Did you feel it? Did your desk shake? Were your windows rattling? On Tuesday an earthquake rattled more than a few desks and nerves through-out the eastern United States and Canada. For some the earthquake was very real with desks moving and buildings shaking. For others, the first they learned of the earthquake was on Twitter and Facebook.

That's right - people were learning of the earthquake on social media before it hit the traditional news media channels of television, radio and the newspaper. Times have certainly changed. It seemed almost immediately the earthquake was a trending topic on Twitter and the hashtag #earthquake was added to every other Tweet.

So what does this mean to you? Disaster communication really has gone social. More and more people from all demographics and locations are hooked into Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr and blogs getting instant updates and notifications sent to their iPhones, iPads, smart phones and android devices.

To truly be in the know, you have to be connected. Connected to your team and connected to the world. When considering how you can use social media at times of crisis, it is really vital that you have a plan and a strategy. Now, not to boast too much bue we'd like to think our jointly hosted webinar with the Disaster Recovery Journal on Wednesday (one day after the earthquake) titled Social Media: What Is Your Strategy? was pretty darn timely.

In this webinar Regina Phelps adn Abbas Haider Ali discussed the importance of having a social media strategy to enable you to react in times of crisis and threat. We won't rehash the entire webinar here, but if you missed, use this link to download and watch the webinar (it's free).

So in the space of two days we have an earthquake that is communicated over social media and we have a webinar about using social media in times of crisis communication. You'd think that would be enough to emphasize how vital and integral social media communication is for business, personal and news communication.

But we can't help but direct your attention to the eastern coast of the United States - yes Hurricane Irene. A quick search of Twitter reveals that the hashtag #Irene has quite literally taken over the social media channel.

Major news outlets from the New York Times to Time magazine and the Weather Channel are tweeting about Irene's progress. Twitter feeds such as the HomeDepot are posting 140 character messages about how to prepare for Hurricane Irene. A quick look at Twitter and Facebook this morning reveals that bottled water is flying off the shelves in New York City, people are cutting their vacations short, airports are being overwhelmed with anxious travellers, and people are filling up their cars with gas. And this doesn't include the videos you'll find on YouTube of images of Hurricane Irene's power.

Convinced yet? Lets face it, there is no hiding from the importance of social media when it comes to crisis and disaster communication. Yes there are even iPhone apps available to help companies communicate during crisis. In fact Apple Inc. announced this week that the new iOS 5 operating system will give users the option of receiving early earthquake alerts on their iPhones. This warning app connects directly into Japan's national earthquake warning system - such a notification can give people seconds or minutes to prepare for an earthquake.

And as we know - sometimes all it takes is a few seconds to make a difference in crisis communications. So in light of the recent news and developments, there really is no excuse to not be connected, prepared, communicating and ready. Don't miss out on this key component of your crisis communication strategy - make social media a part of how you do business and protect your business.

(It is worth reading this article from Fast Company Magazine about the Red Cross position on social media communications during disaster and crisis - another example of how prevalent social media is in our well-being and response abilities.)

Update Post Hurricane Irene

Now that we've all had some time to recover from the effects of Hurricane Irene. Well, most of us - there are lots of you out there with flooded homes, washed out roads and no power... The one thing we've heard a lot about and read about is the poor media coverage. Yes, there was media coverage but rather than really providing us with information on how to be prepared, how to communicate, and what to do in the event of flooding and danger - the mainstream media really gave us hysteria. Televsion news clips, radio reports and newspaper stories telling and showing us the damage and really working up a level of hysteria. This is where social media shone through. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, people were able to get the real story about what was happening - it was from Twitter that most of us learned that Hurricane Irene had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm and that it was likely to cause less damage than predicted. Using Twitter and Facebook people were able to communicate with one another and get the news out quickly about road closures, dry and safe locations, and to communicate to others that they were safe. While the mainstream media was focused on footage and reports of disaster, social media came to the forefront providing actionable and useful information for those who wanted and needed more than sensational video footage.

There are lots of lessons to be learned from a disaster and threat such as Hurricane Irene. Particularly in terms of communication - consider how you used social media to communicate with your team, friends, and extended network. This was weekend was an excellent example of how vital social media is in communication and helping to ensure that the right message gets out. As this weekend shows - you need a social media strategy. (Do a search on Twitter today for #Irene and you'll see that people are still updating one another.)

“The relevance engine gave us the capability, without any  additional effort on our part, to expose incidents that were occurring  in our environment both to the people who fixed that issue and to the  people who were interested in seeing what was going on.” – Cerner

Cerner Corporation, a leader in the healthcare industry, had an  initiative we all wish our companies had – an initiative for work/life  balance.  Must be nice, right?

