Relationship of Information Sharing in Social Media to Reinforcement of Online Social Capital during Humanitarian Crisis Response in Yemen

The internet revolution has brought about several interesting phenomena, with one of the top being the use of social media as an avenue for social development and for the contribution to the cohesion among the community members. In the present study, the focus was placed on information sharing in social media as tools used by participants in Yemeni non-profit organizations to making informed decisions when it comes to crisis response, via the development of social capital in the virtual community. The study made use of statistical method of quantitative to obtain the results. Accordingly, data was gathered by distributing 423 questionnaires to non-profit organizations managers who had participated in emergency or disaster relief tasks in Yemen. The study found that exchange of information and its management timely through social media helped to develop the social capital, which facilitated and maintain ongoing relationships and establish to social coordination, volunteerism, and social cohesion among organizations and victims for creating the social capital in crisis community.