Reporting a Robbery via Facebook. Strange News?

The Associated Press reported today that a woman used Facebook to ask friends to report a robbery.

I love reading the news, not just the regular stuff but the water-cooler-conversation inducing fodder too. I was looking for a mindless diversion, something like this, “Pumpkin Found Hanging in Pear Tree” when I clocked on the “strange news” link in my e-mail this morning.

Today’s story hit a little closer to home, it was about a woman who used Facebook to ask for help after a robbery. Maybe it’s because I work where I do and stories about “tweeting for help” have become commonplace for us at the Red Cross but I think this is actually pretty common. We even did a recent study “Social Media in Disasters” that backs this up. It showed that about half of the respondents said they would consider asking for help during a disaster or to report a crime via social media channels; 3 out of 4 of those would expect help to arrive within an hour.
Would you turn to social media for help in a disaster or emergency? Have you already done so? Tell me your story.

Martha Carlos is the Communications Director at the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago

Home Fires Destroy Memories Every 80 Seconds

The American Red Cross responds to fires more than any other disaster. More than hurricanes. Earthquakes. Tornadoes. Fires occur in the United States every 80 seconds.

In Chicago, disaster volunteers are called to home fires about three to four times a day on a normal day. They arrive on scene oftentimes while firefighters are still there, and they provide families with food, shelter, infant formula, teddy bears for the kids, access to medication… whatever the family needs to survive.

This relief is almost entirely delivered by volunteers and funded by donors.

When we arrive, more often than not, we encounter families who are grateful. Though they may have lost everything, they say “thank goodness” that their loved ones survived.

“Everything else can be replaced,” they say.

When a family survives a fire without deaths or injuries, they usually first think of their pictures – the memories that can’t be replaced. One of my most striking memories as a disaster volunteer was helping this family wipe away smoke damage from baby photos that we were relieved to find intact.

With a single click, you can capture a memory with your camera and keep it forever, but only, if your home is not one of the 70,000 that will burn this year.

Today, in a single click and in a matter of moments, you can join a movement on Facebook to honor those who aren’t so lucky.

Visit http://every80seconds.com/and get a glimpse of what it’s like to lose your most precious memories. At the end of your visit, all of your photos will be fully recovered.

At some point in your life, though, someone close you will lose their photos forever to a real fire and will not be able to recover them. Be a part of their relief, before they need it.

Share the every80seconds.com experience with the people you love most.

Pledge a donation for every photo you can’t imagine life without.

Feel grateful.

Here's how your donation will help if you take the extra step to help a family that has been devestated by fire:

- $3 provides a comfort kit with hygiene items that preserves a client's diginity
- $6 provides a wool blanket to keep them warm if they are displaced
- $10 provides one meal
- $20 provides two meals
- $25 provides breakfast, lunch and dinner to a shelter resident who lost their home in a fire
- $50 provides five blankets for a family
- $75 provides food and shelter for a cleint for one day in a shelter
- $100 provides ten hot meals
- $150 provides supplies, such as soy formula, wipes, diapers, etc, to shelter one infant
- $200 provides one month's worth of emergency supplies for two families
- $1,000 saves the day - covers a day's worth of disaster response in the Greater Chicago region.

The every80seconds.com experience requires a high speed browser and internet connection, as well as Facebook connect permissions.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Griffin Lounge was the latest site of the Red Cross of Chicago’s most successful social event series for young professionals, Flirting for Disaster.

Yesterday’s event raised several thousand dollars and was host to almost 100 coquettish Chicagoans in an event created to support chapter functions and provide tips for a trendy Chicago summer.

The night was filled with playful chatter, the usual lively atmosphere of all our flirting events, and amazing drink specials all night. But it didn’t end there…There was a fashion show featuring the latest apparel from AKIRA draped over gorgeous models, complimentary appetizers for the most discerning taste buds, and a raffle with special prizes provided by our generous donors and sponsors.

The night kicked off with a Red Cross-sponsored Smirnoff cocktail reception from 6-7pm followed by a Sake tasting and the fashion show while DJ Huu T. Ly provided live music all night to set the stage for the intimate gathering of the friendly locals that migrate to our mixers.

