Over the weekend, the DC area experienced a wide-spread blackout as the result of a Derecho that hit the area Friday night. Many in the area lost power for a substantial amount of time. Losing power is an inconvenience, but in July it’s much more than that as temperatures linger in the 100s. The loss of air conditioning can be dangerous as temperatures inside become extremely hot, rendering it unlivable for those sensitive to the elements, like pets, young children and seniors.
From a business perspective, the loss of power means substantial revenue losses for those that are physically unable to operate. However, as the business world becomes more mobile, a power outage isn’t always a sufficient excuse for abandoning work or communication. As a community manager for a number of companies, the power outage simply provided a challenge to keep communities up to date with relevant information. Because many of the brands’ customers live outside the DC area, the power outage meant little to them. They didn’t necessarily care that I was without power, they just wanted information when they wanted it.
With limited resources for charging smartphones and no access to Wi-Fi from my home office, my time had to be maximized so I was not wasting valuable battery life. Fortunately, from my iPhone the apps I am able to access provide a functional workspace from which to update social networks, write emails and communicate with colleagues effectively. Here are few apps that helped me stay on top of user communities and deliver useful content.
Hootsuite — This mobile app provides push notifications each time a tweet is retweeted or someone replies or mentions you, making it easy for you to follow up efficiently. As well, you can check stats, trending topics and assign tasks to other team members.
Bufferapp — Being able to schedule tweets and posts is always valuable when time is of the essence. Though I might not have much of a battery life later in the day, using Buffer I can ensure that messages are still going out across networks.
Facebook Pages — This long overdue app makes it easy to update multiple Facebook pages from anywhere. Not only can you post updates, you can see stats, new fans and notifications.
Yammer – Using the Yammer mobile app is helpful for when colleagues have questions for me. Push notifications let me know when I need to follow up as well as allow me to keep them informed about my status.
What apps helped you get through challenging situations, whether you’re on the go or without power? Share them in the comments.
2 thoughts on “Power Struggle”
We (board of a proces memgaanent foundation) have started to make use of Yammer to facilitate our control processes. We all make a lot of use of our portable devices (Android, iPhone, iPad). On the iPhone/iPad version i do miss the ability to see pages and files. This is a big lack in functionality, because we decided to co-produce all our plans in Pages. Are there any expectations when the mobile-apps of Yammer will support pages and files?
he new Yammer application is ienedd a very nice and comfortable application to use.What I however miss (besides the notifications) is de possibility to be able to share through yammer from within other android applications supporting sharing like the browser. Yammer does not appear in the sharing options anymore.Anytime to add this feature again?