Why You Shouldn’t Hesitate To Ask Twitter For Help
May 11 2008 
View Comments
Today, tornadoes tore across the state of Georgia. I’m currently residing in Dublin, GA for familial reasons. This morning I woke up to the horrible sound of a train. However, there are no trains where I live. I immediately went to my window where I was greeted with an unfamiliar site; a tornado was headed straight towards my house.
Fortunately, it immediately diverted to our backyard and missed the house by mere inches! Once things calmed down, I immediately Twittered what was going on and didn’t check back in for a few hours.
When I did check back into Twitter, I was greeted with numerous thoughts, prayers and well wishes. However, I was also in the middle of a problem. My family and I couldn’t afford the ridiculous hotel rates in the area. So, I went out on a limb and asked my Twitter friends for help. I received more than enough donations for my hotel room and used the rest of the money to buy goods for the other families on my street that were not able to leave their places.
Fears That Create Hesitation
It never hurts to ask for help. However, one has to keep in mind that this is a virtual world. Because of this, people may not be willing to help for fear of being scammed, especially if the help pertains to money.
At the same time, though you may consider your online followers as friends, it’s still a shaky line as to what that really means online. Sometimes you only know people for what they do and not necessarily for who they are. This can cause users of social networking tools such as Twitter to hesitate to ask for help.
Weighing In On Importance
My thoughts were, if you can ask for help about anything else, why not ask for help for more serious issues? Wouldn’t people be more willing to help with that instead of the superficial calls for help that one normally makes compared to more important issues? Without the help of my Twitter friends, I might still be struggling to find a place to stay for the next 2 nights. Thank you Tweeples! And a huge thanks to NewsCred for a nice donation that helped feed 4 families on my street!
LOVED IT? SHARE IT!:
Yes, i agree with you. People generally like to help each other. But fear holds you back. Fear also hold you back to start a conversation on the Twitter!
Thanks to you. Because of you i joined DISQUS. I am enjoying it.
You're very welcome – we're humbled by your bravery and courage. With all this hype about social media, I think it was clearly demonstrated today that there are significant positives that we can see trickle into the real (offline) world. Its not just about buzz or 'the next big thing' – we can use social media tools to make a difference in people's lives. A small gesture can make a big impact.
Hang in there, and we look forward to reading lots more from you!
thanks for your nice thought
I've added you're blog to my rss feed. thank you
Are there any other Twitter asking services besides lazytweet? I think that would make a great blog post.
I've heard of people donating organs through social networking. It is a very nice thing.
Fear of rejection is an obstacle. From this incident, you find out that there really good souls around. If you don't make the first move, you will not live to know the answer.
Fear of rejection is an obstacle. From this incident, you find out that there really good souls around. If you don't make the first move, you will not live to know the answer. Social Media is really a power tool to ask for help. I am sure you guys heard this famous story about this guy who went online to ask for $1 donation and he got thousands of dollars to pay off this shopping debts.
Thanks for the information, it's definitely a big plus for anyone to know!
Thanks for the information, it's definitely a big plus for anyone to know!