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Think of a United Nations envoy. What comes to mind? Blue helmets and humanitarian aid? That was the old version. The UN's latest envoy is armed with blue of a totally different variety: Facebook and Twitter buttons.
This week the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria announced that the latest tool in the UN's arsenal is a Social Media Envoy.
To reach the Secretary-General's goal of providing all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010, the UN is counting on the help of high profile social media users to engage online and offline media users on the issues at hand.
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Using social media to combat a disease that kills an African child every 30 seconds might not seem like the obvious step for an organization like the UN, but we're not talking meaningless messages that will get lost in the new media mess; this Social Media Envoy boasts some big names that should have a considerable effect.
Among those taking part are Arianna Huffington, Mashable's Pete Cashmore, Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Facebook Director of Marketing Randi Zuckerberg.
"Their plan to use social media to keep the spotlight on the goal of eradicating deaths from malaria by 2015 is smart, forward-thinking, and, given the growing reach of social platforms, very pragmatic. It's consciousness-raising and movement building 2.0," said Huffington.
The Social Media Envoy is being teamed with other efforts already being executed by the UN Special Envoy for Malaria, like providing insecticide-treated bed nets and effective medicines throughout affected areas.
As part of the agreement, the Social Media Envoys have agreed to take one social action, like posting on Facebook or sending out a tweet, in support of malaria control each month over the next year, and it will all kick off with World Malaria Day on April 25, 2010.
But as we all know, social media has a tendency to take hold even before the official launch of initiatives, and although April 25 marks the first organized social action, some of the envoy members have already been busy creating some buzz. A recent tweet by Biz Stone:
Malaria is a devastating disease--together we can help! http://bit.ly/cpcqhb #socialmediaenvoy
Will social media be able to squash this infectious disease that kills one million people per year? The answer to that question remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we can all appreciate this as an interesting initiative that has the chance prove the power of social media as well as make significant headway on an issue that affects so many.
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