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Tweeting to save humanity is a pretty lofty goal, but it’s not beyond reach for Jackie Mitchell, Marketing/Communications Director of the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago. Mitchell (@Your_MsSunshine) had amazingly vivid and attention-grabbing stories about how the volunteer-driven (90% volunteers) Red Cross is using Twitter to literally try to save people when disaster strikes. She recently shared her account with digital PR professionals attending the 4th Annual Ragan Communications Conference for Social Media PR and Corporate Communications.
The Great Groundhog Day Blizzard in Chicago, Feb 1, 2011 pounded the metropolitan area with nearly 2 feet of snow in a matter of hours. Snowfall measuring 20.2 inches (officially at O’hare Airport) and heavy winds stranded hundreds of commuters in their cars on Chicago’s heavily traveled roadway, Lake Shore Drive.
All lanes were jammed with vehicles that were either stopped for or involved in accidents or had simply run out of gas. As they waited in their lanes, blowing snow turned cars into giant snow drifts and left people stranded for more than 10 hours in some cases without food or water. The city urged drivers to stay in their cars, but offered little information about when and what kind of help would be coming.
Research by the Red Cross shows that 74% of those surveyed believe an emergency responder would hear an SOS tweet. “They believe you would respond within an hour –the public thinks your listening. People think if they tweet about an emergency, than someone will come with help. The Red Cross is continually looking for ways to do things differently so we can respond.” Mitchell said Twitter just happened to be the right tool at the right time.
“Chicago Red Cross started preparing for the blizzard because we knew everyone would be talking about it. By following popular hashtags such as #snOMG, #ChicagoBlizzard, @snowmageddon, #snowpocalypse and #snoprah – we immediately saw what people were talking about and then began engaging with them. Mitchell says the Red Cross has learned early on in their own Twitter presence that “to mobilize or move someone to act or donate, you have to understand what their shared value is. Our “voluntweeters” know that too and they began tweeting the dire situation to their followers. We soon caught media attention. In some cases, reporters found the Red Cross tweets more timely than information coming from official sources.
“We found ourselves functioning like a news source, and later learned how many media outlets were referring to us,” Mitchell said. “When disaster strikes, it’s common for our social media conversation to drive the traditional media conversation.”
Providing information remained secondary to its main mission – helping those in need. Volunteers, many of whom were identified through Twitter crowdsourcing, converged on Lake Shore Drive, distributing water and food to those stranded in cars until warming buses arrives to take them to Red Cross shelters. More than 360 commuters were taken to shelters that night.
Mitchell says search and rescue during a disaster isn’t something the Red Cross typically does (most local aid goes to helping families displaced by house fires). But Mitchell says that matching people who wanted to help with people who could help was the right thing to do to “honor” their community.
“It wasn’t our niche, but it was our community. We honored community and they responded afterwards with gratitude by making donations, giving blood and offering to volunteer,” she said.
There are many lessons from the Chicago Red Cross’ Blizzard response. Donations and volunteers are the lifeblood of the Red Cross — without either the Red Cross would cease to exist. She says the Blizzard of 2011 proved once again, that finding those who need your help, mobilizing followers to act, and genuinely engaging with all audiences leads to real results. The proof? Mitchell says Red Cross tweets, news and updates generated so much good will and credibility among the community, that offers of cash, blood donations and volunteer assistance immediately followed the snow storm.
If you’d like to donate blood, cash, or your own time to the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, go to http://www.chicagoredcross.org and Donate Now!
You can also go to the Chicago Red Cross Flickr stream or YouTube Channel to see volunteers in action on and following the Great Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011! Here’s a YouTube video interview of a Lake Shore Driver rescued by the Red Cross. He’s a teacher at Clara Barton Elementary School — an amazingly funny coincidence, since Clara Barton is the founder of the American Red Cross!
Great blog post! If you are deeper interested in digital disaster management, visit our homepage! We also engaged in #snomg as in several other disasters.
From March 29-31 we will take part at the #X24Europe – which might also be of interest: http://www.eushare.org
Keep on blogging! Best wishes!
Thanks Christoph for sharing your thoughts. This is an intriguing digital frontier and Twitter and Facebook become even more credible when they prove how world-changing they can be! Thanks for the additional info about what HumanityRoad is doing. Best of luck! Michelle
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Michelle, What a wonderful celebration of volunteerism this blog is! So many people, agencies and tools contributed to the Red Cross movement in action during the blizzard. While I feel we’ve only scratched the surface of what is possible in crowdsourcing disaster relief, the Chicago blizzard taught us one thing — there is no shortage of people who want to help. That is progress, and that is priceless. If anyone reading this wants to help us become better at crowdsourcing during disaster, please follow #crisisdata and read The Path Forward – a white paper addressing volunteer work groups that are tackling parts of the solution. You can find it on the Red Cross blog.
I said it that night and I’ll say it again… “There is nothing quite like watching the Red Cross movement, move!”
Thanks Jackie for your comments. I truly believe that Twitter is turning a corner in pop culture. It will no longer be the butt of jokes when people start hearing about how smart people and organizations are using it to save lives and change the world. What the Chicago Red Cross did during the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011 was ingenious, and I’m sure many others are paying attention to Twitter’s amazing potential. Thanks for sharing your story at Ragan’s Social Media conference this week. You turned heads and opened a LOT of eyes!
Michelle–
Great blog post capturing the Chicago Red Cross efforts during the Chicago Blizzard. I was actually one of the voluntweeters during the worst part of the storm when everyone was stuck on Lake Shore Drive. Our marketing team created a spreadsheet of times for tweeting and I had the 6pm-12am shift and believe me, I was not expecting the experience that I got out of it.
Jackie is completely right about playing “matchmaker” through Twitter that night. You always hear about the power of crowdsourcing and the way it can be used but until you are actually thrown in the middle of it, you don’t fully understand how beautiful it can be. I was sitting at my computer for six hours straight and did not stop searching for people who needed preparedness tips, help finding family members and friends, or just need a general sense of what was actually happening at Lake Shore Drive. By searching “Lake Shore Drive” & “stuck” or “Blizzard” & “Help” along with other hashtags like #SNOmg, I was able to find the people that needed our safety tips and aid.
The most powerful part in my opinion was when the community starting helping one another. For example, someone would tweet the @ChicagoRedCross account: “Are there any warm places near Lake Shore Drive that stranded people can get to safety? My car is out of gas & I’m freezing.” I would then retweet this to the community and ask if anyone had any insights. This planted the seed for the crowdsourcing as people started to retweet to their followers and look up information. Soon enough, we had answers and the information was relayed back to the original tweeter.
The experience was just proof of how the Chicago community can come together in desperate times and the power that social media now holds during emergencies.
Huge thanks to everyone who helped out during the blizzard, whether it be Red Cross volunteers or concerned Chicagoans. The city really worked together in a time of need.
And again, great blog post Michelle!
Lauren
Lauren, your insights and experiences are amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to write about it on my blog. I would love to hear from other volunteers as well, so please do encourage them to come here and tell their stories. The city of Chicago should be turning to you for how they too can use Twitter for emergency services. What a great example you’ve set!
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Great post, Michelle! Love examples of social media being used effectively.
Regards,
Ritch
Thanks Ritch for the comment. I learned about this during a social media conference and was in awe of what the Red Cross was doing. It’s amazing how innovative you become when you have no budget! Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts.
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