The power of social networks (From Hereford Times)

The power of social networks

9:00am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Paul Rogers Blog By Paul Rogers

WELL Monday afternoon was a bit dramatic for little old Hereford wasn't it?

We first heard about the bomb scare at Tesco in Belmont just after 12.30pm and for the rest of the afternoon I ensured that I constantly put updates on our website and our Twitter and Facebook pages about what was going on.

Within minutes it seemed that the whole of Hereford was transfixed on the internet about what was happening and whether or not they would be able to pick their children up from school or get home from work ok if they had to go south of the city.

The South Side Cops Twitter page was brilliant and I must thank them for keeping everyone informed.

It made my job easier as I could retweet their tweets or put up my own via @HTnewsroom.

It was no surprise that the most read stories on our website were related to the bomb scare, but I was still surprised to see that some of the stories got up to 50 "likes", which were linked to each person's Facebook profile and many people tweeted the stories.

And that is what we aim to do.

A bomb scare is thankfully a rare thing to happen in Herefordshire, but when something like that does happen, we know that we have a duty to inform our readers of what is going on and constantly update them.

Paralympic swimmer Nyree Kindred said that on days like Monday, she was glad to have Twitter and thanked us for keeping everyone informed.

That was nice to hear so thanks Nyree for the comment, plus everyone who phoned, emailed or tweeted us to tell us of the current traffic situation.

If you don't already follow us on Twitter, please do so via @HTnewsroom.

That gets fed to the Hereford Times' Facebook page.

And, of course, all of the breaking stories always appear at herefordtimes.com And if you like my blog, please like the Paul Rogers Blog for the Hereford Times Facebook page and follow me via @podge1983