Heat waves have been slamming many parts of the United States, and it’s still only July. For example, eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas are experiencing record-breaking heat.
While not as sudden or spectacular as an earthquake or sandstorm, a heat wave can still present dangers, especially if you have pets at home. Need a hand keeping your cat or dog watered and cool during a long, hot summer? How about taking extra care of your yard, garden, or urban farm? We can help.
Ayoudo has published a guide on how to use social media during a crisis, which you can use to stay informed and empowered.
Also see: Hazards of Excessive Heat (National Weather Service)
Need help in a heat wave?
Visit the Ayoudo web app and
Find out who needs assistance in your community
Other Sources of Information:
This post will show you some of the most effective ways to use social media to see what’s happening on the ground, share information with your community and collaborate effectively. For background information please read: Ayoudo’s guide on how to use social media in an emergency.
Find Out What’s Happening:
- Search Twitter for keywords that relate to the event. For instance you can search for Heatwave, or your location (i.e. Tulsa).
- Find related hashtags on Twitter. Hashtags are used in Twitter to tie related conversations together. So, for these heat waves, you could use #heatwave, or #Oklahoma.
- Search for photos and videos of the event using keywords. Good aggregators of this material include YouTube, Flickr, Twitpic, twipho, twicsy, Ustream and picfog.
Share Information With Your Community:
- Use Facebook to set up or find a page. Existing pages can often be found through Twitter links or by searching Facebook. If a page doesn’t exist you can set one up here. When you set up a page be sure to include links to other social media support resources.
- Share your Facebook group with your Facebook friends or others via email so that people have a central place to share information
- Use Google to plot hotspots.
- Upload photos you have that can be helpful to Flickr (recommended), Twitpic or Instagram. Use the hashtags you’ve found in Twitter to tag your photos.
- Upload videos you have that can be helpful to YouTube (recommended) or Vimeo. Use the hashtags you’ve found in Twitter to tag your videos.
- If the emergency is a news event then update the news item posted on Wikipedia with the latest resources.
Help & Act:
- Put any requests for help into Ayoudo. Include the hashtags you’ve found in twitter in the description. Set the price to ‘zero’. Share the help request with your friends, through Facebook and Twitter.
- Search for people who need help by searching for the hashtag or location in Ayoudo.
- Write a 2 paragraph description of the emergency detailing the affected places and list of resources available to those who want to help. Email this message to local bloggers and the local media.
If you need help figuring out how to use Ayoudo, please visit our FAQ Section.
