Hello, in this video we're going to talk about how social media can be used to support causes. Specifically, we'll talk about raising awareness, collecting donations and organizing volunteers. The first thing we need to understand is, what is a cause? A cause is an idea or belief that people work to support. Another name for a cause is a movement. For example, the effort to stop war is a cause, equal pay for women is a cause and fighting against the certain decease like polio is a cause. One of the most important ways that you can support a cause is by raising awareness. Raising awareness means showing your support in public so that other people will learn about the cause and decide to help. Before there was social media, if you wanted to raise awareness about a cause, you could try to use traditional media. You could write a letter to a newspaper, or buy an advertisement in the magazine for instance. You could also go to a public place and tell the people there about your cause. Maybe a television station would make a news story about your visit, or there would be story in the newspaper In this situation the traditional media companies or governments would choose what to say about your cause. Or they might not say anything at all about it. It could be very difficult to use traditional media to raise awareness for a cause. But with social media, you can raise awareness about a cause very easily. You can decide exactly what you want to say about a cause. You can create your own images and upload videos to share with your social network. With social media, your message about a cause can spread very easily and quickly. In addition to raising awareness, social media can also be used to support a cause to collecting donations. A donation is money that you can give to support a cause. A social media message can contain information about making online donations. Because this method is very convenient for some people, they might be more likely to make a donation. Money can be collected quickly and easily through social media. Let's look at an example of a cause that was supported by social media in this way. In 2014, many people participated in the ice bucket challenge on social media. This was a movement organized to raise awareness and collect donations for research into the brain disease, ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. To participate, people would send a public message to their social network friends. These friends were supposed to choose whether to donate money to the cause or pour ice water over their own heads. Many people donated money and poured water over their own heads. Also, they posted videos of their participation, which were extremely popular. Due to the popularity of the videos, lots of people learned about the disease and donated money. Scientists were able to use the donations to make some progress against the disease. One more way social media can be used to support a cause is through organizing volunteers or setting up events. Because it's very easy to spread messages among a social network, you can manage the actions of many people instantly and for free to support a cause. For example, you could tell everyone in a group to meet on Saturday morning to clean up trash in the park. To wrap up, social medial can be used to support a cause through spreading awareness, collecting donations and organizing volunteers or events. Next, we're going to read about an example of how social media can help a cause.