Today is World Alzheimer's Day

For the past six weeks a colleague from the company I work for (Edelman) has spent much of his spare time leading a pro bono team that is helping to launch an amazingly unique Twitter movement in support of Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s called “A Million Tweets to Remember” (www.1mtweets.com) and it kicks off today – World Alzheimer’s Day.

Whether you’re on Twitter or not, there’s a lot you can do to lend a hand.

The goal of 1MTweets is to digitally memorialize 1 million people who have lived with Alzheimer’s by having their loved ones tweet about them. Alzheimer’s robs people of their memories, and this movement is a powerful and poetic way to ensure we remember those who can no longer remember for themselves. Everyone who tweets is also asked to donate a minimum of $1 to Alzheimer’s research.

If we can quickly build momentum and get people to visit www.1MTweets.com today, there’s no reason this can’t be one of the fastest growing social movements in history. Seth Godin was blogging the other day that there are no non-profit causes represented among the top 100 Twitter accounts (by followers). Let’s change that.

What can you do to help? Any one of these things can make a huge difference:

What can you do to help? Any one of these things can make a huge difference:

1. Tell as many people as you can about this movement and urge them to visit www.1mtweets.com today.

2. Are you on Twitter?

a. Go to www.1mtweets.com and memorialize a loved one with a tweet.

b. Recommend www.1mtweets.com to your followers.

c. Follow @1Mtweets on Twitter.

d. Create a Twitter Tribute (or Twibute) to a loved one at: www.1mtweets.com/make_a_twibute.

3. Become a fan of 1MTweets on Facebook, post about 1MTweets to your FB friends and invite people to the FB 1MTweets event.

4. Kick it out to your contacts on LinkedIn.

5. Blog about 1Mtweets and link to its social media content.

6. Check out all the 1MTweets videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/1mtweets.

7. Create and post a YouTube video yourself.

8. If you know celebrities and community or thought leaders who have a connection to this disease, or who are up for a worthwhile cause, (especially those already on Twitter) please contact them about this. High profile tweeters will help us create media interest.

I hope you’ll join the quest to reach 1 million tweets and raise a significant amount of awareness and money for Alzheimer’s research.

Special thanks to my colleague Shane Dolgin, Toronto, who supplied most of the content of this post.