Twitter goes into hashtag, promoted Tweet overdrive to aid Nepal earthquake relief

Individuals and organisations alike have rushed to the aid of Nepal, where an earthquake over the weekend has killed more than 4 000 people and affected more than eight-million. Following in the wake of tech companies such as Google and Facebook, Twitter has launched its own effort aimed at helping relief efforts in the South Asian country.

Its efforts are however, a little less direct that those being used by the Silicon Valley giants.

Recognising its importance as a tool for coordinating relief efforts, and as a backup for official channels of communication, Twitter says it will be concentrating its efforts in that direction.

“We aren’t a relief organization or an NGO,” the company says in an official blog post, “but we have mobilized a team to do three immediate things:

1. Disseminate information and news about the disaster globally
2. Help key nonprofits raise funds and material donations for victim relief
3. Help local agencies coordinate relief efforts

”

Regionally, the social media network is promoting the hashtag #NepalQuakeRelief and linking it to @InCrisisRelief, a community-driven hub of local crisis response information.

Twitter also says it’s leveraging a combination of native accounts, local and international power users, and Promoted Tweets, to help relief organizations communicate critical information locally and raise funds internationally.

“Twitter’s power is the ability to instantaneously connect people to what they care about,” the company says in the blog post. “In times of crisis, it’s our responsibility to make that experience as effective and efficient as possible. Almost immediately, news organizations turned to Twitter to report about the quake”.