Special thanks to Red Eye, our Media Sponsor, for getting the word out about the event. Thanks to Griffin Lounge for providing the perfect venue, great drink specials and Smirnoff for the complimentary cocktail reception. Thanks to DJ Huu T. Ly for donating his talent and providing the great beats, District 5 jewelry for displaying their gorgeous accessories, Ra Sushi for appetizers, as well as Tamarind Sushi and Southern Wine & Spirits for providing the sake tasting.

The AKIRA fashion show, with hair and beauty by Zazu Hair Salon & Day Spa really made the event come alive. Thanks to our volunteer models and the planning committee—your tireless efforts were much appreciated and truly made this a successful event!

Photos of the night’s events will be available soon at www.chicagoredcross.org/flirtingfordisaster.

Join us on August 14, 2009 at 8 p.m at the Chicago Cultural Center for our newest event, Mission: Red, The Experience Auction. You can purchase discounted tickets online if you picked up the flier at last night’s event. Or, you can purchase tickets for a discounted rate at our Pre-Sale Happy Hour next Wednesday at Goose Island, starting at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.chicagoredcross.org/missionred.

Also, become a fan of our Facebook fan page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn group!

Tweet, Blog and Follow the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago’s Annual Meeting

As an avid Facebook user throughout most of college, I did not look at Facebook as much more than a way to procrastinate when doing homework or planning a party. Shortly into my discovery of Facebook, it became something more than that. It became a way for me to talk to friends, and to share inside jokes. It became a way for me to contact my brother in Iraq when he was overseas. It helped me contact family members I had not seen in years, and for us to become reunited. It became a way to identify myself, a way to show who I am, but more importantly it became a way for me to become part of something bigger.

As a new member to Twitter, I have recently begun to realize how these social mediums have shaped our recent culture. Social media has helped interconnect to people across the globe. It helps bring a divided world together, through the sharing of information, ideas and thoughts. It unites people across the world.

For instance, working at the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, I have the opportunity to Tweet about lifesaving efforts of volunteers and let people know that there are people out there making a difference in their community. I am personally able to help connect with the local community and unite the Greater Chicago Red Cross with the people around the Chicagoland area.

Tomorrow the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago will be hosting their Annual Meeting, and will host a live tweeting of the discussion. We want you to join us in this discussion. You can join American Red Cross and those in attendance in a Live Tweet that will discuss the events of the evening.

The Annual Meeting will include a rundown of what the American Red Cross has done over the past year, how the Red Cross has helped local communities, and a look at how social media campaigns will help change the way non-profit organizations communicate with supporters in the future. Thomas Gensemer, Managing Partner at Blue State Digital, and President Obama’s “secret weapon” in the digital media campaign, will lead the social media discussion.

The Annual Meeting will be held Wednesday (tomorrow) June 17, 2009 at 6 p.m. We are inviting you to join in to our discussion on twitter.com by searching #annualmtg, or to post to our discussion on our American Red Cross of Greater Chicago Twitter page.
This is a great way for you to unite with your local community and the Greater Chicago Red Cross. So come online Tweet, Blog and Follow the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago’s Annual Meeting.

~Megan Wallace~
Marketing and Communication Intern with American Red Cross of Greater Chicago

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Given the conception of our newest Facebook page for the Mission Red event, I’d like to dedicate today’s blog entry to the social media phenomenon.

On my first HAPPY FRIDAY blog, I alluded to the prevalence of social media, and the fact that everybody’s involved. In fact, Facebook currently has more than 200 million active users worldwide, followed by MySpace at 106 million users, with Twitter quickly gaining ground as the fastest growing social media site with 55 million users.

And you’d be surprised who’s plugged in. The fastest growing U.S. demographic segment on Facebook is women age 55 and over. On a side note, Oprah is now Tweeting. In her opening tweet, she inadvertently insulted Twitterers everywhere by writing in all-caps and calling us “TWITTERS.” But she’s forgiven – she’s Oprah! And her gaffe is a sign that she’s actually writing the tweets herself, which may have changed since her initial slip-up. But I digress.

