Jessica Piffero

Shoutout to the amazing Red Cross volunteers offering hot meals, emotional support, and shelter to wildfire survivors and pets in Southern California. ❤️

Carla Llamuca and her 4-year-old daughter, Thoa, are among many seeking refuge at a Red Cross emergency shelter after wildfires in Southern California forced them from their home. They fled the fast-moving Palisades Fire after receiving an evacuation notice. Many families at the shelter have brought their pets and the limited items they could carry as they quickly evacuated their homes. Since shelters opened, we’ve provided more than 1,700 overnight stays with partners. Our disaster responders are providing food, basic hygiene items, first aid, and essential mental health and spiritual care support to those experiencing unimaginable loss. If you need a warm meal, a hug, a place to charge your phone, or someone to talk to, our shelters are here for you. Find one by visiting redcross.org/Shelters or downloading our free Emergency app. Our volunteers will be there for you. ❤️

Disasters like the ongoing LA fires serve as a reminder for us to be thoughtful and strategic with our donations. Consider a financial donation to a trusted non-profit of your choice, rather than collecting donated goods. From @fema ⬇️

Many thanks to the hardworking volunteers who are working around the clock to comfort and support these evacuated families. ❤️

Normalize thanking the band!

Last week a very specific side of Twitter erupted: sports social. It was in reaction to a report that the NY Rangers limited the access that their social team had to players and banned them from traveling with the team "due to an incident last spring." I dug into why it matters.

@howie_hua Well deserved! Fresno State is lucky to have you. #GoDogs! ❤️👏

Look who made it into Fresno State's magazine 😱

A few days after the election I got an email from someone who works in social for a large news organization. I've included a screenshot below. It's clear to me that legacy media needs to build a new social media playbook. Let me explain why.

It's déjà vu all over again

Misinformation can spread quickly after a disaster, causing confusion and distrust within communities struggling to recover. Unfortunately, we’re seeing this during our response to Hurricane Helene. Sharing rumors online without first vetting the source and verifying facts ultimately hurts people — people who have just lost their homes, neighborhoods, and, in some cases, loved ones. They are already unsure where to turn for help, and spreading misinformation only adds to that uncertainty. It also disrupts our ability to deliver critical aid and affects the disaster workers who have put their own lives on hold to assist those in need. Here are a few common rumors we have recently seen on social media that we'd like to address: - "The Red Cross isn’t here." This is simply not true. Before Helene made landfall, we prepositioned hundreds of Red Cross disaster responders and thousands of relief supplies across the Southeast to support people affected in the aftermath. Today, more than 1,300 disaster responders are helping people in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia, ensuring they have safe shelter, food, hygiene items, medication and emotional support. - "The Red Cross is confiscating or throwing out donated items." We are not confiscating, removing or discarding donated items. We focus on providing shelter, food, and relief after disasters. While we don't accept physical donations, as managing them takes time and resources away from our mission, we work with community partners who are better equipped with these resources to handle and distribute these items. For information on where donated goods are available, please call 211. - "The Red Cross is taking over shelters." We do not forcefully take over shelters. However, we do provide management support at the request of partners. This is a collaborative effort that no one organization can do alone. Local partnerships are established before disasters to ensure shelter needs are met, and we collaborate with partners to transition evacuation centers into post-storm shelters. We do not take over facilities where partners are still providing services. - "The Red Cross is taking over volunteer groups." This is untrue. While we are working alongside other volunteer groups helping during this disaster, the Red Cross is not taking over their efforts or services. For safety, all Red Cross volunteers must go through a background check and Red Cross training before deploying to support a disaster response. We do not manage or deploy volunteers who haven’t completed this process, including local residents who sign up after a disaster. They must undergo the same screening and training as current volunteers.

Thinking about my friends and fellow volunteers today, working around the clock to care for communities affected by Hurricane Helene. ❤️ You can help by making a financial donation: rdcrss.org/3Bmmwyp

Great social ideas die in overbearing approval processes. In @washingtonpost and @drewharwell's latest reporting on the @KamalaHQ social strategy, the team talked a lot about how they get content approved. Here are a few operational insights for your brand to steal:

Songs my toddler has been obsessed with so far this week: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Stills & Nash "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads "No Scrubs" by TLC

A new era for Bulldog Athletics!

Social and legal

Ready to show the Big House how the Valley does football. 😤 #GoDogs

Custom Fresno State cornhole boards!

this is massive.. buying fake followers to misrepresent your clout to sell a product is now illegal under FTC rules today: ftc.gov/news-events/ne…

🚨 SMMs your week just got a little trickier 🚨 Meta is introducing views as the primary metric across all formats