Scott Harrison was not your typical do-gooder in the clean water space. For years, the only watering holes this New York club promoter knew about were the ones that you had to pay a cover charge to get into.
It was a trip to Liberia, West Africa, however, that changed his life and set him on a new path to provide clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. As one of the most-followed accounts on Twitter today, charity: water shows that helping the world can be one of the most popular topics on Twitter today.
charity: water's Scott Harrison first leaped onto the Twitter scene in 2008, when his September birthday campaign raised an incredible $965,000 for clean water efforts. Using catchy videos that showed swanky Manhattanites filling bottles to the brim with dirty Central Park water, he caught the public's attention and shared his dream of delivering clean water to those who need it most.
Highlighting the campaign on Twitter was crucial in making the campaign viral, and in the spring of 2009 they were selected to be the recipient of the first Global Twestival where Twitter users came together to raised another $250,000 to dig wells in Ethiopia, Uganda and India.
Becoming one of the biggest accounts on Twitter doesn't happen by accident, and charity: water has used a creative strategy to best attract followers and build a network of clean water activists and supporters on Twitter.
Powerful, personal media. charity: water knows that getting you to care about a cause is all about getting you to see the problem, understand the problem, and feel the problem. charity: water uses high-impact media to do just that.
Personalizing their Twitter background with beautiful and relevant pictures of work they are doing in the field is just one tactic. Regular videos, which they link to in their Tweets, convey the regular-guy-does-good message they are all about. Their photo of the day feature also gives followers a daily reason to remember the global efforts of charity: water and share with friends.
Finally, charity: water never shies away from getting personal—and getting fun—with users. They know that true relationships are the key to long-term success and a good Twitter account isn't only shoptalk.
In just over three short years, charity: water has raised enough money (more than $15 million) to bring clean and safe drinking water to more than to a million individuals. And there's no sign of stopping.