More than ever, the world is turning to social media in times of crisis to share and find information. The devastating earthquake in Chile and subsequent tsunami warnings are perfect examples of social media’s power during a disaster. The world turned to Twitter and Facebook for real-time information about the earthquake and tsunami warnings that followed.
I was glued to Twitter after I heard about the earthquake – in fact, it is where I first learned that it happened – to gather information as it became available. Recently, it seems I find myself learning of news, both good and bad, via Twitter.
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An article on FastCompany.com detailed the power of Twitter, Facebook and Google, and how these tools can help share up to the minute information, find people and facilitate donations to victims.
Twitter, Facebook, and several of Google’s properties aren’t trivial, now. They’re life-saving, informational tools…and now, news about those in Chile is traveling over the same digital pathways, with the same speed, reaching the same vast amount of people.
One of the most interesting tools in the article is Google Person Finder, which was also used after the earthquake in Haiti. It provides a central place for information about individuals that may be at risk during the earthquake or other disaster. People use Google Person Finder to either provide information about themselves or those they know, or to search for information about a party they’re concerned about.
It’s a very simple, bi-lingual tool, with two buttons: “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information about someone.” All information is entered into a central database, now consisting of over 22,000 records, that’s searched by name.
While the information on the app is unverified, it is current – and when information is constantly changing, any tool that can provide updated information is valuable.
Twitter was a valuable tool for Chilean earthquake survivors to let people know what is going on and that they are okay. Hashtags dedicated to the earthquake helped interested parties track updates from a wide variety of sources by setting up simple search filters to be notified when any updates occurred. Twitter’s real-time updates also prompted powerful organizations, like the Chilean Red Cross and Google, to use it to disseminate information.
Several different hashtags are being used as repositories of information, including #chile, #chilequake, and #terremotochile, and organizations like the Chilean Red Cross are issuing news updates via Twitter. Interestingly, Google Person Finder creates a link to a specific person’s entry, and Twitter seems to be one of the main ways those links are getting disseminated.
The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile demonstrate how social media users provide the world with up to the minute information from ground zero. They are extraordinary tools for crisis communications. It makes me wonder whether if, in a time of crisis, I would be tweeting and updating my Facebook status to let my family, friends and the world know that I am okay.
[...] Rachael Siefert posted this on October 22nd, 2010 TweetIn March, I wrote about the phenomenon of people using Twitter during natural disasters to share updates and insights from the ground and let the world know that they are okay. It seems [...]
[...] media tool or a story about the innovative ways people were using these tools, such as in the aftermath of the earthquake in Chile. While it has been tempting for public relations professionals and their clients to jump on the [...]