The issue that we would ideally like to raise awareness about is cancer. A lot of people are aware of what cancer is but not a lot know how much their help and donation can do for the cancer patients and their families.

In order to spread the word about Relay for Life, the social media platforms and social tools that we would like to use are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, school online news letter, the Ticker and other organizations in the school.

The pros of the social media platforms that we have listed: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube:

1. Many of our peers use them. Our generation and society in general check these platforms frequently throughout the day. This makes it easier for people to gain awareness in a short amount of time.
2. The word can be spread to those we don’t know by reposts, shares and likes by those we can reach on these social media platforms.
3. All three of these platforms utilize hash tags allowing it to be more convenient and easier to group ideas and people together.
4. Notifications that can be used to remind individuals about the issue and the related events that may be taking place in the future.
5. A video can be created to conceptualize the issue which may be more appealing for the viewers than having to read a flier or look at a picture.

The cons of these social media platforms are:

1. Not everybody has access to these platforms or have the knowledge to use these platforms.
2. Many people may see the notification or the post but don’t bother to take a second look since it may not necessarily peak their interest.
3. It can be seen to target more of the younger generation that are more adept to the new social networks.

The pros for social tools such as school newsletters and organizations are:

1. Everyone has access to a free newsletter and school newspaper in print or through email.
2. Many school organizations have individuals that are in different clubs and groups.
3. The individuals that are in multiple organizations and can spread information on the issues and the events easily. When individuals are intertwined in different organizations they form bonds with others and can make connections between the issue and those in their network.

The cons about these social tools:

1. Not everyone reads the newsletters and most either don’t take a newspaper or they either toss them right after receiving them.
2. Some members may not have attended the meetings when the issue is brought up.
3. Not all organizations give brief overviews of what may have happened in the last meeting if someone had missed a meeting.

Certain communication tools such as Myspace and Tumblr would not be a communication tool that we would choose to advocate our issue because the internet has trends. In order to maximize the number of people we can reach to we need to keep up with internet trends. Not a lot of people are using Myspace and Tumblr, and quite frankly these types of communication tools and platforms are not idea to spread the word. It may be used for social networking but it’s not ideal since it’s mostly for friends and reposting images.

Organizing for this issue in the days pre web would have been more difficult. We would resort to word of mouth, posters or fliers. This would mean that we wouldn’t be able to reach out to a larger range of people. The extent of how much we would be able to do to advocate for this issue would have been limited to how much people are willing to spread the word by mouth, how many are actually willing to take the time to listen and accept the fliers or read the posters.