(Photo by Vicki Thomas Garner)
By Mark Scott, executive director of Market MontGOmery Chamber & Tourism • During Hurricane Florence and the subsequent events of flooding, power outages, waterline breaks, etc., the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce has tried to keep people abreast of what is happening. We highly advocate for the Montgomery Herald because they do a great job covering the news in our county and most people read it cover to cover; however, for more real-time information, what are our options in MoCo?
It became difficult to reach the masses on television when it went from four major networks to 70-plus cable channels, and now there are hundreds of channels on cable and satellite TV. In Montgomery County, the situation is even worse; some of us get our local network news from Charlotte stations, some from Triad stations and a few from Triangle stations.
Some thought social media would be the answer. But after Facebook came Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc., and we are finding that some of these social media platforms have algorithms that make only posts from certain friends show up on your main page.
Still, at the chamber, we decided that the best avenue for reaching the masses in real time in Montgomery County is currently Facebook. Our demographics skew toward the Facebook age group and it seems to have worked. As we updated tornado warnings, flood watches, power outages, water main breaks, etc., in the past week, we had a reach of 24,851 with 16,356 post engagements. That means our posts were liked, commented on or shared an average of nearly 2,500 times a day. Thankfully, we reached the masses with important information.
We hate to be the bearer of bad news during natural disasters, etc., but we want to keep the public informed. If power goes out, you can still use a smartphone to access our Facebook page.
There are certainly other places to follow, like Uwharrie Mountain Radio, the Montgomery County website and more. Find which pages best suit your needs and follow them to stay informed.