The view of my back deck.
Connecticut residents have been faced with hurricanes, floods, freak snow storms and now blizzards. Blizzard Charlotte (or Winter Storm Nemo) has once again claimed the power, lives, even bread and milk of those of us in the Nutmeg State. But this series of unfortunate events has not stopped us from creating great content with social media. And if there’s a silver lining to any cloud or any rainbow after a thunderstorm, I’d say content delivers just that. Here are some examples.
Helpful Updates/Tips
My First Selectman, Gregg Schuster and local weather meteorologist, Gil Simmons, are my go-to resource for Facebook and Twitter updates around the latest storms. They’re localizing content down to the street level making it easy for me and fellow residents to know the latest information. It encourages sharing, community and kind words. Plus it’s frequent, easy to access and accurate.
Photos
With three feet of snow, walking to a neighbor’s house isn’t even an option. So when you’re snowed in or without power, your cell phone and social media are the eye to the outside world. Photos make up one third of all content shared on social media according to Media Bistro. There’s no better storm aftermath source.
Video
Perhaps the recent storm was the perfect storm for up-and-coming Vine, the six-second looping video platform from Twitter. It was my go-to tool to showcase the waist-high snow in video format. But I wasn’t alone. My Vine stream was filled with great video snippets of the snowy aftermath.
Consider how some of these content resources can be utilized for businesses as well. Provide helpful tips around the storm or discounted offerings targeted to the people that need it most. Always use the medium your audience prefers. If they’re getting their storm updates on Facebook, Twitter or other social platforms, you better be there.
What other ways have you seen content created and shared on social media during big storms? Share your ideas here, whether you have three feet of snow or not.