If you’re a TV station in a town of 40,000 people, you’d expect to have a few thousand Facebook fans, at best. But KXMC-TV in Minot, North Dakota, has over 27,000 Facebook fans. And they’ve turned their Facebook page into a one-stop resource for the record flooding that’s inundating the town.
As we’ve seen with the tornadoes, the KX News Facebook page has turned into a steady stream of reports, questions and words of encouragement from North Dakota residents. With as many as 10,000 evacuees, many people are anxious about their homes they left behind. With the tremendous reach of the page, new wall posts, comments, photos and videos are appearing several each minute. (The only other time I’ve seen posts come in so fast for an extended period of time were on meteorologist James Spann’s Facebook page after the Tuscaloosa tornado.)
“I am not in Minot anymore, but it is still my town,” explains Lou Kaimi Marin on Facebook. “Between wall posts, pictures, videos, and live stream, it is a heart breaking portrait, but I can not imagine being displaced and waiting word/sight on my house and property.”
While the crowd keeps tabs on the water’s advance on the wall, KXMC is streaming its live coverage wall-to-wall as well as four cameras via Ustream on its Facebook page — just click a tab to select a live camera. And every so often, KXMC moves the cameras to adjust to new trouble areas.
“Just want to say thanks to the entire KX news staff for running their feed all the time,” writes Jordan Willert on KXMC’s Facebook page. “I’m sitting down here in Omaha Nebraska, sick to my stomach as I watch my home town drown. It’s amazing how the people of Minot have pulled together to battle the Mouse (River), and I am proud to say I am from Minot.”
This is yet another example of Facebook’s crowdsourcing capabilities during big stories, and as we’ve written before, it requires local news organizations to open up their Facebook walls — and keep tabs on them. It’s a time investment, but as you can see in Minot, it can make a huge difference when the big story breaks.