As a blogger, I thought I really understood social media and knew the potential for using it for doing good things in the world, but it wasn’t until I became the focus of a social media campaign myself that I felt the true power of it.

On January 15th, I took a big fall, which put me flat on my back, unable to work, with medical bills piling up because of it.

For the first week, I stayed positive about it all, determined not to get beat at the mental game while I healed, but after that, I started to really get down on myself. Not only was I going to miss out on climbing, biking, and playing soccer, but I was also unable to keep up with work, which meant missed income, and I couldn’t participate as usual with the family.

As those of you who know me can attest, I’m a heavy Twitter user, usually sending out links to notable items in the green scene, along with random, non sequitur observations, and tidbits about my life. So when I got the first big medical bill in the mail, I tweeted this:

I got a couple of responses to it that related to health care in the US, and then my friend Jerry tweets this:

I got a good laugh over that, not taking it seriously, ’cause it’s Jerry, and we josh each other all the time, and then I receive a direct message from another friend, Dave:

To which I respond – I got nothin’.

Another friend, Adam, calls me up and says, “Hey, David, Jerry, and I want to do something to help you out with your medical bills, and we wanted to know if we should just pass the hat quietly, or if we can post about it online and make a social media event out of it. Would you mind if we promoted it publicly?” Since I’m pretty public with my life, I don’t mind it being promoted, I told him – in fact, I’d be flattered that they took the time and energy to do so.

When I woke up on February 1st, I saw the fundraiser posted at The Good Human and Twilight Earth , and started watching the tweets fly about it. It was quite amazing – the links were getting retweeted all over the place, from friends of mine with few followers, to accounts with huge amounts of followers, like Twilight Earth, Elephant Journal,  Planet Green, and Treehugger. The potential reach of those tweets was enormous, exposing me and my situation to thousands and thousands of people who have no idea who I am.

And then some other green bloggers joined in, with posts going up at Elephant Journal, MNN, The Fun Times Guide to Green, and A Little Greener Every Day, along with a huge amount of tweeting and sharing via Facebook. The outpouring of support was amazing, with people sending me best wishes via direct message and email, which felt great.

The fundraiser ran all of that week, and when David, Jerry, and Adam told me that people had donated over $1800.00, I was blown away by the generosity of all of the people who took the time to donate some of their hard earned money to a guy they had never even met!

While I do have more bills than this amount will cover, it doesn’t matter – the fact that people would be willing to donate to my situation at all is incredible, and it’s not just me that benefits from it, as this also greatly affects my family as well. So it’s a huge gesture toward my whole family, and one that I don’t take lightly.

Here’s the kicker:

I’ve never met Adam, Jerry, David, Shea, Robin, or Jeffrey before (the only one I’ve actually met is Waylon Lewis), yet they blogged about it and helped promote this fundraiser. I’ve only interacted with them online, via Twitter, Facebook, their own websites, as well as talking or chatting with them on Skype.

So they are part of my community, except it’s a virtual community, a digital village, not a local community. And they came through for me and made me really feel the connection and reap the benefits of it. That’s amazing to me.

I just need to say, from the bottom of my heart, a huge thank you to every single person who helped with this social media campaign, whether through donating or just spreading the word.

It’s been a testament to the power and reach of social media, and I feel honored to have such a great virtual community that would be willing to ‘get my back’ when I am in need.

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Sean Daily, CEO of Green Living Ideas, Inc. and Adam Shake, founder of Twilight Earth, have teamed up to create online environmental media company Simple Earth Media.

A group of the Web’s leading environmental blogs, podcasts, and social media outposts today announced that they have combined to form a single environmental publishing and social media powerhouse. The resulting new entity, named Simple Earth Media, includes top environmental media and publishing entities such as Green Living Ideas, Blue Living Ideas, Twilight Earth, GreenTalk Radio, EcoTech Daily, and Natural Papa.

Simple Earth Media’s brand mission is to create a compelling, organic, educational network of environmental online venues that engage an ever-growing audience concerned with sustainable lifestyle habits and business practices.

What makes Simple Earth Media different from other environmental blog networks is that each one of the channels are fully established and have their own social media followers.

