“Stop Slavery With End It Movement,” the Twitter-based call to end modern slavery, has hit the Twitter Trends section for today, November 14th, 2013, as of this writing. After some analysis, this trend is actually related to the TV Show The Vampire Diaries.
To understand what I mean, read on, because I blogged about what I discovered as I did, and sort of wove a path of text that led to my eventual conclusion. But before I continue, I must bring up the efforts of MISSEY.org in Oakland to stop a particular type of slavery also called “human trafficking:”
What Stop Slavery With End It Movement Is And How It Trended On Twitter
The tweets report that it’s an effort to free the estimated 27 million people enslaved today:
@kolslover We Need Everyone's Help to Stop Slavery With End It Movement and Free ALL 27 Million Souls Enslaved Today! Freedom for ALL!
— SiKol the Bad Wolf;) (@ariofthehub) November 14, 2013
The website EndItMovement.com reports:
The effort started with a series of tweets from @KolAliveForever in the United Kingdom, and who, in turn, was motivated by @SabrinaLovesKol. Witness:
The trend of today is 'Stop Slavery With End It Movement' at 7:30pm UK. Thanks to @SabrinaLovesKol for suggesting this great idea š āāā
— ī§ KolAliveForever ī§ (@isabellou3) November 14, 2013
@isabellou3 @ladyur1013 Stop Slavery With End It Movement
— Sabrina BuzolicJones (@SabrinaLovesKol) November 11, 2013
Apparently the two have some kind of relationship.
Each tweet tagged other twitter accounts, and ended with “Stop Slavery With End It Movement,” and were released 10 hours ago and to announce a planned time target for the release of other, related tweets at the mark of 7:30 PM in Britain.
It’s now 8:20 PM as of this writing.
The Vampire Diaries Connection To “Stop Slavery With End It Movement”
By all accounts this Twitter Trend effort was totally organic, and was based around a call to action: spreading the tweet message itself. Futher, it was movivated by a fan of Austrian actor Nathaniel Buzolic, and who goes by the Twitter handle @ladyur1013 and the Twitter name “Iā¤Nate / Vote 4 Will”. Witness:
Stop Slavery WIth End It Movement #Trendtime
— Iā¤Nate / Vote 4 Will (@ladyur1013) November 14, 2013
Moreover, many of the folks participating in the trending of “Stop Slavery With End It Movement” are part of a Twitter hashtag group called #TeamKol and say they have trended 171 times since Kol’s demise. Now, I just have to figure out what is the significance of “Kol’s demise.” (I should add that the hashtag group #NatesArmy also played a role.)
Ah. It’s all about Kol Mikaelson, the vampire who was played by Nathaniel Buzolic on The Vampire Diaries. Fans of Nate and the show created this #TeamKol hashtag group to lobby for the inclusion of Buzolic in the planned The Vampire Diaries spinoff, The Originals.
But in making tweets to achieve that objective, obviously the group discovered they had the collective ability to make Twitter Trends. While other Twitter Trends #TeamKol has engineered have had really no political significance, “Stop Slavery With End It Movement ” does.
In the process of launching Stop Slavery With End It Movement, #TeamKol has provided all of us with a valuable lesson in how to use Twitter to help bring attention to much needed social change.
Of course, this has great implications for online marketing, but the trouble is many companies leave their social media practices to, as one person said to me lately, “some college-aged girl.”
Stay tuned.