What Roles Should Influencers Have in Natural Disasters

Day by day, natural disasters increase in the world due to global warming. Each day masses read new news about the incidents born from these natural disasters but still, people are not ready for the next disaster. So, in this kind of situation, influencers have responsibility and also influence power to illuminate his/her followers. The power the of the influencer comes from his/her ability to reach thousands of people in one click, yet most of the influencers prefer to use this power for only earn money. So, in this blog, I’m going to explain the roles should be done by influencers in natural disaster.

Create Awareness

First of all, the most important thing is to create awareness about the natural disaster before it happens. It is best to have knowledge about the coming problem and be ready, if it is wanted to minimalize the damage occurred by natural disaster. To increase general knowledge about a natural disaster, influencers can play a vital role. Influencers can be ambassadors of NGO’s, can share the informative contents of these foundations in his/her social media profile constantly. Another thing can be done by influencers to create awareness is, they can share the disaster news around the world and can ask questions to their followers to get their opinions. This will also increase the engagement rate of influencer too. Furthermore, for example after sharing an earthquake news from abroad, influencer can talk about how he/ she is ready for this kind of situation and can show his/her go bag the followers.

Communication Point

During the disaster or a few moments after, influencers can be communication point between people who need help, people who can help and the institutions. Mostly, after the disaster, people who need help, create list of materials needed. If they share themselves, they can’t reach enough people. For this reason, they are sending the lists to the influencers. On the other side, there are people who want to help the disaster area but don’t know what to do or where to start so they write influencers too. While this all is happening, government and institutions are also giving information about the disaster, what is needed and what to do. So, influencers should be a bridge between all of them to increase overall coordination.

Countering Fake News

Being a communication point means you get so many information and news. However, most of these information is not correct. Influencers should learn how to dismiss this wrong information and should only spread the correct information. However, it is not easy. Firstly, institutions should be transparent and share the facts about natural disaster so influencers can use them as a source. After, influencer should search or demand proof when an information come. To illustrate a how fake news spread by influencer, the recent wildfires in Turkey is a good example. When the fire was at its peak point, there were so many disinformation. One day an influencer started to share fire balls on her Instagram stories and invite all of the followers and influencers to share fire ball on their profiles to make formal institutions and volunteers to buy them in order to use them in firefighting. Other influencers followed her. At the end, it appears that these fireballs are only suitable to use for small closed areas such as rooms. Moreover, the producer of the fire balls increased the prices unfairly to maximize his profit. So, a lot of time, money and energy spent because of this fake information. That’s why influencer should use official sources when they inform their followers. To sum-up, influencers have responsibilities to the society which they are belong to. They can play a vital role to minimize the effects of natural disasters by creating awareness, by acting as a communication point and by fighting against the disinformation