Social Media, Disasters and Helping the Community

I wrote this a few weeks ago……

This weekend I learned all about wildfires: up close and personal.  It all started with an erie cloud overhead we were talking with some friends on our driveway.  Now, in drought striken Texas dark clouds are a good thing, but this one seemed a bit different.   Then we started to smell smoke.  We do not have cable TV but a quick check of Twitter, Facebook and the local news sites showed that there were several major fires in our area.  They were spreading quickly, people were evacuating and buildings were burning. The top trending hashtag on Twitter was #centralTX fires so we started to check it regularly.  On Facebook we “liked” our town blog, Dripping Springs Babble, to get the latest news about the fire closest to us.  I then started to follow the twitterers who posted the most relevant information/updates.  We packed a a getaway bag and made an evacuation plan, but luckily we did not need implement it.  Others were not so lucky, but the community rallied  and social media sites which yesterday kept us informed, today told us about fundraisers, supply drives and ways we could participate.  All of this made me think about social responsibility during great tragedies, and how social media can elevate the efforts of a small business to match that of  larger, well-known organization.

1. If you post relevant and needed information people will follow you.  Dripping Springs Babble, did a great job on keeping the local community informed on the latest evacuations, road closures and fire department updates.  I estimate that more than half of the comments were thanking the owners of this small business, for providing the neighborhood details faster than traditional news media.  Now people remember this site as active member of the community who did the right thing.
2. This is not the time to advertise.  On the #centraltxfires (twitter catergory), people publically berated people who posted anything other then sympathy, or fire information.  You logo, image or page is enough for people to associate you with good deeds.
3. Once the danger has passed, leading fundraising efforts will be appreciated.  Donate your services, product, facility or time, and use social media sites to raise awareness.
4. Develop a way to measure the benefit your efforts helped everyone.  Knowing hat 100 people liked your facebook page and posted 60 comments saying thank you, really does make it worthwhile.