Social and Utilities

I work for Alabama Power, and we just got nailed by a nasty pair of storm systems that collided and affected nearly a quarter of a million customers. That’s more than one out of every six of our 1.4-million.

So imagine my feelings when I saw this pop up last night:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/SDGE/status/111952718721069056″]

Heart. In. Throat.

I have to give @SDGE props, they were extremely informative throughout the crisis on Twitter. Just some samples of their good messaging:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/SDGE/status/111959422309376000″]

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/SDGE/status/111960422072061952″]

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/SDGE/status/111961248777777152″]

When I caught the stream, @SDGE was over 12,000 followers — just 45 minutes later, they had more than 14,000.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/SDGE/status/111977863502245888″]

Why Twitter?

Back in the day, crisis and disaster protocol dictated that you did your best with local radio stations. They had generators, and were the best means of reaching people who could listen with battery operated radios.

Guess what?

People don’t have battery-operated radios anymore.

Seriously. They have iPods and Smartphones, and they only listen to the radio in the car.

In times of trouble, more people know they can get information from Twitter and Facebook — and Twitter has an advantage with its direct line to SMS.

Did you know you could follow Tweets without even having an account? With SMS?

Text “FOLLOW REDCROSS” to the number 40404, and @RedCross Tweets will come to your cellphone as long as you still have SMS service.

FOLLOW ALABAMAPOWER

FOLLOW SDGE

And when you’re done, just send LEAVE SDGE to 40404, and you’re unsubscribed.

Easy.

During our little storm here, we restored power to 237,000 customers in four days. We also gained 987 Twitter followers to the @Alabamapower account. Many of those accounts were created in the last few days.

Be smart — people are listening, and they will grope for whatever information they can find in an emergency. Help them find it.

I am an official spokesman for Alabama Power.