Social Networking Proves Newsworthy “chops” After Chile Earthquake	Visited: 786 5.0/5.0 (2 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Shannon Suetos March 02, 2010

When news broke about the 8.8 earthquake that shook Chile to the core Saturday, it wasn’t news networks who was getting the best coverage, but rather social networks like Twitter. CNN for example, was reporting pictures and personal accounts from tweets—proving social networking can be a great resource for information as well as engaging your target audience.

The reason social media can be so powerful is anyone can send a message.  There can be arguments on both sides of the table about the quality and validity of the content everyone is submitting, but overall we can now get first hand accounts of any kind of news story through this medium.

Pew Internet, a site that provides nonpartisan information on “trends shaping America and the world,” just released a study stating that, 37% of people they asked in a study get their news from online sources. Out of that 37 percent, “75% get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites and 52% share links to news with others via those means.”

 It seems one industry taking advantage of social networking is the non-profit industry.  The Red Cross and CARE are both organizations who are utilizing social media to gain attention and collect donations for their projects.  Toby Smith, the director of Web strategy at CARE told DM News, “Social media is high on the list of areas of new strategic thinking about how to build awareness and galvanize supporters to give donations, especially during an emergency."

So why should you care about social media?  Below are some points on why you should not ignore these sites and how they can be useful to your company.

 Staying Current

Even if your company is still on the fence about how to incorporate social media, you should take into account it can be a great tool for research.  Following people in your industry can help keep you current on all new information as well as latest trends.  Just make sure you are following quality people to stay away from spammers.

Popping Up On Search

Many search engines are now incorporating social networks into their search results—allowing your company to get information out quickly and in a much faster time.  Google, for example, is now using an, “algorithm that favors recent results and a real-time search feature which incorporates newly posted news articles as well as updates from Facebook and Twitter.”

This can be a great new way for your company to utilize and get relevant information out to the public in a much faster capacity.  On the flip side, if you are looking for relevant information about a news story or event you can find it that much faster.

The Cost Is Right
Another great thing to remember is social media is free—free to read and free to engage in.  Subscribing to industry periodicals could get costly, but finding similar information for free is hard to ignore.  The same goes for getting your message out to the public—advertisements can add up fast, but posting on social networking sites is free.

It doesn’t matter how you use social media, the fact is it is proving to be a great tool for newsworthy events as well as a medium to get your message across.  And with the price tag of $0 it is hard to ignore.