Tag: social media

You couldn’t make it up: No makeup selfies raise £8m for Cancer Research!

Salmond selfie

It’s been a social media phenomenon that’s swept the country – even the Scottish government has joined in the fun. The ‘no makeup selfie’ is one of those daft ideas that just takes off – and it’s raised over £8m for a cancer charity in just six days!

Cancer Research UK did not start the campaign – but they’re sure glad someone did!

Last Tuesday, after people began tweeting their #nomakeupselfie pictures and asking how they could use them to make a difference to Cancer Research UK’s work, the charity posted a message on its Facebook and Twitter pages with information about how to support its work to beat cancer sooner.

Since then, Cancer Research UK has received an unprecedented increase in the volume of donations and visits to the website.

The money raised will enable Cancer Research UK to carry out more research sooner, including ten clinical trials which last Tuesday it did not have money to fully fund!

Cancer Research UK supports over 200 clinical trials looking for better and kinder treatments for all types of cancer, and Chief Executive Dr Harpal Kumar said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the support people have been showing us through the #nomakeupselfie trend.

“We don’t receive any government funding for our research and so it’s phenomenal to think that the generosity of the public is enabling us to fund critical research that we didn’t have the money for six days ago. Being able to fund more trials will bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

“It’s been an exciting week, and we’d just like to thank everyone again for their support. If people would like to support our work to beat cancer sooner, they can visit www.cruk.org.”

harpal_2_web_version

 

 

Fast Forward praise for NENgage sessions

Leith-based national voluntary organisation Fast Forward has launched a new blog showcasing their range of projects across Scotland following participation in the recent NENgage social media workshops. 

Rona Saunders, Fast Forward’s communications officer, attended the NENgage sessions and has used learning from them to create the blog and embed short films. She said: “The NENgage sessions were good to meet like-minded individuals and learn new skills.  I’ve brought them back to our organisation and shared them with our staff.  It’s a great way for us to demonstrate the range of work we do with young people across the country.  It was super to attend free sessions locally to learn all the skills required.  Thanks very much to the whole NENgage team”.

Fast Forward is the national voluntary organisation promoting health by, with and for young people, focusing on the prevention of alcohol, drug and tobacco misuse.  The new blog features contributions from the whole staff team and features films and images from their sessions.  The active Fast Forward volunteer team of young people are also currently creating blog posts for future contributions.

You call follow the Fast Forward blog here: http://fastforwardorg.wordpress.com/ and there’s more info about the organisation at www.fastforward.org.uk

And thanks for the plug, Rona!

 

Free social media training for community groups in Inverleith – how to build an online community

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We’d like to invite community groups and active citizens in Inverleith to our fourth free NENgage training session next week, Building an Online Community. It’s a chance to learn how you can use social media to help promote your community projects, campaigns and causes.
 
Many people forget that in order to get the most out of social media, you have to be…well, sociable!
 
The most successful blogs, websites and social media users are the ones who interact, engage and respond to users, and who build up a loyal “digital community” around them. It’s an approach that can take a bit more work to start with, but which ultimately leads to a dynamic site where useful stories and ideas flow to you.
 
For this session, we have invited successful bloggers to speak about how they have managed to foster an online community; Phyllis Stephen, who set up and runs The Edinburgh Reporter website, and Alan McIntosh of The Spurtle. Tom Allan will also be talking about setting up the Edinburgh Innertube Map website, and Emily Dodd will be speaking about her experience as a blogger and volunteer for Greener Leith.
 
The session is aimed at community groups and active citizens in Inverleith, is being held at Stockbridge Library, from 5:45pm to 7:30pm on Thursday the 27th of September – with drinks in the Antiquary Bar afterwards. Please come along!
 
 

NENgaging tonight?

Just a reminder that NENgage – the NEN’s programme of fun, informal Social Media workshops – continues in Stockbridge Library tonight at 5.45pm.

This is our second workshop, but you don’t have to have attended the first one as each session is independent of the others. There are a very limited number of places left for tonight’s session – An Introduction to Blogging – but you need to register if you plan to attend! Please go to:

http://nengage2.eventbrite.co.uk/

Tom, Lucy and I look forward to meeting you all tonight, and thanks again to Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership for supporting this initiative.