I hardly use my Hotmail account. I have a personal email account with Comcast and mostly rely on that. However, over the Memorial Day weekend, I decided to get inside my Hotmail, do some clean-up and organized it a bit to start using it a little more often. (Side note of frustration: you can't easily access implement Hotmail like you can all the other web-based email accounts on your iPhone. You have to go to the web to check your email. Hmmm - Microsoft's product not available on an Apple product. Interesting).

So while I was in the spring cleaning mode and getting things organized, I saw a small graphic inside Hotmail. It read something like "I'M Making A Difference. See How You Can Too".  I clicked on it to get to a dedicated micro-site put together by Microsoft, which you can check out here.

I quickly learn through a well put-together site, that Microsoft came up with a simple idea that seems to be working. They decided to use charity as a marketing strategy, helping grow their advertiser business and also give back at the same time. It works simply: you use their products more often (like instant messaging and hotmail) and each time you use them, they donate to the charity or cause of your choosing. So I dive a little deeper and check out the charities reached, see how much has been raised and think to myself "what a simple idea". Think about it, advertisers are happy as it gets more people viewing their advertisements placed inside both Hotmail and embedded in everyone's instant messaging application. Charities are happy as it helps raise funds for them in a very passive way. Microsoft makes more money, no doubt selling the concept to advertisers. And we the users get to do something we already do all day long and attach it to a cause we can get behind. So for very little effort, everyone wins. I like the sound of that. Don't you?

The more I dwelled on it, the more I realized its real potential and told myself that I would move all of my personal email over to Hotmail. Why not, right? It's a nice product, I connected with a cause I thought I wanted to help and they even gave me the opportunity to embed a graphic signature inside of my emails to help create a viral effect...and I was proud to add it. I found myself quickly reconnecting with old friends, trying to get everyone accustomed to connecting with @hotmail address from now on, while spreading the word a bit. In short, it's a perfect viral scenario.

On a grander scale, it made me really stop and think that the time is now for the world to start turning capitalistic pursuits into a means to help...especially any internet based business that can leverage reach and the viral nature of the web. It's making me rethink a bunch of how I am a citizen of the world and how my building a successful business can also help build successful results for the world's causes that need our help. It makes me realize that I don't have to worry about all the time or energy or money that has to go to helping that many, including me, get fearful of and choose not to get involved as often as we could. We all lead busy lives. In the case of this idea, Microsoft knows that and called to us to just keep doing what we are already doing. That's simple. That's innovative. It reconfirms my suspicion that a little bit by a lot of people goes a long way. It's not what one person can do. (By the way - Microsoft has raised over $1.5 million to date). It made me realize that problem solving is probably not the job of the Government either, but rather us. Society. The human race. Business, especially big business has the greatest opportunity to impact change on our planet. Why wouldn't they?