“An estimated 1.8 million children are forced into prostitution and pornography, and 1.2 million are victims of
 trafficking”

“An estimate of 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the
age of 18 experience forced sexual intercourse or other forms of
 sexual violence every year.”

“Over 100 million people annually fall into poverty because
they have to pay for health care.”

Those compelling statistics are cries of help for millions of people and enough for Sarah Evans to stand up and create Social Media 4 Good. She called on organizers in many cities worldwide to join in and participate on what turned out to be a fun and rewarding event.

This past Friday Chicagonista’s very own Social Sami ( @samiari) and I ( @mjtam ) collaborated and organized  the Chicago leg of a worldwide flashmob – Social Media 4 Good. The flashmob is to create awareness of all the local social services and at June 4th at 5:30 pm where there are heavy foot traffic at Pioneer plaza, we did exactly just that.  Sami kicked it off with his enthusiastic whistle and came in the children and their families that joined him twirl his umbrella to the beat of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”.

CNN took notice and created a somob4good CNN ireport page for all to join and report in their pics, videos, thoughts of the event. You can check that here.

After the flashmob, @ChevyMissions sponsored a wonderful event at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Here’s a video made by @amcdocumentary

There is an assumption that the only way to give is by handing away our hard earned money, but not so. Here are some ways you can help.

• Call your local social service that matters most to you and volunteer your time.
• If you’re a blogger /vlogger, dedicate a post about your local social services. Maybe feature one every week.
• Want to quit smoking? Cut down on caffeine? Imagine the money you can provide your local social service by saving money in a jar to take to your local social service. You’ll kick the habit and do good for your world at the same time.
• Join the Chevy Missions program. If you come up with a mission for your local community, Chevy missions can help move things forward.

Special thanks to Dwana DeLaCerna, Crister DeLaCruz, and Jill Felska for supporting us!

Photo Credit: by Crister DeLaCruz

Last week Chicagonista hosted the Social Media Soiree sponsored by the all-new Chevy 2010 Equinox @ Sushi Samba. The event feted some of Chicago’s Social Media Elites like Liz Strauss Creator of SOBcon, Barbara Rozgonyi of Wired PR Works and Social Media Club Chicago, Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy, Blagica Bottigliero of Gal’s Guide, Theresa Carter of The Local Tourist, Nancy Loo of Fox Chicago News & Hope Bertram of Windy City Social.

Check out all 4 videos below from the most interesting folks that attended the Soiree.

Video Montage of the Chevy / Chicagonista Social Media Event
Fine Photography by Lahleyoo – http://www.Lahleyoo.com

Chevy – Chicagonista Social Media Soiree / Interesting Facts on Social Media Use from Chicagonista on Vimeo.
Video Hostess: Jennifer Luby

Chevy – Chicagonista Social Media Soiree / Some of Guests
Video Hostess: Karyn Watkins

Chevy – Chicagonista Social Media Soiree / How GM uses Social Media and Equinox 2010 Car Tour from Chicagonista on Vimeo.

Christopher Barger – Director of Social Media for GM
Connie Burke – @GMBLogs @connieburke
Video Hostess: Jennifer Luby

The photos were all taken by Lahleyoo and our video interviews were from Chicagonista’s very own Jennifer Luby of Second City Soiree and Karyn Watkins of The Fabulous Giver.

Thank you again to GM / Chevy our main sponsor of this event and also to the following sponsors below:

Lahleyoo.com - Fine Photography + Designs

AblonChicago.com - Chicagoland's Premier Mobile Home Spa

Allstate.com / VehicleVibes.com

Glaceau.com - Smart Water

Nintendo.com / BrandAboutTown.com

Centerd - People, Places, & Events

Blazer -Textile Printing - Your high volume t-shirt printer 708-755-2550

Call it a tweet-up, meet-up, or whatever else you want…but Chicagonista will be hosting and gathering all Social Media folks together for one major partay.   This event is brought to you by the All New Chevy 2010 Equinox.

Our Honorees:

Barbara Rozgonyi

Social Media Club Chicago Founder and CEO

Barbara is a “wired branding expert who fuses marketing, PR, social media and SEO together to get new media to work for you”.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36916001352

http://barbararozgonyi-wiredprworks.com/

Liz Strauss

Founder of SOBCON, the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference

http://www.successful-blog.com/

http://www.sobevent.com/

Sarah Evans

Started #journchat, a top-trending weekly open live chat forum for discussion between pr and media professionals on Twitter. She is also a guest writer for Mashable.

http://www.prsarahevans.com

Theresa Carter

Founder and Publisher of The Local Tourist.

http://www.thelocaltourist.com