When an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan in March 250 miles northeast of Tokyo, it triggered a tsunami that caused major destruction in northern Japan. It also triggered assistance a groundswell of concern, conversation, and financial support on social networks.

Twitter aided Japanese users by providing a Tsunami support page to help them gain first hand information, locate loved ones and share status updates abroad.  Global Voices, translated Japanese Tweets and blogs. and charitable organizations went into action organizing relief efforts and connecting donations. Katya Andresen, COO of Network for Good, said her organization helped dozens of responding organizations accept relief donations within hours of the tragedy. The organization has raised more than $6.7 million in growing relief effort so far.

“As soon as we hear about something that looks like a large-scale humanitarian disaster – within hours, we put together Japan Quake and Tsunami Relief page so that people know where they can donate and what trusted organizations are rushing aid,” Andresen said. “Then, we have some great partnerships that drive a lot of donations to that page.” She said AOL and Yahoo featured Tsunami relief charities ton their homepages to donations and business sponsors like CapitalOne notified its members how they could support the Japan relief effort.

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