Blog: Social Networkers are News Hounds

By 2014-02-10Featured

What if a few minutes following the tragic explosion in West, Texas an area salon posted on Facebook about half-price haircuts.  Would the timing of this post bother you? Clearly the salon’s social networking person was unaware of what was happening in the news that night. Social networking takes work, including keeping up-to-date on the news of the day — national and local. Social networkers are news hounds. All of the network national news, as well as CNN make this easy to do by providing a downloadable app that will send push notifications to your mobile device. If you prefer to get your updates via laptop/desktop, download a RSS feed from these outlets. Don’t overlook local: many local stations and newspapers offer apps with pushable alerts, and regularly updated mobile websites. When tragedy strikes our nation or your local area, shift the social strategy immediately to one of concern in whatever fashion makes the most sense for your brand and media platform. If the event is related to your industry, tailor your post around sympathy or realistic offers to help for your colleagues, tagging their social network accounts in your posts. Follow these statements up with an old-fashioned phone call. If the event is local, but not industry related, do the same. If you are not able to realistically offer help, simply make your followers aware that you know what is happening in your community by posting a sympathetic message. During a national event, keep in mind relief effort campaigns are often organized quickly. Before composing your post/tweet, etc., search for American Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA and other relief plans in place, and help spread the word by reposting/retweeting their messages. This may often apply to local events as well, so do a search before crisis strikes, and follow these relief organizations, so you will be ready.