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We have spent eighty-eight episodes of the Bella Buzz podcast discussing the impact of technology on our world. We have spent time analyzing the impact of social media on business, communications and personal connections, but not once have we discussed the impact of social media on survival …  until today.

Desiree and Joe are please to introduce the listening audience to Rev MacInnes. Rev’s story is well documented in the article that he wrote for Huntington Post called Starbucks Changed My Life: An Open Letter to Howard Schultz.  Rev reached out to Desiree after discovering her mutual Chicago connection and realized that she might be able to help him spread the word about his efforts to help others who are in a homeless situation.

It is a testament to social media that we can learn about Rev’s life story and for Rev to have the chance to communicate with luminaries from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or celebrities such as Mila Jovovich.

With the help of Maegan Carberry, the story of Rev’s relationship to Starbucks was made public.  The gist of the story revolves around a period in his life when Rev needed to determine a place to stay warm between 7:00 am, when the shelter closed, and 9:00 am, when the library opened.  Most of the time Rev would visit the local Starbucks, spend some money from the gift card that he possessed, and use the wifi to work and access social sites.  As the funds on the card diminished and his concern grew about what to do, Rev turned to his Twitter followers to ask for advice. Not only did the group come through with advice, they offered to put some funds on the card so that he could continue to use the Starbucks as his “third place.”

Rev is building upon this concept and has incorporated the help of some interns to produce a grant for a research study that focuses on how “small things do great things.” A business outcome could be for a fund that would be directed towards helping a local individual in need.

Another entity that Rev introduces us to is Gifted Dreamers and Kristine Socall, who has tapped into Rev’s passion.

If you want to get directly involved in the work that Rev is doing, you can visit Change.org where he has set up a petition “calling on Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, to partner with local community organizations and the global Twitter community to make Starbucks an even better place for those in the homeless community who depend upon it.”

You can find more of what is happening at Rev’s blog I’m From Nothing.  BTW, Rev is currently living in an apartment that is paid for via a program through H.U.D.

We thank him for his time today and for making an impact on others.

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Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

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Long time Twitter users Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis speak with Brent Herd, the Director of Southeast Partnerships for Twitter, on this episode of The Bella Buzz podcast.

In the face of feature enhancements by other major social networks, Twitter continues to provide a simple to use platform for communications.  With 140 character limitations and minimal user disruption, the service continues to be a stronghold for messaging and breaking news coverage in particular.

It is possible that many listeners were not aware that Twitter had opened some satellite offices with the intention of helping brands take advantage of the sponsorship opportunities.  Brent opened the Atlanta office in January of 2011 and has dealt directly with some of the major residents of the city such as Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola.

He has gone beyond just a simple sales role and has witnessed first hand how some of these companies are integrating Twitter into their total customer service package.  Delta has their own Social Lab set up with flat screen panels to monitor Twitter activity.  They use the real time information that they are collecting to respond to customers, to be proactive, and even manage connecting traffic. They have  a specific Twitter account @DeltaAssist for these efforts.

There are a variety of different sponsorship opportunities available on the platform, Promoted Trends, Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts  ..   Brent gives us a nice breakdown of each segment, specifically pointing out the company’s intention of making them as organic as the conversations on Twitter themselves.

• Promoted Trends – Giving the advertiser the ability to own one of the hashtags that appears in the Top 10 trends on Twitter.  It is analogous to a placement on a web site home page.

• Promoted Tweets – (interesting factoid; It took Twitter about 3.5 years to get to 1 billion tweets, now they do 1 billion tweets in about 3 – 4 days!)  Advertisers now have the ability to put together a very targeted campaign, including geo-targeting, so that a finite group of users will see a sponsored message.  These can be very affordable campaigns since they are based on CPA type models.  They use the term “engagement” as a measurement, which includes Replies, Retweets and Click Throughs.  Current engagement statistics are 3% – 5%, much higher than standard click through rates on the web.

• Promoted Accounts – helps brands build a follower base in a very quick time period.