A couple of weeks ago my daughter was channel surfing on YouTube – her favourite for fun stuff, entertainment and – sometimes – information.  She has a few YouTube channels that she checks out regularly like Livelavalive.

When she landed at Livelavalive she clicked on and watched a promo video Livelavalive (aka Mitchell Davis) was asked to make for Tom’s Shoes.  To date the video has been viewed 151,637.

The One Day Without Shoes event invites everyone to take their shoes off for a day to spread awareness about kids going without shoes.

• And ODWS promotes understanding about the experience of children in the developing world who live without shoes.
• And informs people about Tom’s Shoes business model of a double bottom line – making a profit while giving back to the global community.  Tom’s Shoes gives away one pair of shoes for each pair that someone buys. Pretty Cool.

She wanted more information.  So she went to another site and learned more about One Day without Shoes.  Once she found out all the info about the event, she promoted the event on her Facebook wall, joined the Facebook group and invited all her (over 250) friends to join.

That was not enough for her. She called three Toronto radio stations – two stations picked up her event and she was interviewed on Virgin 99.9 and KISS 92.5.  The interviews were aired several times over the Easter weekend.

She made announcements at her youth group and her school. Almost everyone at her group went barefoot at school and showed up barefoot for youth group.

A girl, committed to a social cause,  used social media like YouTube, Facebook,  Facebook groups coupled with traditional media (radio) and personal interest groups to inform and motivate a lot of people.   She used media that was available to her and her friends and she  used it effectively.

Check out the chain of events.  She found out about One Day without Shoes on YouTube.  She posted it to her Facebook Wall.  She joined the Facebook Group and invited all her friends (over 250).  She was articulate enough to have her interviews aired on radio.

I have to tell you, I am proud of my daughter and I am amazed at the impact she had through her social media savvy.

What do you get when you cross social media, a social cause and a girl committed to that cause? A mini grassroots, successful, cause marketing campaign.

What can you get when you multiply that mini campaign by thousands?  A cause campaign with the possibility of going viral.   Just imagine the potential impact and inspiration.

P.S. You can purchase Toms Shoes in Canada.