The power of social media was put into numbers when £100,000 was raised for Cumbrian flood victims just 48 hours after the tragic floods that devastated Cumbria last year.

The fund was set up when Cumbria Community Foundation spotted river levels rising on the evening of Saturday December 5.

Rivers across the county burst their banks overnight and fundraisers sprung into action, launching an online appeal and using Twitter and Facebook to drive donations.

It was the quickest way to get the word out there and create momentum, according to Tara Vallente, the foundation’s PR guru, who was the driving force behind the campaign.

She said: “On the fifth of December it was raining heavily and I spoke to Andy Beeforth, because it looked like it was going to flood, so he got all the documentation ready to launch an appeal, and I made sure we were ready to promote it.

“I sent out a press release on the Saturday night and hammered social media, tagging everybody relevant, getting retweets and shares.

“It started in Cumbria and exploded to all areas of the country.

“The money raised in the first two days was down to social media, because the newspapers hadn’t printed yet and we didn’t do any radio interviews until Monday morning.

As well as posting links to the appeal’s donation pages, Tara posted pictures and footage that went viral, helping to spread awareness to a huge audience.

I targeted journalists and people I’d worked with in the past who I knew would help.

Tara says that part of the success is down to stressing the ‘social’ in social media.

She added: “It’s a two way thing, it has to be real, human and can’t just be timed. I pinned important tweets so that people saw how to donate easily.

“The fund has now raised £5.2m in just under two months, and £1m has been dished out to flood victims.”