NGOs responding to Crisis: Using Social Media to Meet New Challenges, The Case of Haiti
1. NGOs Responding to Crisis:
Using Social Media in Meeting New Challenges
The Case of Haiti
Danielle Lazarowitz
UN Department for Public Information, NGO Cluster
Communication Workshop
February 24, 2010
2. Table of Contents
1. What is Social Media?
- The Rise of Web 2.0
- Changes in Media and Marketing
2. How has the Relationship between NGOs and the Internet Changed?
- Transnational Activism
- Building Online Communities
- Virtual Diplomacy
3. What are the New Types of Technologies Available?
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Multimedia
- Cellular Technology
4. Case Study: Social Media and the Earthquake in Haiti
5. Further Reading
6. Next Steps
3. Strategic Objectives
Using Social Media Can…
• Deliver programs and services for public benefit
• Fundraise for a specific objective
• Create Public Awareness
4. What is Social Media?
Social media is “an umbrella term that defines
the various activities that integrate technology,
social interaction, and the construction of words,
pictures, videos, and audio.”
http://www.wikipedia.com
5. What is Social Media?
Social Media Users:
• 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology (Forrester, The
Growth of Social Technology Adaptation, 2008)
• 2/3 of the global internet population visits social
networks (Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009)
• The average online user who uses social networking
sites visits these sites 5 days a week and checks in 4
times a day or the equivalent of one hour (Anderson Analytics 2009)
6. What is Social Media?
The Rise of Web 2.0 2004:
2003:
Flickr
Facebook
1999: 2002: 2005: 2008:
Blogger Friendster YouTube Posterous
2004:
Early 1990s: 1998: 2001: Digg 2006:
Personal Google Wikipedia TwiLer
Computers, 2003:
the internet,
MySpace
and email
become
mainstream 2003:
Del.icio.us
8. What is Social Media?
Changes in Media and Marketing:
• Social Media focuses on talking with your intended
audience instead of at them
• Social Media personalizes the “brand”
• The organization’s message can be spread in a relaxed
and conversational way
• Social Media allows for conversation not just with clients,
members, or customers, but also peer organizations
9. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
According to a new 2009 survey by Weber Shandwick/
KRC Research:
88% of Nonprofits have experimented with Social Media
However
Only 51% are active users
52% do not have the infrastructure, staff, and expertise needed to
take full advantage of social media potential
And 79% of nonprofit executives have yet to determine the
true value of Social Media for their organization
10. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
Transnational Activism:
• “The coordinated international campaigns on the part of
networks of activists against international actors, other
states, or international institutions.” (Della Porta and Tarrow)
Example
• The movement to ban landmines – 1997 Ottawa Treaty
• Diverse Coalition (NGO-State Partnerships)
11. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
Building Online Communities:
• Creates digital communication channels rather than
face-to-face
Example:
• Kiva.org
• Peer to Peer Micro-lending online community
• Over $100 million loaned in 4 year
12. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
13. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
14. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
15. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
Virtual Diplomacy:
• State Department’s Virtual Foreign Service Program
• Launched in May 2009, allows university students to be
partnered with embassies abroad using digital technology to
conduct diplomacy
• First location is in Iraq, where a student from the University of
Wisconsin has used videoconferencing, Facebook, blogging, and
email to connect Americans and Iraqis
16. How Has the Relationship Between
NGOs and the Internet Changed?
Virtual Diplomacy:
17. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication: Multimedia:
• Blogs • Photo Sharing
• Micro Blogs • Video Sharing
• Social Networking
Collaboration: Cellular Technology:
• Wikis • Information Sharing
• Social Bookmarking • Fundraising
18. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication:
• Blogs • Social Networking
• Blogger • Facebook
• LinkedIn
• WordPress
• MySpace
• Tumblr
• Micro Blogs
• Twitter
19. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication - Blogging:
• A type of website that is composed of regular entries of
commentary, descriptions of events or other materials.
