FEMA IS-42: Social Media in Emergency Management Course Summary

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Complete all of the lessons. Each lesson will take between 10 and 20 minutes to complete. It is important to allow enough time to complete the course in its entirety.

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• Explain why social media is important for emergency management.
• Describe the major functions and features of common social media sites currently used in emergency management.
• Describe the opportunities and challenges of using social media during the five phases of emergency management.
• Describe best practices for using social media during the five phases of emergency management.
• Describe the process for building social media capabilities and sustaining the use of social media in emergency management organizations (state, local, tribal, territorial).

• Review the course goal and key learning objectives.
• Review the major modules.
• Review course navigation and course credit information.

Objectives: At the completion of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Explain why using social media is important to emergency management.
• Identify the changes in media and public information.
• Explain the communication opportunities available to emergency managers through social media.
• Describe several examples of using social media in a variety of emergency management functions in different types of disasters.
• Identify the challenges of using social media and explore ways that these might be addressed.

[Voice of CB radio operator] “OK I’ve got a lot of damage out here on South 65 Highway.”

[Voice of narrator reads text on the screen] Just three days after the massive tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, an EF2 tornado struck the 20,000 residents of Sedalia, Missouri. The town suffered no casualties and survivors reported only minor injuries. Officials are quick to point out that the use of Social Media – before, during and after the storm – as one of the main reasons for the lack of injuries.

Image: Joann Martin speaks in her office at the Pettis County Health Center. She talks with members of her staff. Staff members look at FACEBOOK. Image of the DisasterAssistance.gov website is displayed on a Smartphone.

[Voice of: Joann Martin, Administrator, Pettis County Health Center] “My first alerts came through Dave’s alerts and then the Sheriff’s Department alerts I was able to stay in phone communication with the staff and Dave alerted everyone here that there was going to be a need for sheltering. There’s a population in our community that gets their information from FACEBOOK, from texts, from non-traditional sort of communications.”

Image: View of the Sedalia-Pettis County, Missouri FACEBOOK website.
[Voice of Dave Clippert, Emergency Management Director Sedalia-Pettis County, Missouri] “This is our County Emergency Management page we use to put out all kinds of different information but during severe weather we put severe weather notifications and warnings and we attempt to put pictures with that, so that people can actually see where the storm is located. We don’t want to have people worried about getting hit or beat up with the storm in Northern Pettis County when the storm is only going to affect the Southern Pettis County.”

Jane Holl Lute, Deputy Secretary, Homeland Security (Lesperance, et. al, 2010:3)

Image: Picture of a press release
[Narrator] The press release was the main medium for emergency managers to release critical information.

Image: Reporter at a storm site
[Narrator] The target audience for media was passive and the news cycle was much slower paced allowing for careful coding of the outgoing message to the media, public, and coordinating and cooperating agencies.

Image: Press conference with National Guard
[Narrator] Strongly based on command and control models, it worked well in controlling message content and timing as long as the news cycle maintained a consistent pace.

Image: CNN Headline News logo video image
[Narrator] With the advent of the internet and world wide web, the news media moved to a 24-hour cycle and access to media at the site of a disaster event became more accessible and immediate.

Image: LAPD website
[Narrator] Now social media sites allow average citizens to post text, pictures, video, and links that disperse content quickly and widely.

Image: Harris County Twitter feed about fires
[Narrator] This new medium has outstripped the pace and volume of not only the standard press release but also that of the mainstream and local media as well.

At one time, it was simply important to get information on the web. Keeping that information current then became a challenge. Today, users and content generators expect to interact with one another directly, often in real-time.

In this way, the internet has evolved from a static path of sharing information to a platform for all to contribute.

When you pick up a newspaper, watch television or listen to the radio you have very few options for responding to the content. In contrast, with social media you don’t just consume content; you are given the tools to share your thoughts as well.

Some common characteristics of social media sites are:

• Allow for user-generated content
• Bring ideas & people together virtually
• Support the creation of online communities

Screen shows the LAFD website.
[Narrator] Blogging or “web logs” are a single- or multiple-author websites that allow for sharing a combination of text, video, and/or pictures.

Screen shows Idisaster 2.0 website page.
[Narrator] Common blogging sites and software include Blogger, WordPress, and Typepad, although many other web tools offer this functionality as well. Most blogging sites allow readers to respond to material by posting comments.

Screen shows LinkedIn® webpage for International Association of Emergency Managers.
[Narrator] In line with the popularity and widespread acceptance of text or SMS messages shared through mobile devices, microblogging has also gained in popularity.

Screen shows Twitter search for SMEM.
[Narrator] The most commonly used microblogging application is Twitter.

Screen shows KYEM FACEBOOK site.
[Narrator] Peer-to-peer sharing of longer, perpetual posts is the most common function associated with social media.

Screen shows AzEIN FACEBOOK site.
[Narrator] Sites such as FACEBOOK, Google+ and MySpace provide a platform for sharing content with friends and followers.

Screen shows LinkedIn® webpage for National Emergency Management Association.
[Narrator] Special-purpose peer-to-peer networks such as LinkedIn, Xing and Plaxo, focus on delivering these same capabilities to people based on professional affiliations or other common interests.

Screen shows Flickr site for Pala Fore 2011.
[Narrator] Media sharing sites such as Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr and Pinterest allow users to share pictures and video.

Screen shows West Orange Emergency response team Google+ website.
[Narrator] These sites are often used in combination with blogs, microblogs, and peer-to-peer sharing sites such as FACEBOOK and Google+.

