Last Tuesday, January 12th the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake hit Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  Once I had heard the news of the massive destruction, I immediately hopped onto my Twitter account @carolynruiz and searched for Haiti using Twitter Search .  I did this because I wanted to see the real-time news transpiring and how I could contribute to the relief efforts.  Instantly, I was able to tap into the world’s conversations and cries for help. I was moved and almost brought to tears by seeing the messages about the  horrific devastation and expected death-toll. Then I found what I was looking for, a quick post from someone saying that I could donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting the word “Haiti” to the number “90999.”  I quickly reached for my phone and sent my text. Within a few moments, I received this message: “To confirm your $10 donation to Red Cross Int’l Response Fund reply with YES.” I confirmed my contribution and received another text saying: “Thanks! $10 charged to your phone bill for Red Cross Int’l Relief.”  I then thought to myself, Wow, that’s it?!  I was actually expecting to have to enter my credit card information and thought that it might take a while to make the donation through my phone.  I have always been a huge fan of text messaging and text campaigns, however I could not believe how simple and effective the Red Cross had made it for people to contribute to the relief efforts.  With that in mind, I also thought that the only thing that would make this an even more effective mobile campaign would be to encourage people to forward the text messages to their friends once they had made a donation.  Regardless, this campaign is brilliant and has raised over $20 million and growing.

Once I made my financial contribution, I felt the need to make my viral and social contribution by posting the message for all my friends to see on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc.  Once I updated my status and sent my message, I was pleasantly surprised that many of my friend’s were inspired to spread the message through retweet’s and by updating their status with the same messaging.  I also made sure to tell my friends in person about the easy, yet effective way they can contribute.

This small example proves how a little social media can go a long way, especially in times of crisis and dire need.  At the end of the day, most people want to make a positive impact in the world.  Thankfully due to social media, even if you don’t have thousands in the bank, sharing the information with others who may be able to contribute (socially, virally, financially) is the key to gaining maximum impact.  It’s times like these where I thank technology for giving us the ability and channels to communicate these messages for the greater good.

If you haven’t already made a donation to the relief efforts in Haiti, you can easily give a $10 donation to the Red Cross by texting the word “Haiti” to 90999. Don’t forget your social responsibility to share this with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, etc to make an exponential influence on raising money for this cause. Remember, with one status update and text message at a time, we can make a difference.