Using social media to promote a cause: Jamie Oliver and the Food Revolution

written by Pam Maloney (@PMaloney)

Facebook fans of Jamie Oliver saw a post in their news feeds this morning-

Oliver’s mission (and the point of his new television series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution) is to bring healthy food options into American school lunches. His program aims to show us all that the current system in place is severely broken – In one episode, Oliver gets visibly irritated after discovering that the current school lunch program he is trying to overhaul considers French fries to be a sufficient vegetable serving.

Oliver certainly isn’t the first to use social networking for this purpose. I write about him because this is a great example of how to social media tools to gain notoriety for your cause (and because it is a cause  I support).

The web page for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution promotes the spreading of his message through a variety of social media tools he is employing to rally supporters.

Covering all his bases, you can follow Jamie’s cause on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo & MySpace. And he doesn’t just have these social networks set up and his fingers crossed that it will go viral.  His petitionboasts a great infographic showing support state by state across the US.  The Food Revolution site offers lots of content for sharing – how-tos and recipes for both families and schools. He even has an iphone app Jamie Oliver’s 20 minute meals.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution airs Friday nights at 9  on ABC.