Nevada Charitable Stories

(04/05/2012)

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On Twitter, frivolity and sincerity meet at #thumbsup

The foursome sat around the table in conversation, yet not, tightly gripping their handheld communication devices and jabbing away fiercely with their thumbs.

Every few moments, the group would laugh, as if for no reason. They would high-five, too, on occasion, and burst out with such commentary as, Oooooh! Nice! and, Hey! I thought that was off the record!

Then it was back to tweeting.

Onlookers on this late Friday night at Todd English P.U.B. at Crystals at CityCenter had no idea as to the genesis of such flummery. The group was made up of myself and a trio of PR reps in Las Vegas: Kala Peterson of the Palms, Jenn Kratochwill of Nevada Ballet Theatre and Michelle Kruczynski of Langdon Flynn Communications.

We'd decided on an otherwise unplanned visit to TEP after the Vegas magazine party at Gold Boutique Nightclub and Lounge at Aria had dispersed. The topic of enlightenment was new Twitter category #thumbsup, which was born at that session and is blossoming to well, we are not quite sure yet.

But we plan for that hash tag to be centered on charities, or at least charitable acts

This concept began as a uniquely social media-driven conversation. The thumbs-up subject was broached first by Kratochwill, who remembered a Facebook photo of Kruczynski, a group shot in which Kruzynski inexplicably flashed a thumbs-up signal.

I thought, That's interesting -- she's the only one who's thumb's-upping, Kratochwill said. It was a great nonsequitur, which was why I tweeted the comment, an act that briefly rankled Kratochwill, and soon Kruczynski sent a tweet reporting that #thumbsup is back! By the end of the night, the group had littered Twitterdom with tweets tagging the new category. By the morning, there were dozens of retweets to that landing page.

What to do with this energy? Kruczynski had an idea. A few of them, actually: to pledge $1,000 to Nevada Ballet Theatre if #thumbsup appeared as a trending topic in Las Vegas at any point and to challenge anyone to match that donation amount to any charity. Also, #thumbsup is to be used by anyone for any information conveyed on Twitter in relation to charity, philanthropic efforts or any selfless activity.

So: If you are connected to a charity, formally or otherwise, share the information at #thumbsup. If you are attending a function of any scale -- be it a gala event or volunteering at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission -- make note of it at #thumbsup. If you are trying to get the word out about an upcoming event or activity that will benefit anyone in need, tag #thumbsup.

A disclosure is in order, of course: Kruczynski is a publicist for NBT who works alongside Kratochwill on behalf of the organization (Kruczynski was an independent PR rep for a time, and Langdon Flynn absorbed NBT as a client, with Kruczynski assigned to the account). This is not to be cynical about the motives, though. This all started in the most organic, unexpected fashion, and if we can generate some positive energy, well even accept cynical contributions.

So go for it. Hit #thumbsup, and, as we say in Vegas, make it swing.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With the Dish at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

For More Info http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-report/2012/apr/02/twitter-frivolity-and-sincerity-meet-thumbsup/