor of sociology, said in an e-mail though the thought is good, $20,000 is unfortunately insignificant.

“$10 to $20,000 is nothing to sneeze at — though, depending on what Livestrong’s overhead costs are, less than that will go to cancer R&D,” Rudy said.

This type of philanthropy is good for PayPal, he said, but is an example of “political passivity,” meaning PayPal can just count on others to do the money raising for them.

“My feeling is that it is less about the money and more about political passivity,” Rudy said. “Social network politics, unless it translates into people becoming sustainably and interactively involved in social change strikes me as mostly ineffectual in that it is politics without politics.”

That main problem with philanthropy within the realm of social media and the Internet is that it doesn’t often foster sustainable, long-term support, he said.

“Social networking can be a decent forum for philanthropy,” Rudy said. “But taking on cancer, addressing climate change, fighting racism, promoting religiosity … these things are only addressed by proxy via philanthropy, real social change takes something more robust, more sustained, more critical, more interactive, more engaged, more complex, more fraught and more difficult.”

Yelland, however, sees social media as a way for those already involved in a cause to spread their message to others in hopes that they too will take up the cause.

“I think for a lot of people, it’s a great way to share causes they are interested in,” she said.

Result

According to www.beatcancereverywhere.com, PayPal along with the company SWAGG decided to donate more than the original five cents because PayPal did not meet their original goal.

The website said although they did not beat their record setting number of 209,771 mentions of “#beatcancer” within a 24 hour period, they decided to increase their donations to match the $20,000 mark.

Yelland said she thinks a lot of people thought the “#beatcancer” hashtag was originally not affiliated with any company specifically.

“I have seen the hashtag before,” she said. “But I didn’t know exactly what it was … There have been so many causes I have found out because of social media.”