A NEW social media campaign to support the work of the RNLI aims to create waves of interest in the charity's work.

In a break from the more traditional fundraising campaign, the #SaveWave project isn't asking for cash. 

Instead, the charity wants to raise awareness of the courage of RNLI lifeguards and volunteer lifeboat crews using Facebook and Twitter to share some of the most dramatic rescue stories.

All you do is sign up with your Facebook or Twitter account, and two stories per week will be shared with your followers. The idea is that all the tweets and posts will go out at the same time, creating a wave of awareness across the internet.

“Signing up is easy, all you have to do is visit the campaign website at savewave.rnli.org and choose to sign up your Facebook or Twitter account - or both.

"Then, two specially selected RNLI rescue stories will automatically be shared on your Facebook or Twitter accounts each week,” said Dave Turnbull, RNLI mechanic at Swanage lifeboat station.

“This campaign is all about sharing our rescue stories with the public. As a member of the crew at Swanage, I've got lots of stories about our volunteers putting themselves in harm's way to save lives at sea. Just like our lifeguards will have countless stories of how they've kept people safe on our beaches.”

The lifesaving charity aims to sign up one million people by promoting two rescue stories per week on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. So far more than 680,000 people have signed up. It will end on Sunday September 29.