This phenomenon has really taken off, and it’s not exactly a new thing. What is new is that it’s not just us youngsters dominating this space anymore. Mommy bloggers talk about everything from diaper rash creams to tips about how to schedule a weekend quickie with the hubby. Clearly this social media thing has turned into a utilitarian tool for everyone. What used to be a venue for IT geeks and gamers trading tips and tricks about their esoteric world has turned into a true marketplace of ideas, where you can subscribe to whomever you’d like (and their theories or outlook, or whatever) and follow their every move as they posit and prose about what they think stuff means, and interpret the world from their point of view.

Meanwhile, those of you not interested in following some lame, self-absorbed raconteur can use this same social media platform to (re)connect with old friends whom you actually want to chat with, and catch up. Given the regional mobility of the US population, most of us are not living in the same place where we grew. And for those of you who are, most of your old friends probably aren’t. In that case, you can see what they’re up to and how fat, or skinny, or hot, or successful (or not) they’ve become. You can Google people and find their “social footprint” online, and even find out what other people think about them.

It’s a mixed bag, this social media thing. I personally love it, but some may find it too intrusive. A classmate did a presentation on how college football and NFL recruiters make fake Facebook pages to friend possible recruits to get the real story about them before committing. And a funny thing about this guy, someone made a fake Facebook page about him! And he’s not even a college football or NFL candidate.

And then you have people who ruin it for the rest of us, by posting stuff like the Domino’s Pizza video, or Ashton Kutcher and his ridiculous attempt at beating the biggest presence on Twitter, CNN, by advertizing to try to get more followers, which he did. This kind or blasphemy flies in the face of what it means to have a social network. If a powerful media personality or a news source uses their resources to penetrate into the social media sphere, it ceases to be genuine and it will lose its best quality – being user-generated.

The point is this social media thing is a moving target. We’re making the rules as we go, and it’s a fun ride. The best thing is that there’s something for everyone. We all have our space online, and we’re making the most of it.

One last thing – before you log off from your computer, come follow us on Facebook. It’s a bare bones page right now, but we’re working on it. We welcome any suggestions, and please, no fake profiles. There’s no dirt here pal!

Facebook Members Like Us!

We Won! Facebook Members Chose the American Red Cross as Their Favorite Charity!
With 18,582 supporting votes, the American Red Cross placed first among eight non-profit organizations in the Western Union Foundation’s Our World Gives campaign. This means that the Western Union Foundation will award the American Red Cross $50,000 in support of our life-saving mission. For more information, westernunion.com/foundation.
This support is important but we need even more help to continue our work. We’re getting busy as the cold weather increases. Last month alone we helped nearly 450 people in Chicagoland after their homes were damaged by home fires. Yesterday in Chicagoland we helped 51 people.
We’re trying to raise $30 million in the next 30 days to reach our goal in our national Campaign for Disaster Relief. Watch a video about this
Click here to help today!

Our World Gives application on Facebook

I love Facebook. I think I check it more than my e-mail. Are you using it? I think the whole world has Facebook since its expansion to users other than college students. If you’re not a Facebook user, get one! It’s amazing and now, it’s starting to support organizations’ social and charitable causes.

This week, the Western Union Company and the Western Union Foundation announced the launch of a new online platform for social giving, Our World Gives. The Our World Gives program invites Facebook members to "Do a good deed today" by mobilizing friends and family members to vote for one of the eight designated non-profit organizations including the American Red Cross. The organization with the most votes at the end of six weeks will receive a $50,000 donation from The Western Union Foundation.

The Facebook application can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/ourworldgives.

This is the easiest application to use on Facebook. Plus, it requires no money, just mouse clicks! Install the application on your Facebook page by clicking the button on the right side of the Our World Gives page. Once you do this, it’ll take you to a new page with the eight non-profit organizations listed.

VOTE AMERICAN RED CROSS!

Thanks for your support and have a safe Halloween!

-Tim Carbonara is a Marketing & Communications intern at the Greater Chicago chapter of the Red Cross. He can be seen checking Facebook on his phone every 15 minutes.