When we are checking out the new users of our social commerce applications occasionally one really stands out. Not that we don’t think all our customers are wonderful, just that sometimes there are people doing things that are particularly interesting. ThirstTees is one of these customers. Kyle Morrow and his team are helping provide clean water to people who need it by selling great looking tee shirts. Read on to find out more about his story, and how he is using social media to help spread the word about this great cause.

What is the story behind ThirstTees?

ThirstTees is a philanthropic clothing line that provides clean water to people in need.  Every tee purchased provides one person with 25 years of clean water.  We do this is through a partnership with a non-profit that builds wells and water purifiers in Africa, India and South America.

Why did you choose providing fresh water as the cause you wanted to support?

When I was in college I went on a two mission trips to Sao Paulo, Brazil.  While I was there, we were working with kids in the favelas (slums).  We would talk to their families about their daily life and the major concerns that kept coming up was how to keep their children away from drugs and prostitution.  These children were only 10 and 11 years old.  It was hard for the parents to keep them away from these problems when they were struggling to simply provide food and water.  The infrastructure was horrible.  The sewer system was essentially PCV pipes leading into a river going through town.  The smell was awful.  We drank bottled and filtered water while we were there so we wouldn’t get sick. When I came home I did some more research into the water crisis and found some crazy statistics.  Every 19 seconds a child dies from a water related illness.  More people have cell phones then access to a toilet.  The experience inspired me to work on something that would help with this issue.  That led me to talking to different potential partners and coming up with the idea for ThirstTees.

What is your goal?

We ultimately want to put an end to the water crisis.  Going along with that, I created ThirstTees so that there would be a recurring revenue stream to fight the water crisis.  Non-profits are forced to spend a lot of time working to find donors to fund all of the great projects that they are doing.  I wanted to create a system that provided a never ending supply of funds.  The less time spent worrying about money, the more time is spent on helping others in the most effective way.

How have you been using social media to help spread the word about ThirstTees? Which channels have you been using and how?

We have been using social media in a variety of ways to share the story of ThirstTees.  We mostly focus on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.  We post several times a day about ThirstTees and the things that interest us.  We post about other organizations or people that are making a positive impact on the world.  We want people to get to know us and our values.  Our goal is to connect with people that share our passions.  It is awesome to get messages from people that are excited about what we are doing and want to help.

How do you track the success of your social media efforts?

We are really trying to increase interaction.  We want to get to know people and for them to get to know us.  Social media is the perfect way to create a conversation with people that believe in what we are doing and have similar passions.  The more we can connect with people, the more we can help them to get involved with ending the water crisis.

Do you have any particular success stories you can share?

There is a guy in Chicago named Ryan Garcia who made it his new years resolution to do 366 random acts of kindness.  He connected with us through Twitter and is going to buy a ThirstTee as one of his acts of kindness.  He is going to share about it on his blog and so are we.  Two great causes are going to be shared.

What made you decide you wanted to have a Facebook store front?

I want to make it as simple as possible for people to help out with the water crisis.  Selling our tees on Facebook makes it simple for people to help out and to share our story.

How did you find out about Wishpond and our social shopping apps?

We actually found out about the Wishpond GoSocial Store by seeing other brands using it on their Facebook pages.  We loved the layout and the functionality of it so we decided to check into it.  We’re glad we did.

Are there any particular tips of tricks you want to share for using GoSocial Store?

Not really.  It is simple to install and functions smoothly.  It syncs so well with our site that we didn’t need to worry about having to set up a second store on Facebook.  It takes care of all that for us.  You don’t really need to know any tricks because it functions so smoothly.

Any thing else you want to add?

Thank you for building such a great app.  I love it when people help others to do something that they are passionate about.  You are providing people with great tools that help them to further their own dreams of running a business.  Thanks. You can find and support ThirstTees and their mission to bring everyone clean water at www.thirsttees.com, on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.