Max Gladwell

Blogging, social news, peer-to-peer philanthropy, microblogging, social networking, wikis, video sharing, and more. These are the new agents of change.

Originally published on Sustainablog.

Back in May, we penned the original 10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media, and it’s been one of our most widely read posts. Though most of those first 10 are still valuable and relevant, many more have launched in the past five months that deserve attention. These are tools and resources that individuals, corporations, and nonprofits alike can use to communicate, create, and connect through the social web. These are the new agents of change.

1. Blog It Out: When the die is cast on social media and final judgments are made, blogging will reign supreme as the single greatest force in Web 2.0. Whereas social networking is broad and shallow, blogging is deep and focused. That’s the power behind Blog Action Day. It’s a day when bloggers the world over draw attention to a single issue and (hopefully) inspire action. This year’s topic is poverty. And given the current financial crisis, it would seem that many bloggers have gotten a head start.

2. Twitter Green Events: In the first 10 Ways, we wrote about the Twitter greenstream, a tagging mechanism that organizes Twitter messages (Tweets) about doing green things. What’s evolved since then is the widespread use of unique Twitter tags at events. Most recently, we covered West Coast Green by tagging our Tweets with #wcg08. This helps people at the event to meet up with fellow Twitter folk. It also enables those who aren’t attending to follow what’s going on and what’s being said in real time. There are a couple ways to do this. One is to follow through Twitter Search (formerly Summize), where you can track keywords and tags. Another is to send a Tweet as follows: “track word: [insert keyword]“. And then you’ll start receiving all Tweets with that tag or keyword directly into your feed.

3. Contribute to a Green Wiki: We’ve written about Creative Citizen and Huddler Green Home, both of which offer wiki platforms where you can learn about green products and solutions as well as contributing to them. The latest player in this space is none other than Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Wikia Green is part of the for-profit network of “wiki communities on any topic people are passionate about.” We’re clearly passionate about green and green blogging. As of this writing, there are 714 articles, and it’s received coverage from top tech blogs Mashable and CNET, as well as the usual suspects: The Daily Green, EcoGeek, and La Marguerite.

4. Help an Entrepreneur: Kiva.org is a world leader in “peer-to-peer philanthropy” where donors help people directly through micro loans. The small business credit card company Advanta recently partnered with Kiva on the Kiva B4B (business for business) credit card, where loans are matched up to $200 per month. In fact, we just loaned $50 to Bahodur Malikov of Tajikistan to expand his footwear business, which means that he’ll actually receive $100 of the $750 he needs (his loan is now fully funded). The thrust of Kiva B4B is to give entrepreneurs (like us) a simple and affordable way to support fellow entrepreneurs and do a bit of cause marketing of their own. Disclosure: Kiva B4B is a sponsor of Max Gladwell.

5. Network With Us: Max Gladwell is the nexus of social media and green living. Beyond the central blog, we have several networks where social-media-minded greenies can network together: Facebook Profile, Facebook Page, Facebook Blog, Facebook Group, Twitter, Ning, MySpace, Flickr, Technorati, and FriendFeed to name a few. You can start the conversations wherever you are and follow them wherever they go.

6. CauseCast Yourself: Debuting at this year’s TechCruch50, CauseCast is the latest entry into the social-action platform space, where members can connect on important issues and support those corresponding causes. According to the company, “Causecast empowers people who want to make change. We’ve built Causecast to be a platform where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.” The platform features its own social network with a news section and a cause-related news widget that you can embed on your blog or social networking profile. Cause categories include animals, arts, community, environment, health, human rights, and youth.

7. Be a Citizen Journalist: iReport and Current pioneered the citizen journalism trend by giving everyday folks like us a platform for reporting stories that might not make the evening news. More recently, YouTube launched its Citizen News Channel/Vlog. All it takes is a Flip video camera to challenge the likes of Anderson Cooper and Christine Amanpour. Though it hasn’t gained a ton of traction so far, Citizen News does have potential.

8. Check Your Headlines: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) has revolutionized how we track and access information on the web, but for many it’s just not simple enough. That’s why we have AllTop. This aggregation of high-quality blog feeds enables anyone, even avid RSS users, to scan the most important headlines from the blogosphere on a single page. Think of it as a magazine rack of blogs. Organized by topic, you can see all the change in world every morning by checking Green.Alltop.com, Nonprofit.Alltop.com, and Good.Alltop.com. Take action accordingly.

9. Vote for Green Content: The first Top 10 featured Hugg.com, which is Treehugger’s answer to the wildly popular Digg.com social news site. These enable users to vote for good content, make it popular, and give it the attention it deserves. It’s the democratic web. Since then, EcoURLs launched as a new eco-oriented social news site, but it also has a unique approach. In addition to just voting stories up and down, users can push content to the major social news/bookmarking services: Digg, Reddit, Buzz, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us. It’s still gaining traction, but this could one day serve as the hub for all green news.

10. Belly Up to the Bar: The wildcard entry in this list is the Greenbar Toolbar. It’s basically a stripped-down version of the Flock Eco Browser for Firefox and Internet Explorer. According to the company, it gives you access to the “best blogs, websites, feeds, gadgets, resources and more” and “features embedded Twitter, a built in email system, google search, and a popup blocker.” Facebook integration and select RSS feeds are also included.

What social media tools are you using to change the world and make a difference?

Related Posts

• Ten Ways to Change the World Through Social Media
• Be a Beacon: The First Principle of Social Media
• 10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media
• West Coast Green: Live Coverage and Twittering #wcg08
• Blog Action Day: Kiva Pulls Entrepreneurs Out of Poverty