The role of social media at the heart of recent flooding in Alberta had a phenomenal impact on keeping Albertans informed says a report by Marketwired.
Thousands of tweets and retweets were used to distribute and share information and social media played a huge role in following the Calgary Stampede's clean-up progress.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi's Twitter account gained 28,261 followers in a 10-day period following the flood and total estimated monetary impressions of tweets featuring hashtags about Nenshi (i.e., #nenshinoun, #thankyounenshi and #nap4nenshi) were at 5.2 million.
Since the first day of the flood, Twitter became a beacon for those looking for information and updated information about the situation, says the report.
Search terms used on Twitter garnered thousands of posts, with the term #YYCFlood having 324,322 and #ABflood at 209,266 tweets.
"These hashtags unifiedotherwise unique tweets, andspoke to the social camaraderie shared betweennot just Albertans, but all individuals," said the report.
Thirty-two tweets featured a flood-related hashtag every minute, according to the report.
Social media was buzzing with Calgary Stampede-related mentions, with many wondering if the show was still a go and what parts of it would be cancelled.
The Stampede had 21,992 mentions with over 70 per cent relaying excitement about the event.
The most active users during the flood included the City of Calgary and Calgary Police and the most influential posters included W. Brett Wilson, Jann Arden and George Stroumboulopoulos.
"Because of the tireless efforts to keep his city safe and informed during the flood emergency, Mayor Nenshi has earned not only a lot of praise online, but also a few unique hasthtags created in his honour," the report stated.
Top words from Nenshi-related tweets included "thanks," "help," "amazing," and "great job."
See social media's relation to the Calgary Stampede below and the full report here.
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