So bloggers, I’m asking you to show your power for a cause that is truly worthwhile.

A man named Phil Burns found out about the Austin Blood Drive Tweetup and decided

that bloggers everywhere should organize blood drives on July 30th.

It’s called National Bloggers Blood Drive. Phil’s daughter Serenity has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the same form of leukemia my sister had. He’s calling bloggers everywhere to blog, organize, tweet, and muster as much support for blood banks everywhere. Don’t just blog it though. Sign up to give blood and as well as for takesalltypes.org, a service that sends you text messages anytime your blood type is needed in your area. Let’s show Phil and Serenity that people do care about those in need by creating and building blood drives around the country on this day.

For more information, please visit Phil’s blog. Learn more about Serenity and her situation on her site.

I am so happy at how many people showed up today at the first inaugural Austin Blood Drive Tweetup. I spoke with many staff members at the Blood and Tissue Center, and they all agreed that the Tweetup more doubled their traffic that day and brought in more first time donors than they had seen in a long time. They were also happy because there is a need for blood July 4th weekend and it would have been incredibly slow had we not showed up. Considering the first blog post with the instructions for donating didn’t go up until Sunday and we also managed to get a raffle, a sammichometer, a birthday cake for Mike Chapman, a visit by Erica at KUT, a mention in the Austin American Statesman, and custom stickers for the event, I’d consider this event a huge success.

For future events, I will have an official sign up as per the suggestion of Alex Jones so we can know who is coming, when, and get a better headcount.

There were so many good people involved in this Tweetup. The best part? Everyone who came in took part to make a difference. It wasn’t about self-promotion or networking. There is something very refreshing about that and I intend to duplicate this result when Grant Hutchins and I take a bunch of Burmese refugees to “Blues on the Green” on July 9th.

I feel like a broken record sometimes, but social media is a communication tool. Just like a cell phone. Communication facilitates action and we now have the tools to make things happen so much faster and easier than before. Quit Twittering about the donuts you eat in the morning. Stop throwing up post after post about the Fail Whale. DO SOMETHING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. This will facilitate the inevitable cultural shift towards a society that rewards those with a message rather than merely those who can afford to push their message out. If you don’t do something with social media, people will ultimately see it as a waste of time.

I have to thank sharinghope.tv superstud David J. Neff for organizing this event with me. Props should go to Mike Chapman for delivering some killer posts on the Austin Social Media Club website, as well as the countless others who took time out of their days to blog about the event. If you didn’t come by, you missed out on the cool stickers and the sammichometer designed by Cesar Torres. My thanks to Tarus Balog at the OpenNMS Group for sponsoring the totally awesome sammichometer.

Check out the photos by visiting our Austin Blood Drive Tweetup Flickr pool.

Word of mouth – in this case social networking – is still the best form of advertising

AUSTIN, TX–July 3, 2008– The Austin Twitter community has taken it upon itself to overcome the holiday blood shortage in the Austin area.

The group used the microblogging service Twitter to round up blood donors to meet the holiday need for blood at the Austin Blood and Tissue Center. They called companies around Austin who ponied up free movie tickets, computer stickers, pint glasses, a six foot sandwich “sammichometer” and restaurant gift cards. They wrote blog posts and called TV stations. Over 50 people within the Austin Twitter community offered to donate blood, many of whom have never donated before.

All of this was coordinated in a matter of three days.

The Austin Social Media Club and the 501Tech Club are sponsoring the event to raise awareness for both social media and the local need for blood. They are encouraging all participants to sign up for Takes All Types, a service that notifies donors of local blood shortages via SMS, social networks, and even fax.

David J. Neff and Michelle Greer helped coordinate the push to help the Austin Blood and Tissue Center. “Social media tools like Twitter and blogs are powerful mobilizers of people. We recognized that and knew the Austin community cared enough to make something like this happen. We are truly surrounded by incredible people,” said David.

All people in the Austin area, Twitter users or “non-Twitterers” are welcome to join in for the first ever Blood Drive Tweetup from 10 am-4 pm at the Blood and Tissue Center at 4300 North Lamar. There will be food, prizes, a birthday cake, custom stickers for the event, live streaming online and plenty of people wanting to make a difference for the Austin community.

If you are not able to make it, the livestream of the event as well as the code to embed the livestream in your site will be available at David J. Neff’s blog.

Takes All Types is deploying social applications on sites like Facebook and MySpace and a dedicated website at www.TakesAllTypes.org to enable people to sign up to donate blood or to volunteer at a blood drive or collection center. This more precise and efficient approach promotes and facilitates blood donation in a very direct and personal manner, and when an urgent need arises, provides a novel means to mobilize local donors for immediate action.

For more information, go to www.twitter.com and message @michellegreer or @daveiam. You can also leave any questions as comments at www.michellesblog.net or http://www.fispace.org.

Please mark any tweets regarding the Austin Blood Drive Tweetup with the hashtag #abdt. You can track tweets from Twitter users by going to http://www.hashtags.org/tag/abdt

**Note: this is not a stock image. This is my sister Deb and my niece Zoe. I love them very much and want my sister to overcome host vs. graft disease.

38 people.

38 people are responsible for saving my sister Deb’s life. She underwent 23 blood transfusions and 15 bags of platelets in her fight against leukemia before she finally got over it. I owe a world to these people for helping save my sister’s life so that she could live to raise my eight-year-old niece.

I have been pushing this Tweetup Blood Drive pretty hard, and the typical response is, “I’m afraid of needles.” So they retweet it, feel better, and then move on. Retweeting helps for sure, but donating blood and supporting those who do if you are unable to do so helps more. I am afraid of needles too. It’s NATURAL. However, someone in a hospital somewhere is undergoing an operation or has cancer and needs help. Someone out there was in an accident or in a war and needs blood right this very moment. This person is much more terrified than you are of that needle because receiving blood to them is literally a matter of life and death. Considering the vast numbers of people who have received blood, you or someone very dear to you has probably benefited by a volunteer who stepped up and overcame their fear of the needle.

By giving blood, we offer an hour of our slight fear and discomfort so that others in very difficult situations feel a lot better in their hours, months, or years of fear and discomfort. To me this is a no-brainer, perhaps because it hit so close to home when my sister was diagnosed. To you it should mean a little peace in your day knowing that you saved someone’s life in less than an hour.

If you go to the Blood Drive Tweetup, I guarantee you my support. I guarantee I will be by you if you are scared or not feeling well. I do this because I value the 38 people who saved my sister’s life and the countless others who selflessly value the people in desperate, life and death situations. The right thing to do is often scary, but it is also the most fulfilling.

Book your spot at the Blood and Tissue Center’s website and then RSVP on the Facebook page. If you can’t donate for health reasons or you went to a weird country, swing by and offer support to those who are. You will be literally responsible for saving a person’s life.