by, Dana Flower
In early 2005, I joined Facebook as a high school senior hoping to scope out and connect with other soon-to-be freshmen at my chosen Arizona university. Through this then college-only social networking site, I got insider tips on classes and campus life from current students and forged relationships with fellow incoming classmates that still exist to this day. Five years later, social media has quickly transformed into an essential business tactic. As we now attempt to put a dollar amount on a follower or fan and their engagement with brands, it seems as though we were losing sight of why we originally became part of these online communities: to engage with and be emotionally connected to the people around us, not get hawked gourmet cupcakes or the latest iPhone model.
However, in light of recent devastating events around the world and in our local San Diego community, my faith in the very personal, emotional role of online networking as a connective tissue between human beings has been restored. As disaster, crime, and violence rip through our world, social media uses revert back to their roots and provide us with the tools to bring us together during the times when it matters most.
Following the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, Google launched respective Person Finder websites (http://haiticrisis.appspot.com and http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com) to help locate missing persons despite power outages and down phone lines. Individuals can register name and address information under two categories: “I’m looking for someone” or “I have information about someone”. Between the two countries, over 125,000 records are being tracked by Person Finder, helping reunite loved ones faster than via conventional search and rescue methods.
When Poway teen Chelsea King went missing, both Twitter and Facebook played a huge role in spreading related information and helping to mobilize volunteers to join the search. Missing-person posters went viral via tweets and status updates, as did up-to-the-minute news regarding her disappearance. A Facebook page, set up by Chelsea’s family with over 70,000 members at the height of the search, can surely claim at least a partial role in the gathering of more than 6,000 volunteers to aid with search efforts. Celebrities like Nick Jonas and Denise Richards even tweeted about the young girl, helping spread the word of her disappearance to their 2 million followers and offering their condolences. In the devastating situation that a death occurs in the community, as per Chelsea, social networking sites also provide a place where locals, family, and friends can mourn, share photos and stories, and support each other as they cope with their sense of loss.
And while some unfortunate events are unforeseeable, local law enforcement officials are using social media as a tactic to get the community active in crime-fighting efforts, allowing for the prevention of and improved reaction to emergency situations. With an extraordinary reach of millions of users and the immediate nature of status updates and their mobile distribution, alerts, photos, and videos regarding wanted or missing persons, crime scenes, and dangerous situations can be exchanged at the speed of light and lead to more efficient investigations and quicker arrests.
There have been an array of in-depth articles and blogs written on these “new uses” for social networks by PR and social media pros, but what many fail to realize is that these purposes are hardly new – they are the ideals that formed the foundation for social media years ago. Facebook and Twitter were designed to enhance the way we interact with other members of the human race and to help us share our identity and life with the world in a modern, authentic and emotionally expressive way.
While the purpose of social media has evolved into a valuable and unrivaled commerce tool driving business forward, it is still comforting and reassuring that during the most difficult times in life – times of chaos, violence, death, sorrow – social media has not lost its original focus of uniting and bonding us, not over a favorite celebrity or brand, but over each other.
