{"id":918,"date":"2019-09-05T21:55:23","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T11:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brolly.com.au\/?p=918"},"modified":"2020-11-12T08:46:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T21:46:02","slug":"social-media-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brolly.io\/au\/blog\/2019\/09\/05\/social-media-save-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Can social media save lives? Leveraging the power of social media in natural disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Social media is all about family photos and funny cat videos\u2014right?  Wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are communications tools, and the information they convey can serve a large number of purposes.  It\u2019s true that social media can be used to share personal information and also help marketers sell their products and services.  They can help businesses ramp up customer service by answering questions in real time. Perhaps most crucially, when push comes to shove, social media can convey critically important news for people who need it\u2014like those living through natural and man-made disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook saving lives in Syria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By 2016, the Syrian Civil War had been raging for more than 5 years, and civilians were losing their lives in the seemingly endless airstrikes from all sides.  Governments across the globe had tried everything possible to stop the war and save innocent people, but it was Facebook and a tech startup that ultimately made the biggest difference.  As Phys Org reported in 2018<\/a>:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSocial media was recently credited with reducing the number of casualties caused by air strikes in the Syrian civil war. The early warning system, developed by tech startup Hala Systems<\/a>, uses remote sensors to detect aircraft flying over the opposition-held northern province of Idlib. Alerts are then sent via Facebook\u2026to civilians and aid workers in affected areas\u2026Since its launch in 2016, the system has reportedly reduced the number of casualties in the region caused by air strikes<\/a> by as much as 27%<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With social media platforms boasting more and more users and higher levels of engagement every year, they are the ideal tool for sending out time-critical information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billions of people around the world use social media every day<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Social media sites are powerful\u2014and extremely popular.  Facebook, for example, has 2.38 billion active monthly users<\/a> around the globe, and almost half of adults in the U.S. get their news from the social media giant.  Twitter boasts an additional 369 million users, and more than 500 million people around the world use Twitter every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the surge in social media usage isn\u2019t confined to a single country. The use of social media in Australia<\/a> is surging.  There are now more than 16 million users of Facebook down under, a number that increases by almost 6% every year\u2014and Aussies on average are spending more than 1 \u00bd hours on social media every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means public officials, first responders and ordinary citizens in almost every country are able to connect with people in the grips of natural and man-made disasters using social media as an effective communications tool.  And, increasingly, that\u2019s precisely what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media’s role during natural disasters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Social media sites are of tremendous benefit in communicating and sharing critically important information during natural disasters.  They can for example be used to issue warnings when hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, floods or fires are likely to cause damage or lead to loss of life.  In addition, because there are multiple popular social media sites, there\u2019s less chance of a complete communications breakdown if one or two go down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These sites can be used in two distinct ways before, after and during natural disasters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n