When people report to the Earthquake Center that they have felt an earthquake on social media, we encourage them to submit a Did You Feel It? report via the USGS website and here's why. 

At a very basic level, we use these felt reports when we create our weekly and monthly seismicity reports to note how many events were felt during that week or month. However, especially for larger earthquakes, the information you provide can directly help to improve our rapid-response products, such as ShakeMap, which are routinely used by emergency managers to assess where shaking was strongest immediately after an earthquake.