How the Community Used Twitter During The Storms

On April 29, 2011, in social media, by Heather

The storms and tornadoes that passed through Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and several other states on Wednesday created a path of destruction that is still hard to comprehend.  In some areas rescue efforts are still underway, and the cleanup and grieving for the loss of life is just beginning.

The remains of a home in Ringgold, GA. Photo by Dan Henry of the Chattanooga Times Free Press

I’ve never seen anything like it. When the power went out Wednesday, the phone lines were down, and I couldn’t make any outgoing calls on my cell phone, I had one source of information.  I was constantly refreshing my Twitter stream on my phone to get the latest updates on the storm and following hashtags like #CHAwx.

Based on the tweets from our local Chattanooga reporters, The Weather Channel, and citizens reporting what they were seeing, I was getting real-time updates every second.  The fact that local news organizations (@WRCB, @NoogaNews, @newschannelnine and others) and their individual reporters embraced the hashtag, gave the community a place to follow and track what was happening as the news rolled in.  Since tens of thousands of us were without power (and still are), it was imperative that we were able to receive updates and communicate quickly what was happening.

Speaking of power, EPB (Electric Power Board) continues to do a great job of working as fast as they can around the clock to restore power, repair downed power lines, and remove trees.  After the first round of storms passed through, my grandmother called saying there were lines laying across her backyard.  She was having trouble getting calls through to EPB.  After I unsuccessfully tried calling, I noticed they were taking information on their Twitter page (@EPB_Chattanooga) and replying as best they could to people who were reporting lines down.

Once Thursday morning arrived, hashtags like #CHAhelp for the Chattanooga metro area and #CLEhelp for Cleveland, TN began carrying information about where volunteers and supplies were needed.  As the cleanup continues, I’m continuing to see updates today.  Thanks to the United Way (@UnitedWayChatt) I have been able to look at their web page of resources, requests, and needs that are being updated frequently.

If you know of other resources or needs in our area, please leave them in the comments below.  And if you used Twitter as a resource during the storms, I’d love to hear your story.


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How to Run Your Own Blog

On April 28, 2011, in Basic: 101, Blogging, Design, General, Uncategorized, by Wes

Running Your Own Blog

And lo, Delegator.com journeyed into the wilderness of the 156 million public blogs on the Internet, and returned to the people with commandments; and these commandments numbered 10.

I. Post early, post often, and keep posting.

The most important thing any blogger can do is to keep blogging. At first, you might get very little reader response. You might even (gasp) get none at all. But that’s no reason to panic! The only way you can create an engaged and communicative readership is by regularly updating your blog. People don’t congregate at or return to blogs that are infrequently or indifferently updated. It may be the last thing on your to do list, but it’s absolutely essential that you get it done. You might be talking to yourself at first, but if you keep talking and you actually have something to say, people will start to listen. Trust us.

Source: rivervices.blogspot.com

II. Post early, post often, and keep posting.

This is by far the most important commandment. Brand it upon your brain.

III. Post early, post often, and keep posting.

We are willing to alienate and annoy you to ensure that you do not forget this commandment.

IV. Write what you know.

This is one of those true cliches about professional writing. As important as it is to novelists, journalists and script writers, it’s doubly important for bloggers. Bloggers don’t have to be single issue, but if they seek to gain a larger readership they need to be focused and expert. If you don’t understand a concept, link to it – don’t write about it. Your readers are coming to you for answers and/or entertainment, so write about things you know inside and out. Otherwise you risk losing credibility, respect for you or your companies ability, and worst of all, readers.

Calvin & Hobbes - Bill Watterson

V. When readers have a strong response to a post, keep mining that vein of interest – hold their attention.

It’s in the best interest of a blog writer to be responsive to his or her readers. If you get a big response from a post of yours (even if you didn’t think it was that big a deal) listen to your readers. Keep posting about that same subject or in that same style (not exclusively, just regularly). The goal of a blog is to build readerships, transmit information, and connect with potential clients. When you touch a nerve, don’t be shy about pressing it.

VI. Create an editorial voice, and maintain it.

Even if your blog posts are being written by several different people and cover a few different areas of interest, keeping a clear editorial voice is important. It helps readers to feel they have a personal connection to the blog, and it makes your site distinctive and personal. Those are good things because they invite visits, correspondence, and a welcome sense of familiarity.

