I’ve never been in an earthquake before, and I had no clue what was going on when it hit yesterday. When I did, my first instinct was not to stand in the nearest doorway (what I should’ve done, in case it was worse than it turned out to be) – it was to start tweeting about it.
In fact, it was the first instinct of many, many others. Seconds after it happened, I saw tweets from people in DC, New York, Ohio – it was how I found out just how far-reaching the quake was. I went to CNN, and they were still reporting events in Libya as breaking news. I heard from a few of my followers that I was the first person in their stream to tweet about the earthquake.
I checked Facebook and saw all the tremor chatter there – this only minutes after it happened. We were all sharing information and our experiences in real time, long before mainstream media picked up on it.
This may be old news to you, but social media once again serves as the hub of activity and updates during an emergency. So think about how powerful it can be during a non-emergency – a conference or a fundraising campaign. Word-of-mouth matters, and social media is the tool that can help you spread the word.