Was that an Earthquake? FatIguana Inbound Marketing asks Twitter.
You thought you felt an earthquake? What do you do?
First thing we were taught about earthquake safety is to stand in a doorway or crawl under a sturdy table. Next, we start thinking, did that really happen? Was that really an earthquake or did some big truck go past the house? If it was real, how severe was it? And, depending on where you live, did it cause a Tsunami and how soon will it get here?
My husband and I experienced this situation earlier this week. While we were working on an Inbound Marketing campaign for one of our HubSpot Advanced Marketing Software clients we suddenly heard a loud rumble and felt a jolt with movement that seemed to keep going. At the same time we both proclaimed, “That’s an earthquake!”. I grew up in California and my husband has spent most of his adult life there. Since we both experienced the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1987, we have an idea of what earthquakes feel like. This was not just a quick jolt, this was an earthquake that lasted several seconds, which is forever when you feel the ground shaking under your feet and watch lights or fans swaying. After realizing it had been a real quake, we both jumped up from our chairs and went to the doorways of our offices. When the ground beneath us settled down, we looked at each other and thought “Did that really happen? How bad was it?” Living in Hawaii, like California, there are earthquakes pretty regularly. 
In Hawaii, most are related to the island chain's volcanic activity with the majority of recent quakes caused by the active eruption of Kilauea volcano on the Big Island. A severe earthquake on the Big Island could trigger a Tsunami (Tidal Wave) on Maui, giving us only an hour or less to evacuate and move to higher grounds. Being we live within a thousand yards from the ocean, this caused us some concern. Earlier this year we were evacuated due to a tsunami from the Chilean quake, but we had 14 to 16 hours advance notice on that one. So, what do we do to find out if this latest quake warranted any immediate attention?
We both rushed back to our desks and computers to investigate. Me, still learning all the power of social media, started searching the www.usgs.gov website for current seismic activity. This didn’t get me too far a as the US Geological Survey site doesn’t update the activity more than once an hour. The earthquake we felt was at 9:04am and the site was just updated at 9:00. So, I was at a loss of what to do and where to look. I used google to find recent earthquakes and again didn’t get too far.
In the meantime, Phil was out searching Twitter and looking for terms such as ‘earthquake hawaii’ or ‘earthquake maui’. Believe it or not, his twitter searches yielded near real-time results. We got almost immediate responses from people on the Big Island stating it was a 3.2 on the rictor scale. Even though the earthquake felt stronger, it wasn’t a threat to us. When you are in a situation where you don’t know what is happening, it is nice to have others out there experiencing the same thing and providing information. 
Twitter is the perfect median to facilitate this. Statistically, information is dispersed within seconds using twitter, much quicker than any other media out there. For comparison, traditional wire services typically take nearly 10 minutes or more to break most stories.
You don’t have to be a follower of a certain person or group to get information on Twitter. The search option is a very powerful tool within Twitter. Any topic can be searched on. It’s a great way to find information quickly and provide information as well. And it’s becoming more and more popular and essential for businesses to use Twitter. If you want to know more about using Twitter to grow your business, please contact us.
Images provided with permission by US Department of Interior, US Geological Survey.