An effort to raise money for four cancer charities on the social-networking sites Twitter and Facebook has set a Guinness World Record, the Web site Mashable reports.

Web users were invited to use the phrase #BeatCancer as part of the online fund-raising effort. Every time the phrase was used on Twitter, Facebook, or on a blog, corporate donors eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors agreed to donate one penny. Individual donors are also encouraged to contribute to the effort.

Contributions are to be split among four cancer-related organizations — Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Bright Pink, Spirit Jump, and Stand Up for Cancer.

The effort took off quickly, showing up at the top of Twitter’s list of “Trending Topics” — the site’s list of the most popular phrases. #BeatCancer remains No. 4 on the list as of this writing.

During one 24-hour period from October 16 to October 17, the phrase was mentioned more than 209,000 times. Guinness has since verified that total as the most widespread social network message.

In that stretch, the effort raised more than $70,000 for the four charities, organizers say.

The organizers report that #BeatCancer has been mentioned more than 623,000 times since the campaign started on October 16.

What do you think of this effort? Should nonprofit fund raisers be working to arrange similar campaigns — or are such efforts difficult to pull off for most groups? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.