Fundraising efforts by the American Red Cross and rapper Wyclef Jean were two
of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter early Wednesday. Both organizations
asked Twitter users to text a number to make a donation that would be added to
their cell phone bills.
The International Federation of the Red Cross estimated that 3 million
people were affected by the 7.0-magnitude quake, the center of which was located
near capital city Port-au-Prince.
Twitter lit up with posts from around the globe, including some tweets from
Haitians who had no other way to communicate amid the chaos. Donation efforts on
the site mobilized quickly amid the first natural disaster to strike since the
social media site took off.At about 6:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, the American Cross
tweeted that it was pledging an initial $200,000 to assist those affected.
Shortly after midnight, @RedCross updated: "You
can text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti."
The "hashtags" denote topics, and users can search the Twitterverse for
keywords.
CNN full coverage: Haiti earthquake