Social networks are intricate networks of beauty

Social media is a tool for self-expression and promotes mutual understanding. These tools can create revolutions as they have the power to reach out to individuals personally. This week's reading had a very interesting article about how Mr Bhatia mobilized an entire movement in a matter of days to find a bone marrow donor for himself.

As I began researching about the impact and the influence that individuals have on each other in this network I came across an intriguing TED talk.

 http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks?language=en#t-949239

In this talk Nicholas gives evidences that show that birds of a feather flock together. He basically shows that people with similar emotions or eating habits are found to exist closer together in the social network. Therefore reaching out to a target audience using this network should be relatively easy. Given that social media has reduced our degrees of separation from 6 to 3, the reach we have for each of our ventures is large.

However, the main question lies in triggering action. Each project that aims to sell on social media must first attract the audience but then subsequently must trigger a response.  

A simple triggered action would do wonders.

Here is an interesting campaign which became hugely popular in 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB0wN1Pa8Mw 

Paint Social Media Purple: Chevrolet gave people the opportunity to “purple” their Facebook profile, and pledged to donate $1 to the American Cancer Society for each person that participated. This campaign went viral and raised over $1.3 million dollars. The intention behind the campaign coupled with a simple triggered action, led to an instant success.It also resulted in an increase  in cancer awareness by 397% and increased the number of likes by 467%. 

Most individuals all over the world can be moved by a social cause and like to participate in social campaigns. As each one of us as targetting a social issue which would benefit the society in some way, leveraging the benefits of social network could greatly help us.

But how should we use social media to make my idea marketable?
What kind of triggered response should we urge our users to follow up with?