Colorado Media Newsroom
September 16th, 2013, 08:13 PM
From The Denver Post:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/files/2013/09/stormshield-img-2_1347416486269_116936_ver1.0.jpg
http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/wp-content/blogs.dir/49/files/2013/09/stormshield-img-2_1347416486269_116936_ver1.0.jpgTV news is a go-to resource in the midst of disaster, but social media played an increasingly significant role during the Colorado floods of 2013, at times reaching out to the audience in ways that television can't. Denver television stations saw tremendous upticks in the use of their various apps, social media and live streams. Twitter helped people make connections and locate loved ones. Push alerts on mobile phones, sent free to anyone who signeds up, offered life-saving information about flooding and evacuations to anyone who signs up -- without interrupting programming.The technology of disaster coverage has evolved quickly.Fox31 news boss Ed Kosowski said the use of social media now, even compared to how it was used in the wildfires a year ago, has exploded. "This is the kind of story that lends itself to social media. People need assistance and need information quickly. (Social media) has also become an excellent source for tips and information that we ordinarily wouldn't have access to.""In a wildfire, you get cellphone pictures of smoke that aren't great. Here we get viewer pictures of neighbors rescuing people, dogs and cats. We did a story based on that," said Thomas Hendrick, digital content manager for KDVR. The station topped 50,000 tweets on its account in recent days, including hundreds of photos of flooding.A Twitter handle collected the 140-character postings of media outlets, first responders, experts and government officials in one place: https://twitter.com/bbdd333/lists/colorado-flood-2013.Next, as Colorado's TV and radio stations collaborate on a telethon (http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2013/09/16/co-flood-relief-telethon-by-denver-tv-stations/16497/)set for Wednesday, Sept. 18, the agreed upon hashtag, #COfloodrelief, will be used to spread the word and raise funds.The 7News StormShield app (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/stormshield) was said by some users to be a literal life-saver. With 3,000 downloads of the app, a severe weather warning geo-targeted to users' points of interest, people all over the country were using StormShield during the flooding."People were alerted, awakened Wednesday night with an urgent flash-flood warning. We were on the air continuously, which people watched on the app when power was out," said 7News' managing web editor Kim Ngan Nguyen. "We've gotten great testimonials from people." The website (thedenverchannel.com) saw 10 times the normal daily usage. Live video streaming on mobile and web devices was 800 times the normal. "People got information any way they could."The 9NEWS Colorado Flood Resource Center was created for 9NEWS.com and is available as a Facebook app and as a mobile site, http://on9news.tv/coflood. This center gathers information from many agencies, making available in one place maps, disaster assistance, and notes on how to help those in need. From Sept. 12–15, 9NEWS.com counted 36.8 million page views and 6.1 million mobile app page views. Additionally, 9News clocked 17.7 million Facebook impressions and 21.3 million Twitter impressions."We used Twitter, Facebook and Google+, along with one main hashtag, #COFlood, to provide emergency information and updates to our followers. RebelMouse and Tagboard, social aggregates, were used to collect social posts that used the hashtag #COFlood," according to 9News digital content manager Misty Montano. KDVR cited a 600 percent increase (roughly 3,000) in new "likes" on FB, Wednesday through Monday, as staffers talked to people, gave street coordinates and updated the location of the TV stations' shared helicopter, Hendrick said. Unlike TV news, the reach of social media is quantifiable: One post about the evacuation notice in Commerce City was shared almost 5,000 times and had a reach of 454,656 people, he said. "It truly is a two-way communication. And more intimate communication," Kosowski said. The Fox31 total is now more than 100,000 FB fans making it third behind KUSA and KMGH. The wide use of social media locally shouldn't come as a surprise. Denver ranks in the top 10 social media-savvy cities, ahead of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and other cities, according to NetProspex, a B2B data company.
More... (http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2013/09/16/social-media-plays-key-role-in-co-flood-coverage/16485/)
http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/files/2013/09/stormshield-img-2_1347416486269_116936_ver1.0.jpg
http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/wp-content/blogs.dir/49/files/2013/09/stormshield-img-2_1347416486269_116936_ver1.0.jpgTV news is a go-to resource in the midst of disaster, but social media played an increasingly significant role during the Colorado floods of 2013, at times reaching out to the audience in ways that television can't. Denver television stations saw tremendous upticks in the use of their various apps, social media and live streams. Twitter helped people make connections and locate loved ones. Push alerts on mobile phones, sent free to anyone who signeds up, offered life-saving information about flooding and evacuations to anyone who signs up -- without interrupting programming.The technology of disaster coverage has evolved quickly.Fox31 news boss Ed Kosowski said the use of social media now, even compared to how it was used in the wildfires a year ago, has exploded. "This is the kind of story that lends itself to social media. People need assistance and need information quickly. (Social media) has also become an excellent source for tips and information that we ordinarily wouldn't have access to.""In a wildfire, you get cellphone pictures of smoke that aren't great. Here we get viewer pictures of neighbors rescuing people, dogs and cats. We did a story based on that," said Thomas Hendrick, digital content manager for KDVR. The station topped 50,000 tweets on its account in recent days, including hundreds of photos of flooding.A Twitter handle collected the 140-character postings of media outlets, first responders, experts and government officials in one place: https://twitter.com/bbdd333/lists/colorado-flood-2013.Next, as Colorado's TV and radio stations collaborate on a telethon (http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2013/09/16/co-flood-relief-telethon-by-denver-tv-stations/16497/)set for Wednesday, Sept. 18, the agreed upon hashtag, #COfloodrelief, will be used to spread the word and raise funds.The 7News StormShield app (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/stormshield) was said by some users to be a literal life-saver. With 3,000 downloads of the app, a severe weather warning geo-targeted to users' points of interest, people all over the country were using StormShield during the flooding."People were alerted, awakened Wednesday night with an urgent flash-flood warning. We were on the air continuously, which people watched on the app when power was out," said 7News' managing web editor Kim Ngan Nguyen. "We've gotten great testimonials from people." The website (thedenverchannel.com) saw 10 times the normal daily usage. Live video streaming on mobile and web devices was 800 times the normal. "People got information any way they could."The 9NEWS Colorado Flood Resource Center was created for 9NEWS.com and is available as a Facebook app and as a mobile site, http://on9news.tv/coflood. This center gathers information from many agencies, making available in one place maps, disaster assistance, and notes on how to help those in need. From Sept. 12–15, 9NEWS.com counted 36.8 million page views and 6.1 million mobile app page views. Additionally, 9News clocked 17.7 million Facebook impressions and 21.3 million Twitter impressions."We used Twitter, Facebook and Google+, along with one main hashtag, #COFlood, to provide emergency information and updates to our followers. RebelMouse and Tagboard, social aggregates, were used to collect social posts that used the hashtag #COFlood," according to 9News digital content manager Misty Montano. KDVR cited a 600 percent increase (roughly 3,000) in new "likes" on FB, Wednesday through Monday, as staffers talked to people, gave street coordinates and updated the location of the TV stations' shared helicopter, Hendrick said. Unlike TV news, the reach of social media is quantifiable: One post about the evacuation notice in Commerce City was shared almost 5,000 times and had a reach of 454,656 people, he said. "It truly is a two-way communication. And more intimate communication," Kosowski said. The Fox31 total is now more than 100,000 FB fans making it third behind KUSA and KMGH. The wide use of social media locally shouldn't come as a surprise. Denver ranks in the top 10 social media-savvy cities, ahead of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and other cities, according to NetProspex, a B2B data company.
More... (http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2013/09/16/social-media-plays-key-role-in-co-flood-coverage/16485/)