Social Media Really Does Work!

Tragedy struck the Haitian people with one of the most devastating earthquakes ever.  The earthquake‘s epicenter just  hit outside the main city of Port-au-Prince where thousands of people were killed.  Today’s brief by Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, said that it was too early to tell how many people died and how many survivors.  Some say it could be up to 100 thousand.

The state department in conjunction with the American Red Cross set up a text message that people who want to donate can send a text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 and the $10 will be billed to the cell phone.

How did social media respond?  Thousands of people on line across every social media site either had this message on their status updates or their tweets to get the word out.  As a result, according to Clinton, more than $3 million was raised for the people of Haiti.

Interesting to see how powerful social networking and social media are and how much can be raised through this medium.  And now, I’m going to text “Haiti” to 90999 to do my part and donate to the cause.  I hope you will too…