First, we wanted to thank EVERYONE who was involved in our Haiti Social Media Campaign on January 12th to mark the 2nd anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. There was an incredible outpouring of energy that worked to refocus the public’s attention on the work that still needs to be done there. As a result of so many’s concern and effort, we got great feedback and an incredible amount of attention on the projects that Aid Still Required is spearheading.
We gathered a team of volunteers at the Coffee Connection in the Venice/Mar Vista area of Los Angeles for a full day of outreach. Huge thanks to Coffee Connection for donating the beautiful space and for the great coffee! Throughout the day, our volunteers followed as our incredible group of high profile personalities posted Tweets and Facebook updates on behalf of Aid Still Required to alert their followers to the work that still needs to be done in Haiti.
It is impossible to know exactly how many people were reached by this campaign, but the numbers are staggering. Over 40 celebrities were involved with a combined following of more than 150 million people. Isn’t that incredible? AND, this is only the beginning. In addition, members of the LA Kings hockey team taped a PSA for Aid Still Required that was shown during halftime of their game at the Staples Center and on Fox Sports West. Maroon 5 also shot a great PSA for ASR that got a ton of attention on YouTube and across the internet. In addition, thousands of people like you Tweeted, re-tweeted and posted for Aid Still Required on Facebook.
All of this attention definitely had an impact. Haiti became a “trending topic” on Twitter and #AidStillRequired was the fastest growing hashtag for a period of the day. ASR doubled the number of “Likes” on Facebook and received an incredible amount of traffic on the website. Dozens of news outlets reported on the campaign. Over the course of the day, we received donations from all across the United States and from individuals in 15 different countries!
Our volunteers engaged in conversations with those discussing Aid Still Required’s projects on Facebook and thanked as many of those who retweeted on our behalf as possible. We engaged in conversation with people who had concerns about how the donations to Haiti have been spent over the last two years and explained how Aid Still Required has focused on working directly with small groups on the ground to guard against corruption and wasted funds.
It was an incredible day for Aid Still Required and for the people of Haiti as those around the world were reminded of the horrible devastation that took place there just and of all the work that still needs to be done. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your support.