7 Wonders In 7 Days – my Social Media for Social Change project
Some of you may be aware that I have recently launched an epic yet exciting project called 7 Wonders In 7 Days.
Instigated by a number of things including Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire TV programme, I’ve set out to visit all new 7 wonders of the world in 7 days, setting off on 9th September 2009 -9/09/09- with the goal of raising £777,000 for 7 worthy charities.
You can found out more about the project at 7wondersin7days.com.
As you may have spotted, there’s a lot of play on numbers going on. The Twitter hashtag is #90909…! Thankfully, people seem to have taken to it!
The idea itself was conceived as a response to returning from my gran’s funeral in Nigeria in February. The Channel 4 programme was a timely reminder of the need to get on with doing something that helps others through my work. The full story is here if you’re interested.
So… I’ve been beavering away quietly on the 7wondersin7days.com website for a few weeks, designing and installing the WordPress site (doing this for the first time on my own!) and speaking to travel agents.
I finally launched the site to the public yesterday at the Social Media Cafe Manchester which took place as part of the Futuresonic 2009 festival, currently underway in Manchester.
Based on a (heavily) customised version of Adii’s Premium News Theme from the WooThemes coterie of WordPress themes, the 7 Wonders in 7 Days site is chock full of social media features. There are more to come but here’s what’s working so far:
- Facebook Connect – you can sign in from Facebook and any comments you leave get added to your News Feed. Your friends can also hang out with you on 7 Wonders In 7 Days. Hopefully they’ll have reason to with all the mad fundraising ideas I plan on unleashing! More to come…
- Twitter – alongside the now obligatory Twitter Search results (for #90909) in the sidebar, there’s some heavy Twitter integration on the site. Every blog post is tweetable by whoever is reading it using Dan Zanrella’s impressive TweetSuite WordPress plugin.
- YouTube – videos added to the site show up in a specific video player on the home page.
I’ve posted a lengthy overview of yesterday’s launch over on the 7 Wonders in 7 Days site, complete with a copy of my slides at the event and some fantastic suggestions and feedback from folk who listened to my talk.
I’m so encouraged by the positive reactions to this gargantuan of mad ideas!
Please have a nosy at the 7 Wonders in 7 Days website, check out the launch blog post and support the cause!
You can support my quest to raise the £7,000 I need to make the trip by donating via Twitter. Other donations gladly accepted.
The main thing I need help with now is reducing the travel itinerary from the 10 days suggested by Thomas Cook Manchester to the 7 I would ideally like to do the trip in.
If you can help, please look at this post and suggest ways of doing the trip in less time, either in a comment after the post or through Twitter.
If you’ve got any queries about the project, drop me a line here or shoot a tweet to @7wondersin7days, the Twitter account for the project. Please include the #90909 Twitter hashtag in your message.
It’s going to be an exhilarating ride!
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