It's becoming less and less necessary to convince senior executive of the need to integrate social media into emergency management practices, But just in case you need one more argument ...
Japan, Tragedy and Twitter: The Most Useful Crisis Tool Avaliable for free
Posted March 15th, 2011 by kyle
The recent earthquake and tsunami which has recently hit Japan is the scenario of nightmares. Something that one would never expect to happen, much less be forced to face reality and see the horrible destruction, loss of life and future damaging possibilities for the country and the world.
As horrible an event which took place, the ability to stay updated to the situation and be aware of how it develops is important not only to the citizens of Japan but the rest of the world as well. Sure there are your normal news outlets and websites covering the major stories as they develop, but they can only say so much, in a certain period of time. What if your friends or family were over there? You wouldn’t want to wait for Anderson Cooper to deliver the news; you’d want to know as soon as possible.
Twitter, the social media app which is most often associated with letting people know all the little moments in your life that most probably could care less about, has been one of the most powerful tools in communicating developing news updates, vital information, and a platform of communication for those wanting to retweet information or communicate with others to receive more information. I was on Twitter as the quake had begun, watched as people playfully tweeted that “It’s going to be a long day”, to sheer terror as tweet began reporting that the quakes didn’t stop.
The first notice of a tsunami warning was retweeted by thousands as it made its way to Twitter, after the tsunami hit, reports began to flood in from Japanese news agencies and people living in the affect areas, all this was before any major news networks began to report the situation.
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