Clean water for everyone

I take it for granted. Each morning before I walk, I turn on the kitchen tap and drink two tall glasses of water. I assume the water will flow. I assume it will be clean. We in the United States can make these assumptions. Around the world, people are not so lucky.

Access to clean water is a growing concern and my blog today is joining a worldwide blog effort - Blog Action Day - dedicated to raising awareness of the need to make good water available to everyone.

I urge you to take a few minutes today to check out charity:water  Charity:water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe water to developing nations.  100% of public donations directly fund water projects.  Amazingly, they report that just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years.

If you want to help, here's an easy way.  Charity:water is the designated recipient of all proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 3.  Those of us who were contributing writers of AOC3 are urging everyone to buy a copy - or several! - today to raise awareness and money to promote the cause of clean water for everyone. 

An average water project costs $5,000 and can serve 250 people with clean, safe water - so purchasing a copy of Age of Conversation 3 really can make a difference to someone's life.

This blog is blatant promotion on several levels: for Blog Action Day, for Age of Conversation 3, and for clean water. Most of all for clean water. Thanks for reading. Thanks even more for taking action for clean water.

Making social media work

I'm a real neophyte when it comes to social media. I stumble around to discover paths that others have traversed easily for ages.  So I was surprised that American and former colleague Drew McLellan welcomed me as one of the authors for Age of Conversation 3, the third edition of a book he and Australian Gavin Heaton planned to produce.

Just released, Age of Conversation 3 (www.ageofconversation.com) involves 171 marketing blog authors from 15 countries who bring the online marketing conversation to print. The blog-length (only 400 words each) essays in the book address aspects of social media as a staple in the modern marketing toolbox.

My own essay The Social Networking Super Highway joins others in the section on Getting to Work. I draw an analogy between learning to drive and speaking a new language. Social media has been a new language for me. Learning to drive and speaking a new language both require practice. The more practice, the more adapt you become. Much of the social media learning comes from watching what others do and learning from them.

Even those of us who've been around the block more than once can learn the language of social media. I would argue that we not only can, we must. Age of Conversation 3 lets you listen in on voices worldwide as we discuss the what, where, and how of social media. I invite you to grab a cup of coffee and join us!