Marriott’s great use of Twitter in a crisis

Terror attacks targeting luxury hotels in Jakarta is today’s headlines. The recent explosion at the Ritz-Carton killed at least 9 people and the police have found an unexploded bomb in a room of the nearby Marriott hotel. The bomb was found and defused as police searched the luxury hotel following the bombing in its basement, which killed seven people earlier in the morning.

Marritot have been twittering about the incident, and I think it’s a great example of how useful Twitter can be as a tool to instantly interact with the public.

Marriott sent the first tweet about 6 hours ago ‘To all who have tweeted, we are gathering info and will have more as we learn details from Jakarta.’ Thereafter subsequent tweets have provided useful information, support to the victims and their families as well as phone numbers and an update once everyone had been evacuated and the area secured.

Air France have also tweeted the Progress Report from the French Air Accident Investigation Bureau for the crash involving Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris-Charles de Gaulle.