Today is World Humanitarian Day!

It is a day set apart from every other day by the United Nations and humanitarian aid organizations to reach 1 billion people, on 1 day, with 1 message of hope.  Not to mention, none other than Queen Beyonce is championing the efforts of this day!

What does this actually mean? Well, I’m going to tell you.

Through the power of social media the UN and Beyonce are seeking to promote the message of hope among all mankind. The message isn’t asking you to go out and donate $1,000. Nope. The message is emphasizing that small acts of kindness will make a magnanimous difference in our society.

At noon today, more than 250,000,000 will be reached through those who have added their voices to the social media campaign using Twitter and or Facebook. These profiles will be heard in once collective voice across the world with an automated Thunderclap of status messages that reads: “This World Humanitarian Day I’m doing something good, somewhere, for someone else. Join me! #WHD2012 #IWASHERE

The World Humanitarian Day site provides examples of how we can do something good for someone else. These examples include: helping someone with their groceries, making a homeless person a sandwich, mowing your neighbors yard, or even cooking a new mother a meal. I say if you can’t do any of the above today, for goodness sake give someone a smile.  So much of our day-to-day happenings occur in our self-contained bubbles. We’re either hustling to work or picking up the kids from camp or using tunnel vision while grocery shopping or yelling at the jerk in front of us in traffic. As community of human beings we don’t take enough time to simply find the good in others by doing something good for them. Today is about doing good- just because we should.

This may not sound like a big deal but those enlightened to the power of social media cause campaigns can tell you, this is huge. Social media cause campaign expert, Clarence Wardell III, PhD. shares, “We’re seeing the power of large collections of individuals in online environments to make a significant impact on policy and humanitarian related causes. Going forward, particularly through organizations like Causes, Change.org, and HopeMob, I think you’ll continue to see a significant role for digital activism in the public space.”

Ebonie Johnson Cooper is a freelance writer, philanthropist and thought leader on millennial social responsibility and coming of age in your 20s. Her energy can be read weekly the blog of Friends of Ebonie. Home is Brooklyn, NY; she frolics often in Washington, DC.  Follow her on @EbsTheWay.