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In recent years, the horrifying effects of natural disasters have hit much closer to home, not because they are geographically closer but because ubiquitous social media tools like Twitter and Facebook deliver their impact to all corners of the earth. Hurricane Katrina, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, the Joplin tornado, and most recently the growing calamity of famine in the Horn of Africa have entered our living rooms through our mobile phones, computers and television sets.

A company, regardless of its size, has a tremendous opportunity to make a difference by offering support to those affected. It can provide in-kind aide, direct financial assistance, employee volunteers (skills-based or general volunteering) or any combination of the three.

Your employees, no doubt, will be familiar with the most recent disaster(s) and may inquire about how best to help. Given that, how do you maximize your communications to encourage and mobilize them to step up to the task?

• Provide direct and regular updates on disaster’s status to your employees via the most suitable and effective platforms (email, company intranet, posters by the water cooler, signs in the rest rooms, newsletter, etc.)

• Bring in the “big guns” and recommend that the CEO, CFO or CMO make the “ask” for participation. Challenge your teams to offer up their ideas for solutions/support.

• Recognize leadership. Showcase those specific employees who have demonstrated an active interest in helping with the relief.

• Survey your employees to discover who might have expertise in a particular area related to the disaster. Even if the disaster has occurred far from any of your company’s facilities, there is still an opportunity to help. You can inquire who might have relationships with the specific NGOs working in the affected regions. For instance, Save the Children and Oxfam are providing famine relief in Somalia – do you have employees that already volunteer for these organizations? What do those organizations need most from you? Would a local clothing or food drive help those suffering thousands of miles away? How about an employee-generated event to raise community funds?

• Show them you care. Your employees will respect you for doing so.

• Make it fun. Consider using gaming strategies to engage your employees. There’s a reason that Foursquare, Angry Birds and Farmville are wildly popular. Gaming doesn’t have to be technical play, but you can use contests, surveys or other playful activities to share and educate employees about the particular disaster and the desired relief.

What are your recommendations?  Tweet me at @susanmcp1 and let me know!

This post originally appeared on VolunteerMatch Blog on 9/21/11