Twitter goes green (and pink)
December 21st, 2007 by Todd Van Hoosear
If you’ve been to Twitter lately, you’re probably seeing a lot of green. It’s not because the company’s making money–their business model is still a bit of a mystery to most of their users. And it’s not because they’re hugging trees and recycling.
It’s all in support of one Twitterer: Susan Reynolds. Susan has been blogging since March, and Twittering since April. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she began sharing her experience on Twitter. Encouraged by the response, she started a blog called “Boobs on Ice”. Her first blog post contained a tastefully shot–not to mention tasty–photo of the bag of frozen peas she used to ease the pain after a day of tests. The photo was also used as her Twitter avatar.
And that’s where it started. In her own words:
To keep bleeding down & relieve pain I’d need to keep things cool. Traditional ice packs are hard and heavy. As much as I try to be a good sport I’m not into having a brick sitting on my chest.
Enter a bag of frozen peas.
I tucked it in my bra, took a picture, and was ready to tell the story later that night. That bag of peas added a touch of lightness to what could have been a sad and serious tale.
- A bag of peas was something everybody could relate to.
- Some people love them, some hate them, some use them for their own injuries.
- A bag of frozen peas was a vehicle for conversation and let people tease me instead of having to cry.
- It let people share instead of bemoaning.
As the discussions continued, other avatars started changing over–peas started showing up everywhere. Pretty soon, the Frozen Pea Friday Flickr group was started to collect all the avatars.
Today, as Susan heads in for her surgery, hundereds of people are contributing to the American Cancer Society through Connie Reece’s Frozen Pea Fund in honor of Susan’s battle.
So if you see green on Flickr, Twitter and the blogosphere, think pink, and consider giving some of your greenbacks to fight breast cancer.
People who follow my own Twitter feed know about the cousin that I lost to pancreatic cancer earlier this month. I also found talking about it on Twitter was very helpful, letting me come to terms with what happened. And the support that I got just as someone whose family was touched by the disease was incredible! It made a big difference for me, and I know it will do the same for Susan, who’s managed to get a huge chunk of the Twittersphere aware of breast cancer and her plight (and probably driven up sales of frozen peas to boot).
Susan, everyone here at Topaz is pulling for you!
This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Social Media, Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
December 25th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Todd, thanks for helping us get the word out about the Frozen Pea Fund. We had a wonderful response from Twitter and around the blogosphere. In the first 15 hours after we launched, 118 people on 3 continents gave a total of $3,500. Best news of all? Susan’s surgery went well and she’s home recovering.