Every November leading up to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14, the Diabetes Hands Foundation, (DHF) runs an online campaign, called the Big Blue Test. Diabetes Hands Foundation is one of the nimblest online organizations around. They are not afraid to experiment with social media, as I've written about previously. The success of Big Blue Test speaks to their belief in the potential of social media as much more than tools for socializing. They have time and time again leveraged Facebook, Twitter, Ning and YouTube to help people with diabetes connect with others like themselves, raise diabetes awareness and lately...help others in the process. All of this is possible when you align goals with participation paths, and you are not afraid to try new things. I spoke with Manny Hernandez, President of DHF, to understand how he leveraged the DHF community and social media in this online campaign, and why the Big Blue Test 2012 was the most successful yet.

November 14 is World Diabetes Day. In honor of World Diabetes Day, I'm spotlighting the Diabetes Hands Foundation, one of the most nimble, experimental organizations around. They've just launched Big Blue Test and the video challenge. In this post, I discuss what makes DHF so experimental, its successes and learnings, and how the Big Blue Test was conceived and executed.

In early 2009, TuDiabetes.org, a social network for people touched by diabetes, asked members to share their diabetes poems as part of a contest called No-Sugar Added Poetry. The end result was the No-Sugar Added Poetry book. Manny Hernandez writes of the many lessons learned from crowdsourcing, publishing, and selling a community book.