About 40 percent of Facebook users polled in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have donated money, food or clothing to help the disaster relief efforts in Haiti in the wake of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12, Nielsen and Facebook report. Meanwhile, AdMob, Eyeblaster, Jumptap, Microsoft Advertising, Millennial Media, Ringleader Digital and other networks have donated resources and ad-serving fees to MobileAccord's MGive text messaging mobile campaign.
Almost 40 percent of Facebook users polled in the United
States, United
Kingdom and Australia
have donated money, food or clothing to help the disaster relief efforts in Haiti after it was hammered by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12.
The Nielsen Company and Facebook polled 50,641 Facebook users ages 13 and
older on Jan. 20 and 21. This is but a small sample of the 350 million Facebook
users worldwide, but the ratio of 40 percent is still encouraging.
How did respondents contribute to Haiti's
disaster relief? About 13 percent of the survey respondents said they sent
money, clothing and food donations through SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging.
"New methods of donation have taken off: 13 percent of respondents have
donated to Haiti
relief through a text message on their mobile phone," Nielsen said in a
statement. "That number is higher in the United
States, where 23 percent have donated
through text messaging."
Moreover, roughly the same percentage of adult respondents 50 and older have
donated through text messaging (12 percent) as teens 13 to 17 (14 percent). Compared
with the teenage group, Facebook users ages 50 and older were twice as likely
to have submitted donations, no doubt due to the fact that they are more likely
to have jobs-and higher-paying ones-than the teens.
As social groups are wont to do, most Facebook users expressed solidarity in
their view of big businesses' contributions to help Haiti,
with 42 percent of the respondents saying corporations are not contributing
enough. Twenty-nine percent of the respondents, likely corporate workers
themselves, said corporations are chipping in fairly.
In a sign of just how widespread the ripple from the quake was, 9 percent of
Facebook users polled said they or their family or friends have been personally
affected by the quake.
Nielsen posted its results here, with some fairly granular
details, including breakdowns of whether users have donated money, goods or
both, as well as whether or not respondents felt they were prepared for a
natural disaster (Who is?) Moreover, about 46 percent of female users said they
had donated, compared with 32 percent of males.
That so much charitable activity would be going on among Facebook users should
come as no surprise. The site lends itself to group activities and people are
spending a lot of time on Facebook. Nielsen found that that consumers worldwide
spent an average of more than 5.5 hours on social networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter in December 2009.
The survey is a product of a research partnership Facebook and Nielsen
struck in September to help marketers gauge the effectiveness of advertising on
the world's leading social network. Facebook wants to serve its massive user
base relevant ads, while Nielsen aims to provide its market insight to help
Facebook in this regard.
Speaking of mobile-oriented advertising, mobile ad companies took a break
from slugging it out over who gets placement on the iPhone or Android devices
to help the relief efforts for those impacted by the disaster in Haiti.
AdMob, Eyeblaster, Jumptap, Microsoft Advertising, Millennial Media,
Ringleader Digital and other networks donated resources and ad-serving fees to
broaden the reach of the American Red Cross Haiti
relief efforts via Mobile Accord's MGive text messaging mobile campaign.
In MGive, publishers MSN
Mobile, Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger Mobile and E Online featured banner
advertisements that let consumers click on the ads to learn more about how they
could donate to the American Red Cross. Users could also text the number
("HAITI" 90999) to make a donation.
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