The 5th annual Mashable Awards is coming up and GLAAD needs your help! Please nominate GLAAD for "Must-Follow Non-Profit on Social Media." This category honors the reader’s choice for the non-profit organization that most deserves to be followed on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites.
Last year, Mashable received over 1.3 million nominations and votes. With a platform like this, GLAAD could amplify the voices of the LGBT community to an even wider audience. With your help and votes, we can! Click here to vote for GLAAD for Must-Follow Non-Profit on Social Media.
One of our major digital initiatives is a little thing called #SpiritDay – you may have heard of it. #SpiritDay was started in 2010 by teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to LGBT youths who had taken their own lives. GLAAD quickly bolstered the effort and helped encourage hundreds of thousands of people to go purple. This year, participation was even bigger than last year!
On October 20, 2011, GLAAD once again helped amplify the message of #SpiritDay to millions of people all over the world. Celebrities such as Tyra, Kylie Minogue, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ellen DeGeneres all went purple through Facebook, Twitter, their blogs and on TV, along with talk shows like The View & The Talk and the casts of Glee, Degrassi & Jersey Shore. Even The White House went purple on Facebook and Twitter – and blogged about it!
The digital team here at GLAAD worked 'round the clock to carefully monitor the overwhelming response to #SpiritDay on each social media site in order to capture the stories of support and heartfelt messages of encouragement and acceptance that were shared. The spirit is also alive on our Flickr and YouTube pages. Pictured below is the Louisiana School for Math, Science, & the Arts, which boasts a GSA with over 35 dues-paying members and over 1/3rd of the student body on its mailing list. For 2011's Spirit Day, the club made custom T-shirts to honor the event.
Throughout the rest of the year, the digital team is constantly monitoring social media sites for:
- Accepting, encouraging posts from celebrities, organizations and other notable media outlets to amplify the voices of allies to our community
- Defamatory posts, publications, media mentions and comments so that we can act on them immediately and petition for equality
- Stories, photos and videos from the LGBT community so that we can amplify their voices and experiences
The Mashable Awards is a community-nominated voting program that recognizes the companies, people and projects that made the biggest impact on the digital landscape this year. Readers can nominate their favorites once a day for each category between Oct. 11 and Nov. 18. Mashable’s editors will select the seven finalists for each category. The final nominees will be announced on Nov. 21, at which time readers will vote for the winners. Final voting will close on Dec. 16, and winners will be announced on Mashable on Dec. 19. Please consider voting for GLAAD!
