The Red Cross has released the results of a survey of just over 1,000 respondents on how people use and expect to use social media during a disaster. The results are pretty striking.
A couple of highlights:
- Nearly 3-in-4 respondents use at least one online community or social network. Facebook was by far the most popular (58%). And MySpace still has a healthy lead on Twitter.
- Of those who use social media, nearly half participate every day, or practically every day. Over 80% participate at least once a week.
- The vast majority would use Facebook to post information about their safety. Again, nearly all using Facebook.
- More than two-thirds agree that response agencies should regularly monitor and respond to postings on their websites. Do you have somebody watching your community’s sites?
There’s more, including an interesting look at some of the differences between how two selected age groups (18-34 vs 35+) use social media. It’s a quickly viewed slide deck. You can download it from Red Cross here (PDF).