Feeling the shockwaves
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When disaster struck, Nunchavit Chaiyapaksopon - @yokekung - senior social media marketing executive at True Digital Content and Media, tuned in to Twitter
Twitter is a real-time social-media tool that lets you sent messages of 140 characters or less, and it proved its eminent social value this year in the wake of a series of natural disasters around the world.
The “citizen reporter” emerged as a reliable source for the latest breaking news.
Last March the hottest topic on Twitter was “#Japan” as people sought up-to-the-minute information on the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe and the subsequent crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Thai tweeple used the hashtag #prayforjapan to send messages of support and offer assistance.
Later that same month there was another surge in Twitter use in Thailand after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake centred just across the border in Burma’s Shan State caused damage and loss of life in Chiang Rai.
These proved to have been mere “dress rehearsals”, however, for the flood calamity that overwhelmed Thailand this autumn. A slew of Twitter accounts were established to provide news and discussion forums and host pleas for aid.
Emergency services, rescue crews and volunteers found Twitter an invaluable tool throughout the crisis.
By October the number of new Twitter users in Thailand who were tweeting in Thai had jumped to 55,000, up from 36,500 in September and 27,500 in August. The number dropped 40 per cent in November, back to 33,500.
