Stephen Thomas: Marketing for a Better World

The reaction to the recent devastation in Haiti has demonstrated how quickly people all over the world can unite around a common cause. However, it's also highlighted how far the internet and social media have come.

The way relief efforts are now managed has changed in a heartbeat. Social media acts as a central forum for people to interact and share information, ideas and support. In fact, with Twitter and other social media, we now have access to real-time updates enabling anyone to offer financial support instantaneously.

For example, the night of the earthquake, Twitter users overwhelmed the service with updates. Those following the hashtag #haiti witnessed up to four thousand updates within seconds.

Hip-Hop artist, Wyclef Jean, founder of Yéle Haiti, a charitable organization active in Haiti, reached out to his Twitter followers with minute-to-minute updates shortly after the earthquake hit, and the response was astounding:

• At 5:23 pm: #warriors news! Haiti just got hit with a Major Earthquake please call your family out there now!.


• Eighty-two minutes later he reached out to his followers again: Text “Yéle” to 501501 to make a $5 donation to Yéle Haiti.


• Thirty-nine minutes later, the Yéle donation system crashed from the response.

But Tweets about Haiti didn't just come from concerned people all over the world. They came from victims trapped under rubble looking for someone to save them. #rescuemehaiti

And there have been other uplifting developments as well. In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Google created a database for missing persons to centralize the information entered by loved ones.
http://haiticrisis.appspot.com

There are few experiences in life that can be truly defined as global. But after witnessing the response to this crisis, the world certainly seems to be making the most of a good thing.