VII. Every once in a while, go off the cuff.

Having an editorial voice doesn’t mean you should speak in monotone. It’s good to give readers a few breaks from the serious work of digesting your thoughts and evaluating your advice. One of the most popular blogs on the internet, Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish, posts more than 300 times a week. But many of those posts are funny or moving pictures, silly videos, and palate cleansers like a daily “Mental Health Break.” You should think about fun ways to engage with your audience that don’t always include teaching them something. Apropos of nothing, here is a video of laughing penguin (ht Daily Dish).

Your blog doesn’t need to look like it was designed by Martha Stewart, but it is important to give it a professional, cared-for appearance. If it’s sloppy, ugly, or too plain, savvy readers pick up on it and take their jaded eyeballs elsewhere.

This is a FAIL.

IX. Spellcheck is your best friend.

Try not to get caught making mistakes in the realm of spelling, fact-checking, and grammar. It takes away credibility, and makes you look small-time.

X. Link to sources, and make sure to be up front about where you got information.

Nothing gets you worse press in the blogosphere than not attributing your sources of information on your blog. Do right by them and they’ll do right by you. Do otherwise, and you could get in real trouble (of the punitive kind, if not the legal).


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48 Hour Launch

On April 11, 2011, in delegator, by Heather

This past Friday, the Delegator team headed over to 48 Hour Launch, a weekend event hosted by The Company Lab where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas, form teams, and launch their business by the end of the weekend.

Once the event kicked off in the gym of the old YMCA (future site of Basecamp Chattanooga), teams were quickly formed and everyone got to work.  We enjoyed bouncing from team to team, helping out where we could, and joining in on the occasional dodge ball game.

Final pitch presentations were made to a panel of judges Sunday afternoon and then later to the audience, who voted on their favorite pitch of the night.  The winner of 48 Hour Launch was determined by a combination of the judges’ scores (75%) and the audience votes (25%).

Pitches were made Sunday by BoxAtomic, BuyIndieBooks.com, Cumberland Signal Flight Hub, EndofWaiting.com, Low Country Boil in a Box, Relove 2 Reduce, RoveWorks, SmartCushion, Snappy, and TripRaiser.com.

Delegator was proud to be this year’s 48 Hour Launch sponsor.  We wish all the participants future success with their ideas, and we’d like to congratulate the 48 Hour Launch winner, Cumberland Signal Flight Hub!


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High Quality Video

On April 8, 2011, in Basic: 101, Video, by Wes

The modern media market is saturated with video. Videos on websites, video ads before the websites even load, commercials on television, at gas station pumps and in the backs of cabs. Videos on corporate retreats, in job training sessions, anywhere and everywhere. And, of course there’s YouTube. YouTube is not only the largest collection of video on the internet – YouTube is the second most popular search engine (my italics) on the internet. Bigger than Yahoo, bigger than Bing!, bigger than everything except almighty Google. That should tell you two things:

1) Video is becoming the most important communication medium in the 21st century.

2) The average online customer has watched thousands and thousands of videos in their lifetime.

So business people who want to get their message out online or on television face a real challenge. How do you get the attention of a consumer base immune to the novelty factor in video? And how do you keep their attention when they have literally a million other options just a mouse click away?

The answer is so obvious it seems like a cop-out: Quality.

The only way to distinguish yourself in a crowded market is to be excellent. And the only way to keep people from changing the channel, or clicking the mouse, or simply ignoring you, is to look great delivering that quality content.

There are two main factors that come into play when we talk about true quality video. The first is simple – the video has to look great. That means using the best HD cameras available. That means using lighting schemes intelligently and professionally, taking a lot of time to set up and frame each and every shot, and using advanced microphones and sound recording equipment to achieve a natural sound.

Because modern viewers have so much video, good and bad, they’ve all become experts and critics. They can spot low-quality video a mile away, and that’s the kiss of death when it comes to communication with them – they turn off to your message immediately.

The second factor is much more complex. How do you make the actual content of your video match the quality of the look and sound?

It’s hard to say. But one of the best things you can do is delegate that responsibility to creative people with experience. At Delegator we work with professional videographers and a creative writer (with a B.A. in Film) to come up with compelling concepts, and we write detailed scripts for our clients (or actors) to perform on camera.

With today’s media-savvy public, making a low-quality video is like trying to pass off a forgery to a room full of art critics. It’s not worth the trouble. If you’re thinking of making a video for your business (and you should be), don’t compromise or scrimp. Commit your resources to making the  best video you possibly can.


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