On September 30th, Ecuador lived through a crisis. There were police riots and the president was held by the police for several hours, ending with a thirty minute gun battle to rescue the president. All of this was updated in the presidential twitter account.
While this was happening, the presidential facebook page was overflowing with messages of support for democracy. I couldn't believe what was happening. You didn't need to be present in Ecuador... holding a flag and demonstrating on the streets to show your support. You just needed to have a facebook page and keep checking your twitter account for updates on the crisis.
As a result of this commotion, the presidents of the country members of the Union of South American Nations - UNASUR - held an emergency meeting in Argentina to talk about the crisis in Ecuador. The meeting lasted for an hour and a half. It was then that the group of presidents decided that for future emergency meetings they will use technology and they will have virtual meetings so they don't have to fly so far for such a short meeting.
Various presidents already use social media. In times of crisis, I found out from this experience that the best way to keep updated is via twitter.
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