By Dell Inc.
When disasters strike, emergency professionals and the public want information and they want it fast. What’s the problem? Who needs help? What does the public need to know? Social media is making the sharing of information faster – and the American Red Cross is now able to leverage this aspect of the digital age to its advantage, with the help of Dell technology.
Dell enabled the American Red Cross to fundamentally change their disaster response by launching the Red Cross Digital Operations Center (DigiDOC) in 2012, the world’s first social media command center for humanitarian aid.
Dell donated DigiDOC’s technology and worked with the Red Cross to create a social media training program for staff and volunteers based on our own successful model of engaging customers via social media. The Red Cross successfully activated DigiDOC during Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Isaac and several tornadoes and wildfires in 2012. During Hurricane Sandy alone, the Red Cross tracked more than 2 million posts.
As Bernard Marr reports, a Forbes contributor to Power More, the massive amounts of data that we are generating with mobile phones, satellites and social media can all play a part in providing clues to the best way to respond to a situation.
In this video we explore how the American Red Cross North Texas Region expanded its ability to connect with people during disasters with a new Digital Operations Center, powered by Dell. Red Cross professionals share how social media-based disaster response works.
More recently, Dell launched the initial pilot of the a digital volunteering program in 2014, called DigiVol, which provides the American Red Cross with a team of volunteers who can respond to the public via social media when disaster strikes.
This valuable partnership is one way Dell is working to reach one of its 2020 Legacy of Good goals, to engage 75 percent of our team members, and provide 5 million cumulative hours, of community service by 2020 . Dell team members have provided over 1.4 million cumulative service hours since we began tracking in FY14, which keeps Dell on pace toward its 2020 goal.
Read our customer story to learn more about how the Red Cross can better engage communities and respond to crisis situations using three U.S. social media command centers designed and built by Dell Social Media Services for Business.
Disaster relief is one of the key focus areas of Dell’s giving program. Learn more at dell.com/communities.
To learn about other ways Dell’s Legacy of Good goals are paying off for customers, communities and the planet, visit www.dell.com/legacyofgoodupdate.
Learn more about how virtual volunteering is a growing trend.