This week’s social update feels somewhat less important, less meaningful given the events of the past 7 days. We love what we do, but not even the people in this office could tell you that any one piece of social media news from the past week is the most important thing that we can be talking about. As I’m sure that we’re all aware, Baghdad, Beirut and Paris were each the site of tragic events that cost many innocent lives.

I’m just as sure that we’ve all also seen the outpouring of support that has shown up in our feeds. The power of social media to create a global reaction within hours of an event is a positive force unparalleled by any other form of communication in the history of the world. Whether the support, in this case, could have been better distributed to show a more evenly-placed empathy is a debate for another site (much better sources: The Times, The Atlantic and Quartz).

I’ll admit that I wrote a long post that spoke about the ways that we, as brands, react to tragedy and offered my opinion on our responsibilities as owners of social platforms. Rather than divert attention and debate the reactions, I’m simply going to offer a few ways that we can proactively contribute to the victims of the attacks:

Mercy Corps – A disaster relief organization that’s active in Lebanon.

Doctors Without Borders – International medical organization with presence in multiple areas in need right now.

French Popular Relief A local organization that’s providing clothing, money and materials directly to people affected in Paris.

Thank you for your attention and your generosity – I’ll see you all back here next week.

– Conner Galway