When 17 year old Chelsea King went missing on February 25^th, her family called the police as soon as it became obvious the teen hadn’t returned from her run. The search for the missing girl started that same night, turning up nothing but a locked car that Chelsea left outside the Rancho Bernardo Community Center. Then they did something that isn’t as standard . . . they set up a Facebook Group and a Twitter account for Chelsea.

The pages are the perfect way to keep friends and family updated on the worrying situation, but it has done much more than that. In a very short time, close to 6,000 people (and growing) have joined the group, spreading the word about the missing teen through the world of online media and putting Chelsea’s photo and description out on the internet. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to help search for the girl, some as a direct result of the page. Social networking is giving back!

Chelsea’s Facebook Group isn’t the first time social media has been used as a cry for help. In 2007, Tom McEwan set up a Facebook page to help find his 19 year old son Kyle. Today, his MySpace page continues to share songs and memories of Kyle.

If you are a frequent user of Twitter, chances are you’ve seen a few Amber Alerts retweeted there.  The micro-blogging network is often used to share alerts when a child goes missing and to update information. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook get the word out faster than any other medium and can reach thousands or millions within seconds.

A more recent example of using Twitter to help find missing family members occurred just after the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. Sheryl Breuker hadn’t heard from her sister-in-law after the quake and used Twitter to post pertinent info and ask for people to help her find the woman. Just two hours later, a local man tracked the woman down, assuring Breuker via Twitter, that her brother’s wife was indeed safe (See Mashable post).

Social media has been used for many things, from dating to business promotion, but now it can help save lives as well. An organization called Help Find My Child has set up a system to help parents of missing children get the necessary information out fast on multiple networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, among others. It’s just one way to make sure that social networking sites are giving back to families and helping them find their missing children.

Please help retweet and share this blog post on all your social networks so we can help find Chelsea King fast.