Virginia Tech Does Social Media Right

The gunman responsible for slaying two people at Virginia Tech on Thursday has reportedly died from shooting himself, according to Reuters. Authorities say the man was not in any way connected to police officer Deriek W. Crouse, one of the two victims, and they are still working to determine the killer’s motive.

Once again, social media has played an integral role in collecting and distributing updates crucial to campus safety. When the website for Virginia Tech’s campus newspaper The Collegiate Times crashed, its writers turned to Twitter and Facebook to command attention. While posting real-time updates ever few minutes, their Twitter account gained more than 18,000 followers. The paper also published a special edition after the incident took place.

In addition to harnessing major social networks, universities are adding more muscle to their emergency response plans with digital tools such as StreetSafe, which turns smart phones into personal security systems.