I originally wrote this post just after the tragedy in Haiti.  Of course, we now face the growing death toll and incredible destruction in Concepcion, Chile and surrounding cities.  Luckily, the resulting tsunami did not bring the destruction from Chile to shores across the Pacific, but we were all worried for a time….

Ahead is the cleanup, and how to help over 2 million Chileans affected for some time to come.  What will be needed, and how long will it take to get help to them after the widespread need is figured out?

Whether from terrorism or Mother Nature, disasters will continue to strike, and coordinated efforts will be required, in the news, on television and radio, and yes – here in social media.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA’S POWER TO PREPARE FOR A TRAGEDY

Although social media allows all of us to demonstrate some level of influence, the greater power has always been in the sharing of our ideas freely.  So what ideas are out there that would allow a person, group or organization to stick their proverbial toes in the social media waters, and make a big a ripple helping others in the event of another disaster?

Here are a few methods to prepare and act, broken down based on whether you are a regular person, business or organization, or the very government representing all of us.  I’ve used war-time examples (semi tongue-in-cheek) to demonstrate how we all can show our uniquely American social media style of helping others around the World, on all levels, when tragedy strikes.

ONE PERSON – GROWING A SOCIAL MEDIA VICTORY GARDEN

If you are just a “regular guy” you may be unsure as to what you can do to help, especially in light of seeing what all of the support larger companies, organizations, governments and non-profits are providing.  But there are little things you can do on your own turf, the equivalent of growing your own little “Victory Garden” during times of crisis…

1. Talk to the boss – Talk to your employer about putting together a social media campaign (see below, If You Are a Business.)  Offer your services to put together and direct the campaign when asked to do so.
2. Go local - Raise money at your local level. Hold bake sales at work, school, or place of worship.  Ask your neighborhood to hold one big yard sale.  Print out and hand out flyers encouraging neighbors to participate and donate.
3. Blog about it – Put together a blog and post your own unique viewpoint about the tragedy, and tell them what you are doing to help.  Read the blogs of others writing about the tragedy, and thank them for taking the time.
4. Letters to the editor - Write your local newspaper and encourage your entire city to do something.
5. Use your social media account - Tweet and retweet, write Facebook updates, share on MySpace.  Repeat.

CELEBRITIES! ELVIS DID IT – WHY CAN’T YOU?

It takes a war-level effort to overcome major tragedies in the World. One of the biggest periods of recruitment during any historic war we’ve been involved with, was after a major celebrity put their hat in the ring too.  Are you a celebrity or social media persona? Do you have tons of followers who actually listen to what you have to say?  During times of crisis, it is incumbent on you to use your much louder voice to reach out to others as an example.

1. Just talk about it - You have a ton of followers, and they love what you have to say.  Whether or not you have embraced the celebrity nomenclature and all that comes with it, you are in the public eye, even in social media.  Take the time to tweet and retweet messages of encouragement and support.  Share on all your social media network accounts often.
2. School your followers – Find great sources of information regarding the background of the region and its peoples, and share the links with your fans.  If you have first-hand knowledge of the location where the tragedy took place, use this knowledge to add support to your concerns.  An incredible example of this is @Alyssa_Milano who has travelled far and wide in support of others nations during tragedies.  She is friendly, knowledgeable and accessible.
3. Donate a portion of your proceeds – If you are an artist with an upcoming CD, or a movie maker with something out there in theaters, donate a portion of sales.  Fine examples of this are @JoshCharles, @BillZucker and @AriaaJaeger who are all donating a portion of the proceeds of their new CDs right now .  There are so many of you who could join in! Many of you (such as @kirstiealley) humbly keep the majority of your donating activities a secret, and I commend you for that.  But if advertising your philanthropic activities will boost sales (and therefore donations) you might want to reconsider in this case…
4. Create a storefront - Have you considered taking the lead from celebrities such as @MarielHemingway and creating an Etsy storefront?  It’s easy to do, and allows you to generate an income from selling simple items.  Etsy takes care of everything for you, including marketing and sales.  You simply collect a check! Make it known that all proceeds will go to charity, and see if people are interested in buying t-shirts or coffee mugs with your own mug on them. You have nothing to lose…
5. Sold to the highest bidder! – Find a major non-profit relief organization, and setup a partnership with them.  Ask the non-profit to establish a donation account code for the donations you personally bring to them.  Then when a tragedy occurs, take a photo of and offer up something one-of-a-kind to your followers, to the person who donates the most to your chosen non-profit using that special code.  Ask the non-profit to track and provide you the name, email address and Twitter username of the person who donated the most using that code, so you can contact the winner directly.  Tweet out the username and congratulate them!  What a thrill for your fans!

ORGANIZATIONS AND BUSINESSES: JOIN THE ALLIED FORCES!

During any major world-changing event, it has taken the combined ingenuity and support of American business (and their employees) to be victorious.  They have the shared, larger resources, ongoing consumer base, mailing distribution lists, telephone networks and web presences worldwide.  Why shouldn’t they continue to be a partner in the efforts to combat a tragedy somewhere in the World?

