Tsunami in Japan proved significance of social media / Social media for social good

The UK Japanese National Tourism Organisation states social media has become a vital tool since last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami but also complained the org. still has no dedicated budget for it.

London / NationalTurk – Kylie Clark, head of public relations and marketing for Japanese National Tourism Organisation in England, told at a briefing on using social media in a crisis organised by FTI Consulting, that it had not used social media in a crisis before last year.

However, she mentioned after the social organisation started to initiate to engage on the channel following the devastating events of last March, its Facebook fan base grew 100 times to over 10,000.

Five months after theearthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan Kylie Clark expressed its Facebook fans were 400% more interactive than they had been before.

Social Media for social good : Useful during any crisis

‘ From our experience social media is really helpful and a usefıl tool during a crisis, ‘ she stated.

‘ We had very small budgets and had no budget at all for social media but it was a way of getting our message across quickly at no cost and directly.’

‘ We found social media invaluable. We still have no resources for it but we think it’s important.’

Kelly Clark said one of the stories after the disaster, which claimed 20,000 lives and led to an ongoing nuclear apocalypse at the Fukushima power station, was a leak that Japan might offer 10,000 free flights.

Japan Eathquake and Tsunami ‘s devastating effects smoothed via social media work

She said the story, first reported in Japan, circulated widely on the web so the JNTO issued a statement saying the idea was just a proposal on its website which crashed due to the traffic.

The idea was eventually shelved at Christmas time when Kelly Clark was due to take a holiday so she put out a statement on Facebook before she left. Social media for social good idea initiated..