“Bringing the Green Living Ideas and Twilight Earth site networks together was a natural fit all around,” said Sean Daily, Simple Earth Media’s CEO and President. Daily continued, “Adam and I share a very similar outlook and perspective, not only on the type of editorial content that is necessary and relevant for the future of humanity and the planet, but also in regards to the types of companies we want to work with as sponsors and advertisers supporting our network. We are also really fortunate to have a combined staff of the best writers in the business.”

In addition to the sizeable daily web traffic and newsletter subscribers of the constituent sites, the combined social media audience and following of the Simple Earth Media network is unprecedented, totaling over 50,000 Twitter followers in addition to tens of thousands more friends and subscribers on FaceBook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms — making it one of the largest online environmental social media communities in the world.

The Simple Earth Media family of websites and audio/video podcasts (Including the popular GreenTalk Radio Show, which is syndicated on numerous sites including Apple iTunes, PersonalLifeMedia.com and Sustainablog.org), cover the topics that conscious consumers are most concerned with, including sustainable living tips and ideas, alternative energy and alternative fuel vehicles, water, ocean, and marine life conservation, clean tech, environmental news, and natural health and parenting topics.

“Our success is measured on the change that we make in helping to protect and nurture our environment, our families and our health,” says Adam Shake, founder of Twilight Earth. “It’s not about saving the environment, it’s about saving ourselves. Clean air, water and soil are basic human rights. We’ve got to continue to fight for those rights.”

Simple Earth Media employs some of the Web’s best-known and most highly-regarded environmental writers, including Derek Markham, Jennifer Lance, Ariel Schwartz, Susan Kraemer, Scott James, Wendy Gabriel and numerous others. The company’s tagline is “New Media Making a Difference.”

Coming up, Green Talk Radio will be interviewing top environmentalists and sustainability experts such as Fabien Cousteau, Celine Cousteau and Ed Begley Jr. In addition, we will have reporters and journalists on the ground in Copenhagen to bring you the most up to date and original content in reference to these historical talks.

As a family of environmental websites, Simple Earth Media can better assist you in finding the information you’re looking for, to help educate you on the changing world you live in. As always, we continue to offer our support to you, our readers, as we continue to grow.

Here’s to working together in a much bigger way, and to making positive change to our planet and its inhabitants!

Green Living Ideas provides ideas, tips, and information to help you improve the environmental sustainability of every aspect of your life: home energy, green building and remodeling, cars, food, waste recycling—and everything in between.

Twilight Earth is the place to go for in depth Environmental news, advocacy and activism with a deep Green editorial twist. We realize that environmentalism is less about saving the planet than it is about saving ourselves and it’s through the protection of our environment that we ultimately protect each other. Twilight Earth is about clean Air, Water and Soil, three basic human rights that are essential to our survival.

Blue Living Ideas is the most comprehensive water-focused site ever assembled and is the ultimate Web resource for information, tips, news, and events related to Earth’s most precious resource — Water. Planet Earth and human beings alike are comprised of over 70% water, and issues such as the availability of adequate supplies of drinking water for Earth’s inhabitants, water pollution, droughts, and marine life protection are among today’s most critical environmental and humanitarian concerns.

EcoTech Daily is the continuing journal of a green revolution. We’re here to help you make sense of change. We’ll keep you in touch with the latest green technology, gadgets, and news. Track the hottest CleanTech startups. Learn about alternative energy technologies that can power your community’s future. Discover cool and useful green gadgets designed to make your life simpler and more eco-friendly.

GreenTalk Radio is a Internet radio show/podcast that helps listeners in their efforts to lead more eco-friendly lifestyles. Navigate the explosion of green and ecology-oriented products and services with host Sean Daily. Sean entertains and educates you with smart choices on products and services in the green world through interviews with innovative and caring companies, authors and experts from around the world. Green Talk Radio series is also distributed on iTunes.

Natural Papa focuses on natural parenting and fatherhood, home remedies for common children’s ailments, homeschooling, green and simple living for families, and natural foods. We hope to be a valuable reference for parents and parents to be, and to engage in a conversation with our readers about issues in raising a family in an environmentally friendly way.

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