Working in public relations, I get the privilege of seeing just how influential social media can be for our clients. We here at BLAST know that PR and social media go hand-in-hand, and I am able to see on a daily basis the impact that social media outreach has on businesses and corporations. However, over the past couple of weeks, I have seen the ENORMOUS impact that social media has on ordinary people’s lives.

Through outreach to mom bloggers, I came across Heather Spohr’s mommy blog: The Spohr’s Are Multiplying. A blogger friend of Heather’s mentioned that she may be interested in reviewing one of our client’s products, so I reached out to Heather and started following her on Twitter. A couple of days later, I found out via Twitter that Heather’s 1½ year old daughter, Maddie, had passed away unexpectedly after being rushed to the hospital with a cough and congestion. Reading this on Twitter and more about it on her blog, I immediately felt an overwhelming sense of pain for a woman and her family that I did not even know. I only knew her through social media, but I could not tear myself away from the heartbreak of this story.

As the week passed on, I started to see more and more “social media coverage” of Maddie and her story. Social networking friends and followers were sending condolences to the family via Twitter and Facebook. Bloggers all over the country began blogging about Maddie and what a beautiful child she was. Eventually, all of this social media coverage led to a media storm – Maddie’s story was featured on the Today Show, the LA Times, the Huffington Post, on KTLA-TV, just to name a few. Maddie was born prematurely, and after her death, donations to the March of Dimes came pouring in from social media friends of the Spohrs. This little (or what I thought was little!) Web community that I had become entrenched in was suddenly making headline news.

Social networking has become mainstream and it continues to grow exponentially. As a PR professional, it is interesting to see just how social media can impact PR, and vice-versa. We work to get our clients coverage that results in increased sales, but it is humbling to take a step back and see just what social media can do to raise awareness for important causes like the prevention of premature birth.