Tag Archives: Facebook

New Facebook and Alexa features help boost blood donations

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By Christy Peters, External Communications Manager, Northern Ohio Biomedical Services

October 23, 2019- The American Red Cross has partnered with some of the country’s leading technology brands to make donating blood even easier. Now, blood donors can find blood drives and schedule appointments using Facebook and Alexa devices.

Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee 2019

In June, the Red Cross, along with other blood collection organizations, partnered with Facebook to help raise awareness about the critical need for blood donors. Facebook’s new Blood Donations feature makes it easier to find opportunities to donate – allowing users to sign up to be blood donors, receive notifications about nearby blood drives and invite friends to help save lives too. Since launching, more than one million people in the U.S. have signed up and it has helped to schedule over 600 Red Cross blood donation appointments.

Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee 2019

To make it easier for people to access services and get critical safety information, the Red Cross is also partnering with Alexa, Amazon’s voice service. The Red Cross Blood scheduling skill for Amazon Alexa helps users schedule a blood donation appointment, find blood drives nearby and get notification reminders before an appointment. Users can enable this skill and link their Red Cross account to manage appointments. Donors can open the Red Cross Blood skill with a selection of prompts such as, “Alexa, open Red Cross Blood skill,” and ask, for example, “Alexa, find a blood drive.”

Bloodmobile Blood Drive Columbia, South Carolina 2018

Individuals interested in signing up to become a blood donor on Facebook can visit facebook.com/donateblood. The Red Cross Blood skill for Alexa is available on any Alexa-enabled device such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show or Echo Spot. The skills can be enabled in the Alexa Skills Store through the Alexa app or at Amazon.com.

Blood Drive New York 2018

The Northern Ohio Blood Services Region of the Red Cross serves 19 counties in northern Ohio and needs to collect approximately 500 pints of blood every day to meet the needs of patients at more than 50 local hospitals. Without the generous giving of volunteer blood donors, that need cannot be met.

Safe and Well: Remembering the Boston Marathon 2013

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As the day of the 2013 Boston Marathon began, I observed Facebook posts pop-up with happy scenes of runners victoriously running past my sister-in-law’s camera. She had volunteered for a second year to be at a hydration station along the route and had started the day really excited to be a part of something so integral to her adopted city.

Her posts applauded her racer friends, cheering them on through social media. Watching as her photos and posts came through my news feed, back here in Ohio it was just a typical day for me– laundry was folded, children were fed, toys were picked up and re-scattered.

Until the frightening news came through, a bomb had gone off at the marathon.

Our family didn’t have a clear concept of where my sister-in-law had been stationed or what was really going on in Boston. Phone calls would not ring through to her due to lines and circuits being jammed with callers. Two states away, we had no other way to confirm that she was okay.

That was, until one of the most beautiful Facebook posts popped up:

“I am NOT downtown. Praying for my friends and their families.”

And then she shared the link:

Safe and Well Share

The American Red Cross offers the Safe and Well system during a disaster to alleviate anxieties and provide peace of mind to individuals looking for loved ones who may have been affected. In the case of Boston, the Red Cross had 466 registrants who were separated that Monday.

The Safe and Well program information is primarily housed on its website, but as part of the registration process individuals may connect to their Twitter or Facebook page. This will allow the system to send out a select message such as “I’m safe” and a link to the main webpage, www.redcross.org/safeandwell. It can be initiated at Red Cross shelters, when individuals may not have access to the internet.

Safe and Well is also an integral part of Red Cross disaster preparedness/response apps, like the Flood, Tornado, Hurricane and Earthquake Apps. The apps can connect to the individuals Facebook or Twitter accounts to send out a message of safety to loved ones.*

As it turned out, my sister-in-law had been at an early hydration station which had closed. When the bomb went off, she was already at home. But without being able to know this, I am so thankful for social media which allowed her to reach out and communicate to her friends and family across the nation.

Our thoughts are with you today, City of Boston. Standing together you are truly strong.

– Mary, NEO Red Cross Communications

 

 

*The apps are available through the Google Play and Apple App Stores. For more information, visit www.redcross.org/apps