Amid questions such as "how can one monetize social media friends and followers?" at events for "Social Media Week" here in NY, some are working on, shall we say, more noble causes. The following is a guest post from Paull Young, social media strategist at Converseon on the charity work he is doing with many others for "Twestival," a series of 'tweet up' events in over 175 cities around the globe in aid of innovative New York based non-profit charity:water.

The Twestival has come together rapidly in just the past month as a collection of volunteers have united under the Twestival umbrella to work towards a new goal of raising $1 million for charity:water to provide sustainable clean water for developing communities in desperate need.

The NYC event will be one of the world's largest with over one thousand attendees expected to attend alongside the charity:water team and the funky sounds of Eclectic Method. Every cent of the ticket price and donations will be donated directly to charity:water and in turn 100% of these funds will be contributed directly to targeted clean water projects.

The event capitalizes on the tight knit network of influential Twitter users and sees a true grassroots movement using social media for social good. It also indicates yet another step towards the mainstream for Twitter with coverage from the likes of event Media Partners Mashable and Live Earth and media coverage continuing to flow in.

$1 million for clean water is an ambitious goal, but with 1.1 billion people without access to clean water and 42,000 deaths occurring every week from contaminated water (90% of which are children under 5 years old) there's a need for events of this scale to help find solutions. Check out charity:water founder Scott Harrison's video message to see just why this event matters:



How can you help? Simple: Buy a ticket to this Thursday's event, donate to charity:water, and help us all spread the word!

Paull Young is a social media strategist at Converseon and a member of the NYC Twestival organizing team. He blogs at Young PR and you can find him on Twitter @paullyoung.