Column: Remembrance and social media

There are times when I don”™t know what I will write about in this column. Social media is just such a big and rapidly evolving area that determining which sub-area to focus on takes both thought and effort. However, there are also times when some occurrence or situation arises that demands my attention and almost immediately becomes the subject of my column. Such was the case with my good friend and tennis partner, Artie.

Artie is a retired policeman. He spent many long days and nights working in a tough precinct in the Bronx. He truly loved his work and although he retired a year ago, still regularly visits his precinct.

Artie was a 9/11 first responder. Every six months, he goes into the city to get his lungs and respiratory system evaluated. Particularly on hot, muggy days, Artie sometimes has trouble catching his breath and requires the use of an inhaler. In the near future, he will be moving to Arizona from New York in part because of its superior air quality and lower humidity.

I was truly moved when Artie mentioned all of this to me. Despite playing tennis on a regular basis with a good friend ”” albeit one who is very reticent ”” it made me start to wonder about the nameless thousands of 9/11 first responders who are also enduring these lingering and often debilitating health issues and what is being done to help them. I knew the basics of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (Zadroga Act) and that it required an act of Congress (spurred on in part by the actions of Jon Stewart) to allocate $4.2 billion for the creation of the World Trade Center Health Program. What I did not know about was the amount of online material and social traffic related to it.

In previous articles, I have discussed the power of social media and its increasing importance for nonprofits in many areas ”” particularly fundraising and publicity. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts reported that 89 percent of charitable organizations are now utilizing social media marketing with 45 percent of them using it for some form of fundraising.

Social media allows these organizations to communicate directly with followers and supporters. Through frequent communications, organizations can rapidly build trust, stay in front of their target audience and persuade people to become volunteers or partners who donate both their time and money. Just by the nature of social media, when followers discuss some important subject with friends and other people in their network who in turn discuss it with people in their immediate network, highly-effective, organic word-of-mouth growth is gradually achieved. This results in a larger and more responsive audience.

So how does this help Artie and other heroes like him? What is the benefit of social media to them?

I believe it is as important for the rest of us to remember and honor them as it is for them to have a common ”” and maybe private ”” thread for themselves, particularly since many responders are suffering from some form of posttraumatic stress disorder. It”™s just too easy for people to forget or overlook the major contributions from a relatively small handful of people ”” whether they are first responders or troops fighting in distant wars.

In searching online, I found a number of websites, videos, groups and conversations dealing with the details and facts of 9/11 and its aftermath. I did not find many websites or active groups involving first responders. Although there were a number of testimonials and videos on YouTube by first responders, they usually focused on the politics behind the Zadroga Act or on the ailments of individual responders. Unfortunately, the activity and communication levels were shockingly low. They deserve better.

I will be joining and contacting several of the groups and organizations I found online starting with the Facebook group, 9/11 WTC First Responders Foundation, to see how I can help. I will keep you informed on my progress.

Bruce Newman is the president of wwWebevents.com, a division of The Productivity Institute of L.L.C., and the creator of The Complete Webinar Training Course, an online course that helps companies create and promote highly successful webinars. He can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.