Power of Social Media and Information in Aid Effectiveness

Many global health professionals will already be very familiar with social media and their personal or professional use, while others may not yet have seen their value or taken to it because of technology barriers. The objective of this article is to highlight the use of social media in the context of international development and aid effectiveness. The services, technologies, and examples presented throughout this article are meant to illustrate the utility of social media in this context but not to give an exhaustive review or recommend that readers adopt certain media over others. Far too many options for each type of social media exist to mention them all. Moreover, the landscape of social media providers changes rapidly and new media emerge every few years. Everybody using social media makes choices based on personal preferences and strikes a balance between the value of information and time invested to track or publish different social media. Such considerations apply to individuals subscribing to social media as well as organizations deciding on which social media to maintain a presence.