Seriously though, their IT department was struggling with this.   Cerner used to have an “all hands on deck” approach to incidents –  basically, everyone was called and notified of events regardless of  their role, responsibilities, or schedules.  This means that people were  receiving phone calls at all hours of the night letting them know about  issues that may or may not be relevant to them.  Part of the problem  was that they were managing on-call rotations in word docs and excel  spreadsheets so they didn’t who was on-call for what.

With the implementation of the xMatters (alarmpoint) platform, they’ve been able to reach the work/life balance they were  striving for.  Because the relevance engine only delivers notifications  to who is on-call, and blocks notifications from the people who aren’t,  it’s exactly what they needed.

With the relevance engine, they were also able to track and monitor  the different rotations to not only see where the holes were and where  they needed more or less coverage but they are now able to predict how  much time IT staff will actually be on-call.  They’ve also expanded the  notification system to proactively alert executives and the lines of  business to issues that may impact their day, reducing the number of  help desk calls that come in.

If you haven’t seen our recent press release announcing Fujitsu Irelands’ use of an xMatters relevance engine you  are missing out. We were very excited to announce the news, especially  since they’re using the relevance engine to keep one of Ireland’s top  government department’s mission critical IT systems online.  It’s  crucial that these systems stay up and running and we’re thrilled that  we’re able to provide Fujitsu Ireland the ability to deliver IT  infrastructure information to the customers at the exact time they need  it, allowing them to resolve critical events faster.

Check out the full story in our new Fujitsu Ireland case study.  Mike Cavanaugh, Service Delivery Manager at Fujitsu Ireland helps explain why tight SLAs led them to a relevance engine.

As consumers, we’ve all come to appreciate offers for things that  we’re interested in – who wants the constant emails from our favorite  stores if the sales and promotions are for things we won’t buy?  It’s  become pretty clear that delivering relevant offers is a marketers dream  and having the ability to send those targeted communications is a great  way to maximize your customer relationships.

Obviously, Troy McAlpin, CEO of xMatters agrees.  He recently wrote an article for DestinationCRM.com called Everyone Wants to be Relevant.   In this quick article, Troy takes this concept a bit further and talks  about why consumers want goods and services that meet their unique needs  and tastes when it matters most, and how mass personalization can make  this happen.

Check out the article at DestinationCRM.com.

Last week we took a poll of our readers asking what they consider to  be the most important role if IT today.  There were four choices:

1. Business intelligence provider
2. Business innovation leader
3. High quality services provider
4. Efficient services provider

According to you, being an efficient services provider is the most important role of IT.  But we thought we'd dive a little deeper into what the options mean.

Running a lean operation - Work harder, not  smarter.  That’s the mantra for those that said providing efficient  services was the most important role of IT today.  They know that IT  departments must improve performance while minimizing investments and  headcounts.  A relevance engine can help you accomplish that by  automating critical tasks and providing the last mile of service  delivery, all while decreasing the impact on your staff.

Making service delivery more efficient and reliable -  Reduce incidents and delays by eliminating friction.  That’s the goal  for those who said that providing high quality services was the most  important role of IT today.  They know that service delivery often  stalls due to compatibility issues, caused by systems and technologies  that don’t work well together and that duplicate efforts often lead to  wasted time.  A relevance engine is built on the foundation of  application, device and network neutrality – seamlessly connecting  people, processes, and information across a variety of locations, using  all types of technologies and because it carefully parses individual  preferences, roles, profiles and responsibilities and matches those with  times, schedules, locations, networks and devices it only delivers what  is needed only to those who should receive it, at the exact right  moment.

Turn information into innovation -  Unlock the value of information as a strategic weapon.  It’s a pretty  interesting idea – IT has traditionally played the role of service  provider within an organization, providing the support required to meet  business needs and operational goals.  However, those that said IT was a  business intelligence provider and a business innovation leader know  that IT can unlock the potential of information to move the business  forward.  A relevance engine can help bring that information to the  forefront so that it can be shared, used, and acted upon.

The truth is, no answer is more correct than another.  Every IT  organization has different initiatives and goals they need to meet in  order to align with the business.  Thanks to all of our readers for  taking the poll!

