What Made Me Cry Today

In the course of a day I see hundreds of stories flow through my Twitter feed. Some bring me up, some bring me down…and some make me stop what I’m doing and sit there for a minute, teetering on emotions invoked by the power of  words and video, brought to me through social media.

In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, individuals with a powerful story can reach around the world like never before. We see it with funny stories, we see it with weird stories, we see it with cute stories…and we see it with sad stories. The science of viral videos is fuzzy for sure, however these types of emotional reactions typically indicate the type of story that has the potential to reach further than ever expected.

This story is about Rachel, a 9 year old girl, who had an amazing wish beyond her years. She wanted to raise $300 for her wish, though fell a bit short of her goal. That didn’t get her down though. She simply said she’d do better the next year. Tragically, she died only a month later in an accident. Rachel’s story went out  around the world and people donated more than $1.2 million toward her goal.

Our communication channels, with social media now pushing the envelope of possibilities in spreading stories efficiently and beyond anything we could have ever imagined, sometimes get bogged down by fiscal cliffs, snarky comments, etc., but these stories that reach high above the fray, restore my faith in the medium, as a positive force for which we’ve yet to fully understand.

This article was written by Jeff Howland – Online Marketing Strategist at Dream Local Digital. Jeff grew up in Maine and has lived in the midcoast area on-and-off for over 12 years. Since graduating from the University of Maine with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology, he has held positions within the industrial sector, as a software engineer, and the financial and marketing sectors, in a broad range of technology management and client support roles. Currently, Jeff is on the Boards of Directors for two local non-profit organizations in the public affairs and education sectors. Jeff combines his passion for helping people connect, with his love of reading and writing, to form the foundation of his work as a media strategist and also for his blog, MEperspective. Immersed in the social media culture and curating and sharing insights gained through spending his days and nights plugged into the online and print media stream, he works closely with our clients and team to develop and implement online marketing strategies. When ‘unplugged’ Jeff likes to go for a run or sit down with a good book. Please contact Jeff at [email protected] and for more information about Jeff, go online to: