To mark World Humanitarian Day today, the UN has urged social media users worldwide to share stories of heroism from around the globe. So how have supporters taken part, and which of their other awareness campaigns have we admired?

While it’s easy to become caught up in social media as a way to share our own lives, very rarely do we dedicate our online space to the attention of others. So in its latest digital campaign, the UN have done just this, asking online users, and in particular “the young and digitally-connected” to promote inspiring stories, with the hash tag #ShareHumanity. These could be acts of bravery, compassion and plight, although the unique aspect of the campaign is that it has asked users to “donate” their social media feeds, allowing the people behind these stories to tell them first-hand. The campaign has been backed so far by the likes of Maria Sharapova, Leona Lewis, Sir Richard Branson, footballer Kaka, singer Cody Simpson, and martial artist Jet Li. We also love the fact that Facebook and Twitter users can visit the campaign’s website and sign up, which automatically allows the specially-created #ShareHumanity app to post one of 17 featured stories to the person’s chosen social media feed.

Scrolling down Cody Simpson’s Twitter feed, we’re presented with some amazing tweets and pictures to promote awareness for the current humanitarian plight. The 18 year old singer chose a young Syrian refugee, Thair Orfahli, to have the opportunity to take over his Twitter feed for a day, in order to share stories of his journey across the Middle East to Italy, and then finally to Germany. Thair’s tweets showed his fears over the situation in his home country, his plans on how to escape, and the barriers he faced along the way. These were intertwined with facts and statistics about the current refugee crisis, images showing migrants making a dangerous boat crossing, a video of bombing footage in Damascus, culminating in a final happy shot showing Thair’s safe arrival in Munich. Other celebrities have also been eager to document first-hand accounts; Kaka for example, has used his social media profiles to share experiences from the Nepalese Earthquake, while Leona Lewis has enabled Khaled Farah, a first responder for the UN, to take over her Twitter feed in order to document the crises in Syria.

The UN has always had an active voice on social media, encouraging participation to raise awareness. One of its previous campaigns that particularly struck us was “The World Needs More”, a funding initiative to offer aid to disaster victims, launched back in 2013. Brands and social media users were asked to sponsor a word they thought the world needed more of, and every time that word was shared alongside the hash tag, #theworldneedsmore, money would be donated to the cause. Since then, over 2.5 million words have been shared, and in the first three months alone, it raised over $700,000 for the UN humanitarian aid. The campaign was also a Shorty Awards finalist in the “Best Social Good Campaign” category, and winner in the “Best use of social media in real life” category.

Have you supported the #ShareHumanity campaign? Do you think that it’s a clever and powerful way to increase awareness? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.