• Interactive by allowing readers to leave comments
• There are currently over 120 million blogs on the web,
growing every day
20. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication:
Blogging
21. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication – Micro-Blogging:
• Enables users to send and read messages known as
“Tweets”
• Text based posts of 140 or less characters
• Post can be statements, links to articles or other web pages,
comments to other Twitter users and more
• Third most used social network with 6 million unique
monthly visitors
• Allows users to “follow” or subscribe to other user’s
posts
22. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication:
Micro-Blogging
23. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication – Social Networking:
Facebook
• Currently has more than 250 million active members
• Facebook page
• Free public profile that allows users to become a “fan”
• Offers ability to post photos and news, create events, and offer
discussion boards
• Creates seamless interface with Facebook Ads that are inexpensive
and extremely targeted
24. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Communication:
Social Networking
25. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Collaboration:
• Wikis
• Wikipedia
• Google Groups
• Social Bookmarking
• Delicious
• Google Reader
26. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Collaboration - Wikis:
• Wikipedia
• Web-based collaborative encyclopedia
project
• 13 million articles
• Articles can be edited by anyone
• Google Groups
• Support groups created on common
interests
• Creates listservs, mailing lists, and
discussion boards
27. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Collaboration:
Wikis
28. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Collaboration – Social Bookmarking:
• Delicious
• Web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web
bookmarks
• More than 5 million users and 150 million bookmarked
URLs
• Google Reader
• RSS feeds are feeds of blog content
• RSS or Really Simple Syndication provides summaries of
web content in a simple format. These feeds show what is
new since the last time you checked the feed, without
having to visit the website itself.
• Web-based aggregator of RSS feeds
29. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Collaboration:
Social
Bookmarking
30. What are the Types of Technologies
Available?
Collaboration:
Social
Bookmarking
31. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Multimedia:
• Photo Sharing
• Flickr
• Photobucket
• Video Sharing
• YouTube
• Vimeo
32. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Multimedia – Photo Sharing:
• Flickr
• Image and video hosting website and online community
platform
• Hosts over 3.6 billion images
• Allows images to be uploaded and “tagged”
• Users can comment on photos
• Similar to Facebook’s photos application
33. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Multimedia:
Photo Sharing
34. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Multimedia – Video Sharing:
• YouTube
• Allows posting of videos and video clips
• Users can create their own channel
• Viewers can comment on videos
• Videos are easily uploaded
35. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Multimedia:
Video Sharing
36. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Cellular Technology:
• Information Sharing
• Text Blasting (Bulk Messaging)
• Smart Texting
• Fundraising
• mGive
37. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Cellular Technology - Information Sharing:
• 3.5 billion mobile phones in the world
• In developing countries phones are much more widespread
and more commonly used than the internet
• SMS – Send up to 160 character text message to
supporters
• Mobileactive.org is a great resource for more information
38. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Cellular Technology - Information Sharing:
Text Blasting (Bulk Messaging)
• A single message (of 160 characters) sent to a group of
users, similar to a mass email
• Build a network of mobile supporters
• Utilize existing organizational contact lists
• Place mobile number request on your website, blog, Twitter,
and Facebook page
• Request mobile numbers at offline events
39. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Cellular Technology - Information Sharing:
Smart Texting
• An automatic response is sent to a supporter when they
send text a certain keyword to the organization’s number
• Example
• AIDS.gov National HIV Testing Day Campaign
• Text 566948 with the message KNOWIT and your zip code to find
your local HIV testing location
• Blue Ocean Institute FISHPHONE Campaign
• Text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of fish
to find out whether the fish is sustainable
40. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Cellular Technology – Fundraising:
• mGive.com
• Raise money through text message donations
• Allows supporters to send a text message using your keyword
and short code to send $5 or $10 donations
• Donation cost is automatically applied to cell phone bill
• No credit card necessary
• mGive does charge NGOs a small monthly fee
41. What are the New Types of Technologies
Available?
