Previously I've written stories on when social media has been twisted and manipulated for evil purposes such as in the case of the Mumbai attacks, but what this past week has shown us is that in moments of crisis and need, social media can be utilised to do immense good.

It has been a week since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks hit the Caribbean island of Haiti, but when the world first started to see the images coming out of the disaster area, a mass outpouring of support and aid was sent out via the likes of Twitter and other networks.

With most power and phone lines down, journalists that were on site, such as @CarelPedre, sent out some of the first images of the destruction via their Twitter accounts sharing them with thousands who proceeded to retweet them forwards.

Online generosity

As the world saw the plight of the Haitian people, they expressed their anguish and support with the likes of a charity text message campaign, which has alone raised more than $10 million for Haiti victim relief. What is even more astounding is that this amount was raised by people simply donating small amounts of $5 and $10.

On top of that, more than $3 million has been donated to the Red Cross via social media networks. While this may pale in comparison to the nine figure sums donated by governments, it does show that those that use social media technology do not, as their critics claim, simply use it to talk about themselves.

With over $40 million being donated from nongovernmental sources in the first 48 hours after the quake, the Haiti earthquake has shown the humanitarian benefits of social media as well as its informational purpose.

Criticism

While people may be donating money to help with aid relief, there has been concerns that the money sent by text won't reach victims soon enough, as text-based donations are paid through the customers' cell phone bills, and thus payment can be delayed up to three weeks or so.

However, the Red Cross has said that they will spend the money now and count on donors to honor their commitments when the bill comes.

Up to the minute news

Currently, those waiting to hear of news of friends and family in Haiti are using the likes of Facebook and Twitter to find out the latest, even reading blogs to find out which regions of the country have been hit the hardest, searching for news of their loved ones.

As such live blogs and live tweets from reporters on the ground have been invaluable. It is just another example of how major news networks such as the BBC and CNN are embracing social media to provide the most up-to-date view of events possible. Two years ago, CNN set up iReport - a section of its website where people can upload video material, with contact information - enabling social media to become a legitimate source for its news gathering. Over the past week, images and reports have been frequently sent to the site. When communications first went down in the country, 218 quake iReports from Haiti were sent to CNN along with 212 reports of missing loved ones, with 13 of them being verified.

What is clear is that despite critics saying social media networks are the death of face-to-face communication and personal relationships, devastating incidents such as Haiti can unite people with a common purpose and the likes of Twitter and Facebook can make donating money and aid that much easier.

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