The other use of social media: Social media can do a lot more than just promoting businesses and corporates online. Business owners and corporate heads use this platform for their brand promotion, product marketing and advertising on the internet. They have been getting high advantages for this, with their customer base expanding and ROI reaching the roof. With the help of social media you can reach out to a wider audience. This saves a lot of additional energy and resources. But this isn’t where social media should be used always. It can be put to use for a bigger and a social cause. The recent train collision in Quebec, Lac-Megantic is one incidence which strongly supports this. It was the start of another day in the city when suddenly it got hit by a train carrying crude oil. The result of the collision was more than the blast that was triggered by the presence of crude oil in the scenario. It was a chaotic state and people were stuck with it and it could have taken hours and even days for the recovery and to understand the aftermath, had it been not for Vicky Villeneuve. Vicky, who is a mother of two, was new to the town and knew nothing of the people and the directions. However, touched by the major accident and thinking of what will become of the families of the people trapped in it, she quickly though of using the power of social media.

What was done: The lady, spent no time and immediately took the help of her friend, Maxime Gagnon Desbiens and launched a Facebook page named “Lac-Megantic: Support aux Gens” and also established an URL for help. The idea, as stated by Vicky, was meant to give a platform to the people who could go there easily and verify the names of the ones who weren’t found yet, were injured and worst, dead. The website and the page served almost every person in the town and before long, news of the ones injured and found or not, came flooding in. The townspeople found it serving them like a community on thesocial networking site helping them to know of the ones who managed to surface and survive. As it could have it, by the following day, within the afternoon, there were news of nearly 310 people who were found and the rest 183, who were being still searched. Finally, the provincial police declared 5 to be dead and 40 to be still not found.

Great act, agreed by all: Villeneuve says that she is has been thanked by the people in the town for her act and it has been said that hers was the only source of media for the people. She really had saved the day and it can be said with firmness. In fact, the police had been in all praise for the act stating that social media really provided them with the important information and leads.