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October 17, 2008
David (Andrew Baron) beats Goliath (Biogen) in 2008 by leveraging Social Media
Social Media is a part of my life. And every once in a while I am reminded how the advent of social media can be used to effect change. Earlier this week myself, together many others witnessed how powerful twitter can be to get a desperate message out and the impact our social graphs can have in turning what was a No! into a Yes! and possibly save a life in the process.
Earlier this week on the morning of October 14th at 8:50 AM (EDT) I was on twitter and saw Andrew Baron’s tweet: “ Urgent help needed, please re-tweet #biogen http://tinyurl.com/4a5jcj”
I immediately read Andrew’s blog post and felt his pain in fighting the bureaucracy associated with getting his father, Fred Baron, access to a possible cure for the cancer he was suffering from.
While I was reading his blog post, others started to re-post Andrew’s tweet (including myself) and in a short while word starting to get out about Andrew’s quest to get his dad access to a treatment which might be a cure for his cancer and the fight he was having with the CEO of Biogen (James C. Mullen) to make Tysabri available to his father.
The re-tweeting quickly lead to the blog post by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch: RocketBoom Founder Fighting For Father’s Life; Meanwhile, Drug Company Is Committing PR Suicide.
Once I saw Michael’s blog post, I knew it would be just a matter of time before it hit the national news media. While more blogging was done by a quite a number of passionate people, I believe it was Andrew's blog post combined with his outreach on twitter and the TechCrunch story that directly lead to getting the story covered by: Dallas Morning News, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and a bunch of others media outlets.
Once Andrew reached out to his friends for help, his friends and the friends of friends came forward and collectively they helped to effect change. Thanks to their persistence and hard work, and by leveraging the power of social media, within a span of about 50+ hours, Andrew Baron was able to accomplish something that: Lance Armstrong, President Bill Clinton, Senator John Kerry, Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Ted Kennedy, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach (Head of FDA) all tried to do and had failed. Andrew was able to get his dad access to Tysabri by 1:20 PM (EDT) on Thursday, October 16th.
While my hope is that Andrew’s hard work and tireless energy will lead to an immediate cure for his father’s cancer, my hope is also that Andrew’s actions will inspire others in the future who find themselves with their own back against the wall to never give up and to reach out to their friends for their help. By working together we can all effect change.
Nothing is Impossible.
Tags: social media, Andrew Baron, TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, Jeff Pulver
Posted by jeff on October 17, 2008 04:06 PM | Permalink
Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
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Posted by: Test King at March 14, 2009 12:06 PM
Jeff, this was a fantastic post. I really enjoyed it and it really does go to show that there is power in numbers, and gives overwhelming evidence that Social Media is a force to be reckoned with no matter what it's being used for.
It's good to see it going to such a good and worthy use.
Thank you for sharing this story!
Michael Lawver
I believe we are already following each other on twitter so I look forward to seeing more of your tweets. See you there!
Posted by: Michael Lawver at October 18, 2008 11:51 PM
I'm following you on twitter and would like an invite to your social media jungle.
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