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Effective use of Twitter and hashtags during Hurricane Gustav

Description:

As Hurricane Gustav threatened the New Orleans area last week, citizens found new ways to update the public on how things were developing on the ground.  In an attempt to decrease some of the chaos that occurred during Hurricane Katrina, Twitter users from the region mobilized themselves to offer a way not only of quickly disseminating the information via tweets, but also to centralize the information via the use of hashtags.

CNN reporter Rick Sanchez even referred to Twitter during his airtime and mentioned that he had used it to gather information for his report.

Tools: Twitter, Hashtags

How these tools are being used:

Beyond the great benefits of using just Twitter to inform people of real-time events happening in New Orleans, the use of hashtags proved even more effective.  Hashtags are a way to send your Twitter updates to a centralized location on the web so people can go online to get comprehensive and immediate updates during an event.

Hashtags were first used heavily on Twitter during the 2007 San Diego forest fires, and have subsequently been introduced into various industries as a way of grouping Twitter messages.  Uses include crisis information, event updates, and conference notes.

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