August 25, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
As Hurricane Irene barrels toward America’s East Coast, many people will be turning to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to communicate—and they expect nonprofits that provide disaster aid to do the same, according to a new survey by the American Red Cross.
Eighty percent of Americans said they expect national relief groups to monitor their own social-media feeds as well as the Web sites where disaster victims might make urgent requests for help. And they expect those groups to act quickly. About 35 percent of those surveyed said that it is reasonable to expect assistance to arrive within an hour after a request for help is posted online.
The survey relied on data from 1,046 adults who responded to an online poll and 1,011 adults who took a telephone survey.
Despite their high expectations, nearly half of Americans thought it “likely” that their requests on social networks would go unnoticed by national organizations, and almost as many said that about local groups.
Only a quarter of Americans want safety alerts and other information to be issued through social networks, smartphones, or e-mail.
For charities, the survey results pose a “difficult challenge,” says Trevor Riggen, senior director of disaster services at the American Red Cross. This is especially true for the Red Cross, which has a social-media following of more than 366,000 Facebook fans and 500,000 Twitter followers.
“Meeting that expectation of one hour is a hard number to me right now,” says Mr. Riggen.
