In addition to Home Depot, more companies are turning to Twitter to communicate storm tips and company information related to Hurricane Gustav.
Today, the ComcastCares Twitter account started posting very helpful, electronic/communication-related storm preparation tips. The ComcastCares account is always a very helpful, customer-facing extension of Comcast – but in this situation, they adapted to the situation at hand and are posting helpful storm tips. All of this, and I don’t even think Comcast is available in the New Orleans area at this time. It is great to see them using Twitter to offer their expertise even though there is no direct business impact for them.
Last night, JetBlue Airways used their Twitter to send out updated travel information for the New Orleans area. The airliner also has a large page on their site dedicated to storm information and updates.
Twitter is really shining in this moment of darkness. The service is being used by many to send out real time storm information, updates, evacuation information, etc. I would expect that every retailer in the area is in some sort of emergency operations mode, and Twitter is a way for the retailers to send valuable information to the communities they serve: store closings, special inventory alerts, community information.