We recently saw Thomas Wailgum’s article on CIO.com, CIOs to Vendors: Forget One-Stop Shopping, Get to Know My Business,  where he discusses how many enterprise software vendors are acquiring  smaller shops in order to create a “streamlined”, “end-to-end” solution  from a vendor that is a “one-stop shop”.  Most of this is marketing  speak that companies regurgitate over and over because they believe  that’s what their buyers want and that being a “one-stop shop” separates  them from the pack.  But it seems that times have changed.  Wailgum quotes a new Forrester Research report by senior analyst Scott  Santucci:

“Executives overwhelmingly believe that the strongest  differentiator is when vendors understand the buyer's business and  prescribe tailored solutions. These same executives also believe that  the vendor's ability to relevantly connect its portfolio to suit their  needs is the top attribute that makes a supplier strategic.”

We couldn’t agree more.  Knowing what matters to your customers and  your perspective customers is so important – you have to get to know  their business, find what’s relevant to them, and deliver what matters  to them, when it matters most.  It seems all signs are pointing to  CIOs looking for vendors that understand not just what they do, but what  their customer’s need as well.  Vendors bringing relevance to the  business, imagine that. To put this into even more context, check out  this case study from one of our clients who is a UK based Telecom  Company – they found the golden ticket in customer communications and  have since drastically reduced customer churn – read the case study now.

“The present system is not working,” Senator Bill Nelson of  Florida said at a hearing in Washington devoted to assessing the spill  and the response. Oil had just entered Florida waters, Senator Nelson  said, adding that no one was notified at either the state or local  level, a failure of communication. “The information is not flowing, the  decisions are not timely. The resources are not produced. And as a  result, you have a big mess, with no command and control.”

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has brought out thousands of people who  just want to help – though organization around contacting those with  specialized training in areas such as handling wildlife or the toxic oil  that has reached land has been complicated and challenging.  It’s been  all over the news, from the Huffington Post, to the New York Times to  AOL News: Gulf Oil Spill Volunteers: Problems Matching People To Jobs, Efforts to Repel Oil Spill Are Described as Chaotic, Spill Volunteers Grumble They’ve Been Ignored.

xMatters’ relevance engines deliver information to people when they  need it, especially during catastrophic events such as this.  We would  like to offer xMatters on demand, our hosted, web based relevance engine  to any volunteer organizations to help coordinate efforts to clean up  the oils spill. With the click of a button, teams can be notified when  they’re needed, transportation can be arranged, the proper amount of  food can be delivered daily and the cleanup efforts will happen much  more smoothly and effectively.

The time is (now). Volunteers need to know  when their special skills are requested. Directors of various volunteer  groups must have a quick, effective way to notify volunteers when they  are needed, where they should report and what they need to bring.

xMatters can provide the communication tool necessary to bring  organization to the current chaos by providing volunteer group directors  and team leads with the following:

Contact information

• All volunteers’ contact information will be located in one central data base
• Organized by skill level, special training, team leads and availability

Food distribution lists

• Different organizations that have donated food to the volunteers can  be notified automatically when their services are needed, making sure  resources are spread throughout the cleanup efforts

Transportation

• Notify transportation volunteers when transportation is needed
• Coordinate weekly schedules of transportation to ensure different groups are being utilized when necessary

We would like to offer our services free of charge, to the  organizations that are dedicating their time and efforts to clean up the  gulf. Please spread the word if you know of any organizations that  would be interested!

If you’d like to join efforts with xMatters, please email marketing@xMatters.com or call 925-251-5732 to make a lasting impact.

One of the core capabilities of a relevance engine is the concept of  mass personalization.  Here’s a quick definition: mass personalization  is the use of technology to deliver unique experiences, choices, and  capabilities to many individuals on a broad scale, based on factors  specific to them – such as roles, responsibilities, interests,  schedules, and location.  Mass personalization ensures you receive the  information and choices that you want at any given time and that all the  things you don’t want are blocked.

This wouldn’t be possible without a relevance engine.  Relevance  engines consider massive amounts of events and data and match what’s  relevant with unique attributes of a single person or a group of  individuals.  Our relevance engines take into account shared interests,  responsibilities, and permission levels when determining what events and  data should be sent to whom. Also, they provide the ability for  individuals to act.  The possibilities are endless, actions include –  collaborating with others; approving a contract; taking ownership of an  event; making informed decisions during a crisis; or accessing remote  applications and systems. The best part is, relevance engines block what  is not relevant, so people receive only what they both want and need.

Mass personalization represents a whole new frontier in how companies  relate to everyone connected with their business. It transforms  products, services, and customer experiences by enabling companies to  shift from delivering the same thing to everyone to delivering what is  relevant to each individual, and from static, one-way delivery modes to  dynamic, connected interactions.

Check out a new white paper titled: Mass personalization: How relevance engines are revolutionizing mass communications for a closer look at how organizations are using mass personalization  to increase the efficiency of IT and risk management groups, as well as  strengthening customer relationships and accelerating innovation.