The madness that is the NET Cancer Social Mediathon

I wonder, sometimes, just how crazy I am. One year ago, we tried our first NET Cancer Social Mediathon on social media platforms associated with Walking with Jane. Our audience peaked at about 3000 viewers, mostly on our Facebook page. The idea grew out of the Relay for Life Social Mediathon I’d run earlier in the year that had raised close to $2400 for that event.

…people can’t support what they don’t know exists.

We raised no money with last year’s NET Cancer Social Mediathon. That was not really the point of the exercise. Rather, the idea was to raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms in the larger community. Originally, I was hoping for a Jerry Lewis-scale fundraising bump, but the further I got into putting it together, the more I realized it was the information that really mattered most.

Experiments with the social media form

Honestly, the audience was smaller than I’d hoped. But there were some good conversations started during the 18 hours we were on–and most of the audience came away with a better understanding of carcinoid/NETs than they came in with.

…I realized it was the information that really mattered…

This spring, I did another Relay for Life centered Social Mediathon. It bombed–and bombed rather badly. We didn’t raise much money–which is the point of that exercise–and we had a very small audience. I don’t think we had 300 views the entire day. Part of that was it was a nice, warm spring Saturday. The Relay Social Mediathon is a more local audience–and nice weather locally… I’ve watched what nice weather does to the audience for even the most interesting things I post online. It isn’t pretty.

Building an audience requires faith

But I am nervous about Monday’s event, even though its audience is more global in reach. Walkingwithjane.org may have viewers from more than 120 different countries, but that’s no guaranty of a large audience on any given day. Yesterday, we hosted 156 viewers on this website–but Saturday only saw 14.

…the audience came away with a better understanding of carcinoid/NETs…

Still, I have to have faith that if we build it, they will come, to quote Field of Dreams badly out of context. That means inviting people in the carcinoid/NETs community to share their stories, trying to draft the luminaries in the field to come online for half an hour or so to talk about themselves and what they are doing, being ready to moderate discussions in half a dozen places simultaneously, and getting my own written and recorded segments edited and in position to go.

Getting the word out

And I’m hoping that some other websites and pages will pick up all or part of the event and share it with their audience. The idea here is to get the word out about carcinoid/NETs to as many people as possible over an 18-24 hour period.

But I am nervous about Monday’s event…

We say that doctors can’t detect what they don’t suspect–but equally, people can’t support what they don’t know exists. November 10 is the day we try, globally, to change that deadly calculus.