The World’s Most Valuable Social Network

The World's Most Valuable Social Network launched in May and has reunited one missing child with her family. We got in touch to find out how the business is going behind the scenes.

We first covered the World’s Most Valuable Social Network back in July, which operates as a global reach-out to missing children. The operation works by motivating social network users to donate their online profiles to the company. Currently confined just to Canada, whenever a child goes missing a call-out post is broadcast across all the donated profiles to help spread the message as quickly as possible. Communications Manager, Becky Scheer, has been overwhelmed by the response from the public: “We have welcomed over 2,700 Facebook networks and 550 Twitter networks donated so far, and counting. With over 3,200 networks signed up with the Most Valuable Network, our reach is over a million people.” These numbers are no surprise to Becky, who believes the network’s success so far is due to the simplicity of the action it requires from its users. “Anyone who has a child in their life can empathize and support the work that we do to find missing children and bring them home. We believe people have strongly supported our Most Valuable Network tool because they can immediately see how their simple act of donating their Facebook or Twitter feed can make such a powerful difference. We hear from people every day who want to help our work in searching for missing children, and this tool gives them an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution that is easy and doesn’t require any additional commitment.” Once a user is signed up, missing children alerts will be posted to their Facebook and/or Twitter profiles approximately four to five times a year. A recent success story for the founders is the case of a young girl who had been missing for over a month. Usually the business only operates within the geographical confines of British Columbia, but law enforcement agencies from a nearby province had asked for their help. Within two days of the Most Important Social Network spreading the message across user’s profiles, the girl made contact with her family. In Becky’s words: “This young girl had been missing for close to a month and authorities – and her family – were extremely concerned for her well-being. We were thrilled to have been able to play a role in safely locating this vulnerable teen.” Alongside support from the general public the initiative has also seen high profile backing from Canadian celebrities including TV presenter Sarah Richardson and sports broadcaster Rob Kerr since its founding in May. These celebrities have donated their widely followed online profiles thereby increasing the reach of the missing child posts considerably. The founders have been shrewd in their marketing of the initiative – launching the business to coincide with International Missing Children’s day on May 25 and reaching out to celebrities after having recognized the powerful pull they have on social networks. By utilizing Facebook and Twitter they have harnessed the sway of one of the most common mediums of communication in the 21st century, and consequently provide a constant reminder to social network users about their community responsibility. A good example of the success a startup can have with a simple premise and a finger on the pulse. You can read more about the World’s Most Valuable Social Network here or visit the World’s Most Valuable Social Network website here.