Facebook, Twitter first to spread message of earthquake that rattled N.J.

In the minutes immediately after today’s earthquake, millions of callers simultaneously flooded the nation’s phone networks, leading to widespread confusion as many of them encountered busy signals and spotty service.

Then, one by one, phone providers took to social media sites to spread their message.

"To contact loved ones following earthquake, please use text msgs rather than call. Call delays due to temporary mass calling event," Sprint told its 85,000 followers on Twitter, less than an hour after the quake hit.

"There was some network congestion in the East after tremors. Continuing to monitor," Verizon Wireless tweeted shortly after that, to about 35,000 followers.

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Along with AT&T and T-Mobile, which also posted updates on the site, the nation’s four biggest wireless carriers reached more than 300,000 customers in just a matter of minutes. Sprint and T-Mobile also posted separately on Facebook, reaching another 1 million users there.

It was proof of how much businesses have come to rely on social media tools to instantly reach thousands of customers across different locations, experts said. When Hurricane Katrina hit six years ago, Twitter didn’t exist. Today, it was abuzz with emergency updates from companies like PSE&G, NJ Transit, JetBlue and Amtrak.

"It’s really across every industry at this point," said Dan Rayburn, a digital media analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "It’s the fastest and easiest way, and it doesn’t cost anything."

In the four hours after the event, Facebook saw 3 million mentions of "earthquake" in users’ status updates, according to company spokesman Andrew Noyes.

Jodi Olson, a spokeswoman for Twitter, said within a minute of the earthquake there were more than 40,000 earthquake-related tweets. She also said Twitter was at one point recording about 5,500 tweets per second, more than Osama bin Laden’s death and on par with the Japanese quake.

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