Weather and the Social Media Wave

Severe weather and natural disasters can change our lives. In an instant a persons world can be turned upside down by some form of severe weather or natural disaster. In a world filled with technology, meteorology has come a long way in forecasting and predicting weather. It is no doubt pivotal to saving the lives of those in harms way, but what about after weather strikes? In the case of severe weather and natural disasters there is no calm after the storm. Now include social media into the mix, and of course, it makes a huge impact.

What social media has done is not only give up to date weather forecasts before a storm, but keep those affected informed in the wake of a disaster. After such storms as Hurricane Katrina, Sandy or the tsunami in Japan social media allows those ravaged by the storm to stay informed. twitter can give those in New York suffering from Hurricane Sandy the fastest updates regarding shelters, power, first aid, FEMA and other valuable tools for survival.

If someone was questioning the success of social media's involvement in severe weather and natural disasters one would have to compare the aftermath of storms prior to the social media groundswell. Hurricane Andrew for example, struck south Florida in 1992 and left the region in utter chaos. People trapped in their homes or other shelters were isolated from the outside world. According to Leysia Palen, assistant professor in the computer science department at the University of Colorado at Boulder and  director of the ConnectivIT lab says that "its becoming more organized". That as social media is evolving so is its reach, and its impact on situations like natural disasters. Palen also pointed to the Virgina Tech shooting as an example of the effects of social media as a viable news source. Students wanted to know the latest information and social media sites like Facebook gave it to them.

Social media can also be used as a fundraising tool. In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti the American Red Cross implemented a text message donation campaign that with every text $10 was donated to the relief fund. To spread awareness of this fundraising campaign the message went viral. Posting information on Facebook and twitter ahead of media sources resulted in over $30 million in donations just a month after the disaster.

The social media groundswell has changed virtually every aspect of peoples daily lives. It has grown in such a short time and continues to grow faster each day. This new arena that social media has entered regarding weather could be the most practical and rewarding subject matter because it can save lives. Some may disagree with the rapid growth of social media and there is no denying that social media has its pros and cons, but when it comes to saving the lives of people if it can help, we should not hesitate to use it.    

Could there be a Cyber War?

A growing threat to this nation is digital warfare, and the concern is if our nation is ready to handle it. In a recent article put out by Time Magazine, Defense Secretary Panetta issued a nationwide warning that something could be brewing in the near future. He is sounding the alarm to put everyone on notice.

“The whole point of this is that we simply don’t just sit back and wait for a goddamn crisis to happen,” Panetta told Time. “In this country we tend to do that, and that’s a concern.”

Could defense Secretary Panetta be over reacting, well maybe that is your own opinion? To me it seems like he is sending out a legitimate warning about this issue. With the world the way it is today some specialist are referring to it as a possible “Cyber Pearl Harbor”. Which I believe is credible. Our defenses on our shorelines and borders are extremely strong but are our defenses over the internet as strong. Could we possibly defend ourselves against a nationwide cyber-attack?

I don’t think this nation is ready to defend against such attack. We have so much access to the internet it is so hard for the government to monitor it all at the same time. The threat could be something as simple as a mass email that strikes at one time and no one could possibly predict when that will hit the main stream web. And what about hackers…. Now that’s a whole other topic on its own. But the truth is we, as a nation, are not ready for such attacks.

Look at it, the government is currently hiring hackers to help them out, and the secret is most of these hackers have hacked into the governments system before. The government is using them with the philosophy: If you can’t stop them hire them to help defend against others.

Is our nation truly prepared for a cyber-attack?  I can only hope so but with more and more four-year-olds running around with iPhone and tablets, we can only wonder because we put the internet right in the palm of their hands. And I do not believe they will be able to tell if a pop-up isn’t a hacker trying to worm their way into their system.

 This is a growing concern for the United States and there could possibly be an attack brewing at any moment, the internet is just so unpredictable.

By: Cristina Coca

How To Increase Profit For Your Business Using Social Media

There are many useful media outlets offered online to enhance small and large businesses alike. One of the many social media outlets to do so is twitter. Through the insightful article,” 5 Twitter Tips forBuilding Your Business,” written by Michael Brito I found exciting ways to get your business on the map. 

First and foremost, Twitter is a great tool for businesses to raise awareness and share news about their company. One of the great tips offered by the article is to do research and understand what is trending on twitter. This is an exciting part because you get to explore the tool and understand what your company can benefit from. Developing a trending component in twitter in turn will heighten your followers and raise awareness of your business. 

Furthermore, you must develop goals for your business. What are the objectives? What would you like to accomplish? Then from there you can create the company’s twitter page to attack those goals and ultimately achieve them. Also, when creating the twitter page you can choose what kind of page you would like for your company, a company page, personal page or a hybrid page that incorporates you and the business. 

To further take advantage of twitter you must build your credibility on the profile. This can be accomplished by consistency in posts, to accurate expert advice, to reliable and effective information. This would ultimately result in developing and building relationships with the follower, which is a key element in creating a successful social media profile. 

Finally social media, twitter, is a great space to measure and evaluate success. Through tweets, re-tweets, tweet-ups, likes and comments you can evaluate how your business is doing.

Twitter is an opportunity to be hands on with your followers and business and reach a higher and more successful point for your business’s future. 

By: Heather Holtzendorf