All day, the world news media has been reporting on the horrendous earthquake that struck Haiti late yesterday afternoon. One of the first organizations to respond was Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean's foundation, Yéle Haiti, that sent out a tweet within about an hour of reporting the earthquake yesterday.
At approximately midnight, the Red Cross tweeted:
You can text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti.
Lutheran World Relief posted this around 11 a.m. today:
And while the Times Online has written about "Twitter's human touch amid the horror of Haiti" and noted the quick response of humanitarian organizations using social media, there seems to have been a disconnect with the general social media community.
For example, I retweeted the Red Cross message (ab0ve) to every Twitter account I have as well as posting it as a Facebook status message. Only Liz Strauss immediately retweeted it and some of her followers did the same. (They could have taken my Twitter handle off the retweet, for all I care. I was just so very glad that they sent the information on to others.)
And the silence began to bother me. It wasn't that people didn't retweet me (I don't care about that) -- it's that I wasn't seeing ANY retweets of any kind of practical information letting people know where they could give and/or how they can help.
So I got curious. And I started to research about who was posting to Twitter and Facebook about Haiti relief efforts among those to whom I am connected.
Almost NO ONE. And basically NONE of the "mavens" / leaders of social media to whom I am connected -- locally, nationally and internationally.
Tweets and status messages expounding thoughts about social media? Check. Reputation management? Check. How to "connect" with people? Check. A client's interest? Check. The latest cool tech gadget? Check.
One tweet or Facebook status message about where people can give to help the Haitian relief efforts? Not. One. Word.
Many of these people have thousands of connections that they could have reached and encouraged to help. Did they do anything within the past 24 hours -- the most important time frame when a disaster hits? No. Heck, they could have even improved some of the tweets from the organizations to be better formed in order to reach more people. Did they? No.
I won't name some of them here because I don't want to embarrass them. But today I have lost some respect for some social media leaders that I trusted.
Why? Because when they had the opportunity to help others in one small way, they did NOTHING.
And there's no amount of reputation management that can change that.
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I’m not sure what you’re seeing but I’ve seen literally hundreds of Tweets in my stream about it, including several of my own. One person Tweeted the NPR site that provides links to various relief orgs accepting donations.
Perhaps you should search on a different keyword to see all the love being spread around. Because it’s there.
@KellyRFeller
I tweeted and RT, but also saw very little until mid day. A great article. I know on my facebook page it was posted, and some of my connections it was posted. It is sad that you were unable to find anyone in your connections that did this. I do not think we are connected on twitter, or face book, but you are welcome to add me. gypsytrading is my twitter ID, gypsybyways is who I am on face book.
I admit to having my own concerns that have taken up some attention of mine (my daughter has been working in a part of the Dominican Republic near Haiti) but I’ve been seeing a LOT of social media messaging and Twittering related to the earthquake. Maybe I don’t follow the same “mavens” as you?
Dennis McDonald
Alexandria Virginia
I understand your concern but do not be too quick to judge. Just because what you were looking for wasn’t found in those streams does not mean they are doing *nothing*.
Hi Ruth:
Thought you might want to share these links I retweeted on twitter today.
United Methodist Church – 100% of all donations go directly to relief [you can donate to missions around the world as well as in Haiti]:
Help Haiti w health kits via @UMWomen http://budurl.com/ym7g press release w donation info via @umcnic http://budurl.com/24uc
From Sarah Evans, @prsarahevans, whose dedicated her commentz newsletter to Haiti today:
Help Haiti w @RedCross text-to-donate system Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 #commentz
From PRNewswire
RT @mpranikoff PR Newswire Waives Distribution Fees for #Haiti Earthquake Related News Releases – http://tr.im/KjBv
Aggregated feed From RedEyeChicago
RT @ RedEyeChicago created Twitter list on Haiti w 54 feeds covering a variety of topics. http://bit.ly/haiti-redeye
Before I share or retweet updates, I check the links out first and often change the URL to one I can track to see how many people clicked on the link.
Thanks for writing this post.
Barbara
@wiredprworks
.-= Barbara Rozgonyi´s last blog ..Prospect Practice: 7 Steps to Scout Out Ideal Target Companies =-.
I saw a lot tweets and retweets about that information on Twitter and lots of messages on Facebook. I’m not sure who was and who wasn’t posting information.
People may be responding in different ways. It’s possible the that the full force of what has happened hasn’t hit them yet either.
And I don’t know if it’s the social media “leaders” but many people will continue to be more concerned with late night talk show hosts then the real world around them .
.-= Kim Woodbridge´s last blog ..Digging Into WordPress – Giveaway!!! =-.
I didn’t tweet too much about Haiti today (though I did do a blog post on it), mostly because I don’t know what to do beyond noting a few organizations where people can donate money. And Lord knows my tweeting came alongside a virtual ocean of tweets and news stories about the disaster.
In cases were I feel like I have a unique perspective or unusual information to share, I get more vocal via social media. In cases where I’m a single voice in a chorus, I don’t feel like I have to sing quite so loudly.
I think we’re still early in the social media game — there aren’t yet established norms of behavior on which to reliably judge someone’s intent or practice.
Ruth, you’re spot on. I had tweeted a couple messages and since reading your post, posted at least a dozen messages on Twitter & Facebook. Sadly, not one message has been passed on. I have about 750 connection from these networks and have been disappointed by the SM community as a whole. I know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals that ARE spreading the messages of support, but I can’t help feeling that the immense power of SM that has been proven by the raw images, videos and stories from Haiti are not being reciprocated equally with messages that call for action.
I disagree immensely with anyone that says social media is still immature to properly channel these messages. If business like Dell are making 7 figure revenues from SM, why is it unreasonable to expect individuals to alter the content of a medium they are already using?
Sidenote – Yes, Haiti is being TALKED about. But they don’t need our pity our concerns. They need action and we need to spread those messages of action. I believe this is what Ruth is referring to and where our SM leaders and the vast majority of SM users have failed.
Hi Ruth, We got your email last night about your disappointment with KYMN Radio for not offing ways to assist in relief efforts. Never fear, as we have a post at http:kymnradio.net and social media outlets directing people to the Google Crisis Response page. We’re just not as quick as you are, but were very concerned and ready to help disseminate information.
Eric is right. They actions not pity concerns.
Great post; thanks for sharing
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