How Social Media is being used to help #Japan recover. By @vanwouw #G365

Posted on February 22, 2012 by @mqtodd

This is a guest post by Neil Van Wouw about how Social Media is being used to reinvigorate life in Japan after the tragic events of March 11 nearly a year ago.

As many of you know I have spent over 10 years living in Japan and have a daughter in Tokyo, Koko and in Kobe, Naya.

I hope that you will take a few seconds to read this and take some tiny action. A like click or a share. A message. Anything. Together we can do so much.

About Ganbatte 365 by Neil Van Wouw.

After the 3.11 disaster, I started an NPO called Ganbatte 365 in Tokyo
with the purpose of creating free content that would help increase
awareness of the recovery and renewal of Tohoku. The content is
mostly 15 seconds spots especially suited for outdoor digital media.
It’s also creative commons licensed so anyone can freely use it on
any media world-wide just by downloading it from the web site.
(http://www.ganbatte365.jp/) Since last summer we have made almost
300 videos in English and Japanese, which have been played on
screens at hundreds of locations in Japan and abroad.

Ganbatte 365 Kizuna Project

As we are coming up on the 1st anniversary of the disaster, we have
expanded our efforts to get even more media playing Ganbatte 365
content, and as well use social media to collect messages of support
from around the world to be played on digital out-of-home media in
Japan. The event runs from Feb. 18 – Mar. 16 and our goal is to get
at least 10,000 messages.

We will be translating the messages that we collect through social
media from around the world, and delivering them to digital signage
set up in the three prefectures that were hardest hit by the disaster.

Strategy

1) Get more outdoor media in Japan and around the world playing
the Ganbatte 365 Kizuna content.

2) Get more people sending messages.

3) Get more news, PR, involvement by celebrities, and especially
social media sharing to increase 1) and 2).

This project has no budget and an impossible goal of getting the
whole world involved. The only way it can work is to get more and
more people sharing the information and participating. Social media
is key, so we’ve tried to make as many different ways as possible
to join in. It’s really as easy as a quick message and a share!

Here are the ways you can participate:

1) Tweet with the #Kizuna #G365 hash tags.
click here: ow.ly/99dHh to jump to Twitter where you can edit and retweet the message.
…or you can cut and paste the following to your favorite twitter software:
@vanwouw Fill-In & RT: #G365 #Kizuna Project (http://ow.ly/8ZHfJ) [YOUR-COUNTRY] PUT-YOUR-MESSAGE-TO-JAPAN-HERE!

2) Write a message on the Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/Ganbatte365

3) Write a message on the Google+ page
http://gplus.to/Ganbatte365

4) Email a message to: kizuna@ganbatte365.jp

5) Create a video response
http://bit.ly/G365-kzna

6) Check out some more Ganbatte 365 videos

The full explanation of the Ganbatte 365 Kizuna project is here:
http://youtu.be/wZps2gGNvQs
And all the other Ganbatte 365 videos about the the renewal and recovery of Tohoku are at: http://www.youtube.com/Ganbatte365

So what ideas do you have for Neil and his team?

If all of us help in a tiny way we can make a difference.

Posted by @mqtodd

Hi I am Michael. Why am I excited about Social Media? I believe the internet will save the planet by spreading and enhancing environmental consciousness , breaking down national borders and conflicting interests and bringing economic parity.