When a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the nation of Haiti, Red Cross acted immediately, organizing a relief strategy that mobilized carrier and tech companies while calling the masses to action by utilizing social technology. In record time, thousands had sent texts to donate $10 to the Red Cross Relief Effort and 7 days later, an estimated 2.5 million people have sent the word HAITI to 90999.

A testament to the power of convenience (a simple text from a mobile phone) and social technologies (the Red Cross campaign went absolutely viral, leading users to promote awareness and an immediate response), the effort has been (and continues to be) a success.

And while some skeptics may still contest the importance and relevance of social media in the communication landscape, it’s clear that when all of the hype is stripped away, real-time communication platforms are extremely beneficial to its users and in cases such as this, bigger causes. Social technology has proven, yet again, that its worth lies not just in celebrity tracking and business tip sharing, but in the ability to spread a message—fast.

Can technology keep up with data volume?

This morning, an estimated 6.1 magnitude aftershock hit Haiti and twitter was set ablaze by the traffic—so much so that the micro blogging platform was taken down (by what many are assuming were tweets concerning the breaking news) for about an hour. In response to this downtime, many social technology users took to Facebook to spread the news. Users have shown an amazing ability to adapt to circumstances outside their control to continue spreading content - a hive mind of sorts.

But all things tech aside, there’s no doubt that the success Red Cross has seen in utilizing social media will lead more organizations and charities to look to Twitter and Facebook. Charitable business models of the near future will be built entirely on third party communications platforms and rely on word of mouth to bring aid where it is needed.

Stay tuned for more “social media for good” analysis—we’re just starting to dig in.

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