I wish that organizations like the Red Cross didn’t have to exist, I really do.
But we live in a fragile world. Given that tsunamis, hurricanes, local fires, explosions, tornados, terrorist attacks, pandemics, and other disasters can strike small or large groups of people spontaneously, perhaps it’s not such a bad idea to link into the many offerings of the Red Cross (I’m still in the process myself).
As of today, here are the official places that the Red Cross has set up:
- The blogosphere: Red Cross Chat, Good News Blog, Red Cross Youth
- Flickr: American Red Cross photo pool
- YouTube: American Red Cross channel
- LinkedIn: American Red Cross badge
- Facebook: American Red Cross Group and Cause
- Twitter: Red Cross disaster information
- Podcasts: A few small audio experiments
- I’m Making a Difference: i’m Initiative
I checked to see if the Red Cross is on FriendFeed and it looks like Joe has claimed it. Hey Joe, where you going with that…FriendFeed account in your name? I don’t know who Joe is but I hope he has good intentions for staking out RedCross on FriendFeed.
If you are Joe, and you’re not affiliated with the Red Cross, would you be a hero and offer it up to its namesake organization? There are literally millions of lives who you could affect. (If you do give it to the Red Cross, you could just say you held it with purely altruistic intentions and maybe you’ll get a ton of gratitude (and traffic). Just a thought.)
Which raises a point: what do you think about the rights of charitable organizations to stake claims on current and future social media sites?
To read more about how the Red Cross is using Web 2.0 check out their page on Social Media.
Phil Baumann 
[…] Release Widget Available Recently, blogger Phil Baumann wrote a post about what the Red Cross is doing with social media. His post offered a feed of our press releases. Please feel free to grab the code […]
I agree with the sentiments above.. Red Cross was instrumental in one of my most vivid memories growing up..
The 1990 Plainfield Tornado…
I was just a kid, but I remember all the Red Cross volunteer setups in my neighboring town
Cheers!
scott
@ Strong One
You’re welcome. Just trying to help spread the word. A lot of organizations are a bit behind, so I was glad to see the American Red Cross get up to speed.
Yet again.. great food for thought.
Thanks for the info, I was not aware of the diversity of the American Red Cross.
@Phil glad to hear you’ve added the Chat to your reader. I’ll keep you posted on badges.
If you’re interested in adding any banners for the current disaster, you can email me directly. We’re really trying to get the word out right now especially.
@ Claire
Thanks for contributing. Glad to see the Red Cross using available means to get the word out.
Red Cross Chat is now in my reader. Keep me posted on any new badges for bloggers to embed.
Hi Phil. This is Claire from the American Red Cross. Thanks for writing about all the things we are doing.
Currently we are responding to the central US floods and I wanted to share with you some of the social media we’re using to get our message out. We’ve created an online newsroom (http://redcrossmidwestflooding.wordpress.com/) for the media to get information about shleters and services. Additionally, press releases, photos, audio, and video are all being posted. Just one more way the Red Cross is using social media and social media platforms to help out those in need.