Posts Tagged ‘Tsunami Hawaii Chile’

View of TweetDeck columns related to the earthquake in Chile and the Tsunami scare for Hawaii

From our perspective, social media is an essential marketing tool. But recent natural disasters have proven that social media and new(er) technology are an essential part of keeping up with real-world events. The earthquake in Chile and the resulting Tsunami scare generated quite a bit of buzz across traditional media but the real star in the reporting process was social media.

At one point, I had all of my Google Chrome tabs lined up: the Facebook Disaster Relief Fan Page, the Twitter @nprnews/chile-tsunami-quake list, YouTube’s site searching for video footage and even the Skype website to learn more about the technology! I had my TweetDeck columns all laid out so I could see what was happening in my #hashtags of choice and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Ustream. Oh – I also had CNN on the TV as it streamed live ( via Skype) coverage and steadily referenced Tweets.

I have friends in Hawaii and I was very concerned about  how this situation may effect them. I was tense, I was worried and I  coudn’t tear myself away while waiting to see what would happen with the Tsunami. Luckily, the event was somewhat anti-climatic. However, the irony of being able to watch a possible natural disaster in the making with people there on the ground sending out their comments to a global crowd –  in real time no less!  - was not lost on me. It made me appreciate the value of social media and it held me in suspense.

In addition,  I was irritated by the Tweeters who thought it was funny to post false reports, crack jokes, judge others, spam thousands and use the opportunity to generally act like obnoxious brats. That probably is just additional evidence that Twitter has gone mainstream, but I digress…

Overall, I was  fascinated by the outpouring of information coming across my social media accounts: the love, support and care so evident for the folks in Chile and those in the path of an impending Tsunami;  the amount of useful  information out there from companies and individuals all over the world; and the way the news stations used all of these forms of media for a fully integrated news report.  I mean, here I am watching CNN and they have Twitter posts popping up on screen as they show the same real-time scenes I was seeing online! The newscasters made it evident they could not have given such a comprehensive report  without the assistance of social media. So again I was left to marvel at the fact that social media can be an invaluable tool alone, but even more so when integrated with other communication tools and technology!

Just a sample of some of the tabs I had open during the prime Tsunami coverage.