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Some pretty nasty weather came through northern Illinois this week, knocking out power to thousands and dropping several inches of rain.
The storm hit Wednesday night and the Rockford Register Star received some major help in reporting through its Facebook page.
At 11:10 p.m. on Wednesday, the paper asked on its Facebook page "Are you dark, or got power? Any damage?" What ensued was 21 comments from readers with tons of great information like:
• North Ends of Loves park, machesney park, report outages. Transformer on East drive is buzzing, trying to arc, but maybe it will give up and settle down. Or, like usual, it will go off again at 2am.
• No Power Westside out by Farm and Fleet
• I'm in Dakota and all is well. I've heard that there's a tree on a power line in Davis and power is out there, in Lake Summerset, and in Rock City.
And several readers posted photos of the storm on the paper's wall, like this one:
The simple post by the newspaper shows a few things:
• Reporters can get lots of good tips, especially during breaking news, that can help them find out where damage is occurring and can get sources and leads through engagement.
• Nightime posts is where it's at on Facebook. Eighteen of the 21 posts occurred 14 minutes after the Rockford Register Star post was made, which was at 11:10 p.m. All data we're seeing right now shows that engagement is highest later at night. Rockford's work on Facebook for this story sure drives that point home.
David Arkin is the Vice President of Content & Audience for GateHouse Media. He oversees all matters related to print and online content, strategy, and online development and support related to the company’s content management system. From 2007-2011 he served as the executive director of the News & Interactive Division for GateHouse Media. Prior to that, he served as the executive editor of Greater Niagara Newspapers (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) and served as the top editor for the Cullman Times (Ala.), the Porterville Recorder (Calif.) and the Huntsville Item (Texas).