Cellular Technology – Fundraising:
42. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Communication Multimedia
• Blogs • Flickr
• Twitter • YouTube
• Facebook
Collaboration Cellular Technology
• Wikipedia • Information Sharing
• RSS Feeds • Fundraising
43. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Communication – Blogs
There have been over 1 million blog posts about Haiti since the
earthquake, with almost half a million posts occurring within a
week of the quake.
There are four main types of blog posts:
• First Response
• Appeal for Volunteers and Donations
• Informational
• Keeping a Crisis in the News
52. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Communication – Twitter
Extremely effective in a crisis situation in spreading information
in a very quick manner. Useful in periods of first response, relief,
and recovery.
“We already had about 30 international staff and 700 Haitians working on the ground when the
earthquake struck, so our first hours were making sure our staff was OK. It was only in the days
after that we realized Twitter and Facebook could be used as a way to mobilize and get some of
our teams off the ground.
In many regards, it was Twitter and the conversations we had with Ann [Curry] through Twitter that
removed some of the obstacles. We just started sending Twitter posts out raising the question:
Why aren't our planes able to land? Eventually, the Air Force's Twitter feed itself was responding.
By Wednesday, we were getting calls from the very highest levels of government trying to
facilitate the landings of the planes we needed. It clearly was a fire-starter to have this sort of
communication online.”
Doctors Without Borders Communications Director Jason Cone
on the benefits of Twitter during the crisis in Haiti
54. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Communication – Facebook
A tool used to aggregate text, photos, video, links, and
comments for organizations.
For Haiti, Facebook:
• Helped users find information on lost or missing individuals
• Spread information
• Over 1,500 status updates a minute regarding Haiti immediately after
the earthquake
• Encouraged donations
57. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Collaboration
The least important aspect of social media during a crisis
situation, yet still provides a resource for those individuals
searching for information.
• Wikipedia
• RSS Feeds
60. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Multimedia – Photo and Video
The first visual pictures of the earthquake came from internet
sources like Flickr and TwitPics. Video was later used to show
first the devastation, and later the relief and recovery effort.
Multimedia puts a human face on a crisis and makes it more
personal.
Currently there are…
• Over 25,000 images relating to the earthquake on Flickr
• Over 35,000 videos relating to the earthquake on YouTube
64. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Cellular Technology
The biggest game changer for the future of relief and recovery
response to crisis situations.
• Information Sharing
• Smart Texting
• Fundraising
• Largest ever mobile fundraising campaign
65. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Cellular Technology – Information Sharing
Haitians were told to text 4636, free of charge, with their
emergency info and location.
This led to:
• Finding and rescuing those individuals stuck in rubble
• Relieving needs at tent camps
Once text message information was analyzed, it was
then sent to the appropriate organization to assist
with the issue.
66. Case Study: Earthquake in Haiti
Cellular Technology – Fundraising
Already over $35 million dollars have been raised for Haiti relief
through cell phones, with $3 million raised for the Red Cross in the
first 48 hours.
• Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
• Text QUAKE to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
• Text HABITAT to 25383 to donate $10 to Habitat For Humanity
• Text OXFAM to 25383 to donate $10 to Oxfam
• Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee
• Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
• Text YELE to 501501 to donation $5 to Yele
• Text RELIEF to 30644 to get automatically connected to Catholic Relief Services
and donate money with your credit card
• Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way
• Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation
• Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International
67. Further Reading
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International
Politics by Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink
Transnational Protest and Global Activism by Sidney Tarrow and
Donatella della Porta
Cyberprotest: New media, Citizens and Social Movements by Wim
vand de Donk, et. al.
globalvoicesonline.org
backspace.com/action
causes.org
mobileactive.org
68. Next Steps
Hire an intern to focus exclusively on your social media campaign
or
Utilize an existing “web” focused employee i.e. website manager
Start off with Facebook first, then move to a blog and twitter page, and eventually a
YouTube and Flickr account
Try to create 2-3 posts per week on each of your social media pages to start
This can include a combination of links to news articles, opinion pieces,
organizational news, upcoming events, photos and video
This should not take more than 1 – 2 hours a week
The more posts the better
Consider utilizing a site like posterous.com
where everything can be done via email
