Today the city of Minneapolis declared snow emergencies after snow storms swept through the Midwest. The city is tapping social media giants like Facebook and Twitter to effectively inform Minneapolis residents to be cautious and where to park.

The city wants Facebook users to change their profile pictures to alert friends on their network to be aware of snow emergencies. With the growth and traffic increasing in social networking websites, the city is extending its information for those who spend time on Twitter and Facebook.

With mobile devices, laptops and other handheld devices users with different gadgets will be able to stay tuned and updated optimizing communications with latest information snow emergencies. The city has suggested a personalized list of images for users to indicate what kind of snow emergency they are.
To stay informed on the latest information for snow emergencies visit
www.facebook.com/MinneapolisSnowEmergency or http://twitter.com/MinneapolisSnow

Other ways to find out about Snow Emergencies:
• Hotline: Call (612) 348-SNOW any time of day to find out if a Snow Emergency is in effect.
• E-mail alerts: More than 30,000 people have signed up to get Snow Emergency e-mail alerts.
• Phone calls: Automated phone calls are made to residences throughout Minneapolis.
• The Web: The City’s Web site tells you whether a Snow Emergency is in effect. There’s even an interactive street lookup that lets drivers put in an address or a neighborhood to see what streets are good to park on during a Snow Emergency.
• The media: News releases are sent to the media so TV and radio stations can inform their viewers and listeners that a Snow Emergency is in effect.
• On Cable - Tune in to cable channels 14 and 79. These channels will have information in several languages when a Snow Emergency is declared.

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