So in the wake of the great NWA Ice Storm of 09 (#nwaicestorm09) I started noticing my coworkers jumping on their Twitter accounts to share information about the approaching storm. As more and more were writing I thought I would add the hash tag (#nwaicestorm09) so that we could monitor just the tweets about what's going on outside. Even though everyone in this area listens to 40/29 and some of the other news stations I found I was getting quick and real-time updates about my coworkers and we'll the trees that were attacking their houses as well as sweeping power outages. Mike tweets, tweets and then silence; power was out.
So to much of my surprise the next day I found the hash tag had blown up and people everywhere were using it, people I had no idea who they were. Weather reports coming in everywhere and pics too, thanks to TwitPic (www.twitpic.com) I even saw someone chatter about letting the news stations know and follow us.
This use of social media to inform others around about dangers and news events such as Rockfish Interactive being closed today all related to #nwaicestorm09 was fascinating. The local weather channel KNWA last night announced you could follow weather updates from their twitter page at KFSMWX It seems more and more companies are seeing value in twitter and learning how to use it. I mean just imagine if I had launched a new brand or product last night I would have been grealty pleased with the ammount of traffic I have seen for #nwaicestorm09. If you want to follow the weather updates from the Tweeters go here http://search.twitter.com/search?q=nwaicestorm09 Even as I'm writing this I just got an update from Fayetteville Flyer using the hash tag.
For those you unfamiliar with hash tags i found this bit of information onBloggerbase.com to be very useful:
What is a #Hashtag?
The Twitter World uses “#“signs in front of “Keywords” or “Groups” and “Locations“
For Example: recently Thin Air Summit held a conference and called their Hashtag #TAS08 for Thin Air Summit 2008.
These so called # groups are called “Hashtags“
Hashtags
by definition are used to create real time track records of creating
groups on twitter. Placing the # sign in front of keywords or targeted
groups, makes it easier to track all conversations in the twitter
timeline via search.
Hashtags were most notable during the San Diego forest fires in 2007 when Nate Ritter
used the hashtag “#sandiegofire” to identify his updates related to the disaster.
Some links to check out…….
http://hashtags.org/ is the website to track real time Twitter Hashtags being invented/used.
http://twitter.com/hashtags is the twitter account to follow in order to submit your new hashtags.
The famous Chris Messina who started the idea of using Hashtags on twitter as a new means of grouping found here on his blog.