March 27, 2008 
I must admit I am pretty conservative so it was with some reluctance that I finally joined Facebook. After the Health 2.0 conference formed a group out there, I decided to join earlier this week. First, my brother reached out to me. Then, a roommate of mine from college who I hadn’t talked to in almost 20 years contacted me.
Then, I became mildly interested. So, I spent a few hours early this morning playing around. But, I was most interested to find a post on Vijay’s Consumer Focused Healthcare blog about a non-profit using Facebook as a way to drive blood donations. Will it work? I don’t know, but it is a worthy cause and an interesting use of social technology.
When a patient is in need of blood that isn’t available, it becomes a life and death situation. Historically the Red Cross will make efforts to alert the public during a shortage. But there may be a better way – leverage the social networks to get the word out. If shortages of a certain type of blood occur in a certain zip code, having a database of willing donors in that zip code to contact may be the most efficient way to solve the problem quickly.
That’s where Takes All Types (TAT), a non-profit organization, comes in. Users install their just-released Facebook application, tell it their location and blood type, and say how often they are willing to be contacted to donate blood (maximum is every 57 days). If a shortage occurs, they’ll contact you via the methods that you authorize (Facebook, email, text message, etc.)
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
I will have to add TAT to my Causes. There are several non-profits using Facebook as a way to raise money and awareness of issues. I think it is a great way to get the “young folk” interested, as is speaks to their mode of communication, but will it work? There is the question.
The causes I support have very little money donated to them through FB, however just having the application on various pages (I believe) raises the awareness – ie. I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation.