The Disasters Emergency Committee, ActionAid and Save the Children have been making full use of social media tools available to raise money and share information about the relief effort in Nepal following last week’s earthquake.
Disasters Emergency Committee on Storify
The DEC set up a Storify blog, which it has embedded in a page on its own site, to collate updates from its 13 member agencies and their supporters.
Over 5,000 people are known to have died and an appeal on behalf of DEC members, fronted by Joanna Lumley, raised £19m in the first 24 hours.
Why we love it: Storify is a great collation tool to bring content from different platforms into one space and by using this tool the DEC has been able to show potential supporters the work its different members are involved with.
ActionAid’s interactive map
ActionAid is running its own live blog and has created an interactive map using Google Maps to show supporters exactly where it is working in Nepal.
It is also posting pictures of the people it’s helping and sharing details about its aid packages, using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and has used Soundcloud to share clips of its staff being interviewed.
Why we love it: the map is a great way of highlighting the difficult terrain that ActionAid and others are operating in.
Save the Children vlogging behind the scenes from Nepal
Since Save the Children staff arrived on the ground one of the charity’s communications team has been filming short behind-the-scenes videos showing how the charity is helping.
Why we love it: the vlogs feel very personal and are a nice counterbalance to some the professional appeal films out there, helping to give a real sense of the basic conditions staff are encountering.
Dogs Trust get involved with the office dog debate
Earlier this week a women’s lifestyle site, Emerald Street, asked its readers to vote on the controversial issue of office dogs.
Unsurprisingly the team at the Dogs Trust are all for office dogs, and produced an infographic featuring some cute puppies to prove it.
Why we love it: despite the fact that the office dog debate is a sore point in Civil Society Towers (our neighbours have one but we don’t), getting involved in conversations like this on Twitter is a great way to reach out to new supporters.