1. Turn off the block and turn on the love - You have employees, and many of them are on social media. Provide your employees an email or printed sheet with recommended messages of encouragement and support, or links to resources (including your own.)  Turn off the company block on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter for a week, and let your employees freely take time during their breaks or lunch hours to tweet and retweet these messages and others they find online.  Encourage them to take one post of their blogs and say something about what they are doing at work, and let them write the post during office hours…
2. Fundraising can begin at the office - Arrange for office fundraisers and support the staff in taking the time to put something grand together and develop interest.  Let the copiers or printers to be used (within reason.)  Letting your employees do something helps remove the sense of helplessness they may have as they read the news, which ultimately will help with productivity in the longrun…
3. Get the message out – Use some of those terrabytes of webspace you’ve got to highlight the tragedy, what your office is doing, how proud your company is of its efforts and employees, and what your customers can do to help.  Add a nice banner ad on the main page of your site to take people there so they can see what you are up to, and can suggest other methods to you…  Send links to the page everywhere using your newly-enabled employees!
4. Collect a Twitter Dollar - Does your business ever collect an extra buck from your customers, have them write a short message and put a little piece of colorful paper on the storefront in support of something?   If your business has a social media account (and it had better,) perform the social media equivalent.  In your stores collect that same dollar, and ask your customers to include their Twitter username on the paper.  Create a method for your store managers to send that info to corporate, so your social media people can tweet out a personalized thank you, including the donor’s Twitter username, so others on Twitter can also thank them for their donation. I will call this the Twitter Dollar concept.
5. Tweet, damnit! - Use your company’s social media account to provide hyperlinks to places to donate, to thanks others for their fine work, and what you are doing to help out.  Make sure your company has a plan for the social media maven (or mensch) to keep your followers alerted and engaged.
6. Make your customers into mini-philanthropists – Create a method for your customers to donate to help those suffering from the tragedy, simply by doing what they do anyway – purchasing from your store.  You pay people in Marketing to figure this sort of stuff out, and if they aren’t doing that good of a job, contact me and I’ll help you figure something out!  One fine example is to create a 10% off coupon offer and place it freely available online.  Tweet out a link to this coupon far and wide and ask others to retweet.  Customers who present this coupon at time of purchase are offered the chance to donate as much of that 10% savings as they’d like to your company’s efforts to help the victims of the tragedy.
7. Buddy up with the bigwigs – Discover who the social media heavy hitters are, and contact them.  They know their networks and how to communicate with their followers.  They’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Ask their advice on what else you can do to get the word out and help alleviate the effects of the tragedy.  Ask if they would work with your company to get the word out.  In exchange for this service, you could offer to highlight them for their help on your webpage.  It’s win-win…
8. Integrate it all - This is where a social media position at your company helps.  Keep a running tally of donations from your coupon offer and Twitter dollars on that great new webpage you’ve created.  Tweet out milestones and encourage others to help with each status update.  Take photos of your employees working hard to help those in need and use a photo sharing service to highlight them.  Keep track of what works and use it over and over…

GOVERNMENTS: IT’S TIME FOR THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARSHALL PLAN

The Office of Social Media Relations – I ask federal, local and state governments to consider the creation of their own Office for Social Media Relations (OSMR).  Work together to create a Social Media Marshall Plan, to provide helpful information freely to help businesses, organizations and individuals create and maintain social media marketing campaigns with the sole purpose of helping others  in need.  Develop and maintain state and federal websites with best practices used, helpful documentation, and examples.  Invite people to follow your OSMR on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace in order to receive word when a tragedy strikes, and how they can help.

I invite a newly formed Federal OSMR to provide a website where individuals, businesses and organizations can register their contact information for the purpose of partnering to help in the event of a tragedy such as Haiti using their own social media accounts.  Everyone will be offered downloadable help in creating their own Social Media Marshall Plans.  Allow the registrants to state whether they are willing to help with tragedies affecting others on a local, state, or national level (or all of the above.)

When something terrible happens, the Federal, State or Local OSMR will send a groupmail to its registrants, depending on the level of the tragedy.  Organizations will be asked to implement their own newly-created Social Media Marshall Plan to get the word out and to help.  OSMR will continue to contact and coordinate efforts in the most desirable and efficient manner, whether it be asking for money to be donated, clothing and blankets, or even transportation.

Like a ripple, the word would them move outward quickly, and in an organized manner….  From there, social media users would push the word out further in an organic manner.  Blog posts would be written, employees will see blocks to social media lifted, businesses will begin fundraising campaigns, and we can all work together as proud Americans, battling to help others once again.

Because of organized efforts of businesses and non-profits, millions of dollars have been raised quickly since the Haiti tragedy not so long ago.  People on Facebook and Twitter have made their friends and followers aware of simple $5 or $10 text message donation campaigns.  And what’s easier than sending a text message?

I give a thousand shoutouts to the many nonprofits and celebrities tweeting to others and encouraging them to donate whatever they could.  I bow before those that continue this effort to this day, realizing the enormity of the plight of those in Haiti (and now Chile,) and that it will take more than the millions of dollars already donated.

Haiti and Chile need much, much more than what has given thus far.  It is up to our government, businesses, and people like you on social media to continue the interest, and to find novel new (yet simple) ways for people to donate and get involved in helping as Winter continues for those people affected by the quakes.  It is also incumbent on those of us with the ability to do so, to create a Social Media Marshall Plan, in order to be ready for whatever tragedy the future holds.  We’re waiting to be organized.  You showed the path to using social media to get into office, @barackobama.  Now show us you remain committed to directing our new “Virtual Nation” to help others!

I encourage you to share this article with all of your local, state and federal government officials, corporations and organizations you find in social media, and your friends. Tweet our leaders and demand they read this post!

- Steve Woods