Screen shows wiki website. 
[Narrator] Related to peer-to-peer sharing are Wikis.

Screen shows wiki website.
[Narrator] Wikis provide a common-platform for generating and sharing articles about specific topics or subjects with input from multiple authors and editors.

Screen shows Alabama FACEBOOK website. 
[Narrator] Now, we’ll cover some of the more common social media sites used by emergency managers in more depth.

Blogs also often have built-in features that allow readers to comment on individual posts. Commenting features can be basic or advanced, with some blogs even allowing long discussions within their comments sections.
Individuals or organizations usually use blogs to discuss topics in a conversational manner.

• The term micro refers to the fact that Twitter restricts users to posting short messages, or “tweets,” that consist of no more than 140 characters.
• Twitter users have the option to make their tweets available to the public or private.
• Most tweets are public, meaning that they are viewable to anyone with an internet connection and browser. A much smaller portion of Twitter users make their tweets private so they can approve only certain people to view their tweets.
• The highly public and fast-paced nature of means that it is often used for sharing breaking news and real-time updates about unfolding events.
• Twitter users can interact with each other by following profiles, sending direct (private) messages, re-sharing posts, or replying publicly.

Users often share comments about related subjects through the use of hashtags.  Communities often create and popularize hashtags for individual disasters. For example: #HurricaneMatthew or #LAFloods2017. A common hashtag for emergency managers to discuss social media is #SMEM, which is short for “social media in emergency management”.

Twitter users may opt to share location metadata with their posts, meaning that geodata is attached to their content. This has great potential for emergency managers looking to use tweets for situational awareness, particularly when tweets with photos or video can be geo-located.

• Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn® are examples of social networking sites
• The posted media comprise a profile
• Social networking sites are different than blogs
• FACEBOOK and Google+ are more widely used by the public
• LinkedIn® is focused on professionals, associations, or groups with a common interest

Increasingly more information about the individual can be shared, such as location-based information and media preferences (music, pictures, video, etc.).

Users can include text commentary, group photos or video.  Editing can often be performed directly on the site, including embedding certain graphics, links, or metadata such as the GPS coordinates, date and time an image was recorded in their content files.

This media can then be embedded in a blog, Facebook post, or Tweet.

Wiki site participants all have editing ability for content on the page, so they can work together to write and edit site content. Often, a smaller group of site users serve as moderators to oversee the content creation process.

The Emergency 2.0 Wiki based in Australia is an example of a wiki focused on a specific topic. It catalogues best practices on how to use social media in all phases of emergency management.

Image: Main website page for Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness and FACEBOOK page for Louisiana’s Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
[Narrator] For instance, a “Tweet” from Twitter can reference a FACEBOOK post that includes a longer text posting including pictures and video.

Image: FACEBOOK page for Louisiana’s Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
[Narrator] A FACEBOOK page can include a feed from Twitter or embedded YouTube videos. Likewise, a YouTube site can include a reference back to a FACEBOOK page or link to another site on the web.

Image: FACEBOOK post for Louisiana’s Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
[Narrator] One last note to keep in mind. Each of these sites has different ways of managing content ownership. In some cases, they may own the rights to content you post and allow others to reuse, link to or share that content.

Image: FEMA website page with Press Release
[Narrator] Others may give the account owner sole rights to their content. The same holds true for archiving the data that is available. We will cover this issue in a little more depth in lesson 3.

“Social listening” is a term used by social media practitioners. It refers to the act of searching for open source conversations discussing certain events or topics to better understand public sentiment, reaction and needs. It is carried out by keyword searches, metadata searches, or organizing other data feeds.

By doing regular social listening, emergency managers are able to better understand what the online public is saying. This in turn allows them to get immediate feedback on what disaster survivors are thinking, feeling, and doing. They can also identify rumors, misinformation, or emerging hot topics quickly.  All of these insights can help with operational decisions and communication efforts.

Image: Trendsmap image
[Narrator] It enables searching for specific words, hashtags, and followers, often across different platforms; all in one place.

Image: Adding social media sites in HootSuite
[Narrator] HootSuite and Tweetdeck, for example, aggregate multiple social media site feeds in one spot and allow users to search and monitor by keywords.

Image: Trendsmap image
[Narrator] Monitter and Trendsmap provide tracking for Twitter feeds and allow users to search and monitor message streams by the location of the person generating content.

Image: Feed Stats dashboard in Google Feedburner
[Narrator] Google Feedburner aggregates and disseminates content from websites, blogs, audios, videos, and photos according to user-defined criteria. This site also provides a feature to monitor the number and identity of users who subscribe to your feeds.

This list provides some examples of different types of social listening tools:

– Customer service. Customer service based tools focus on not only finding individuals talking about your organization or company, but also engaging with them and providing responses to questions and comments. These tools often include inquiry management systems that allow users to manage and track their response to the public.

– Public Perception. Public perception tools focus on understanding the overall sentiment and thoughts being voiced by the public on social media about an event or brand. These tools use various visualizations to help users understand high volume conversations.

– Geographic. Geographic tools focus on understanding what people are discussing in a specific geographic region. These tools use maps to show where conversation is greatest.

While all of these tools can help with social listening, it should be noted that algorithms and other automated processes can’t replace human analysis. Strategy is needed for identifying information requirements, setting up effective keywords searches, and analyzing search results for actionable intelligence.

There are some key elements of social media that affect how it should be used for communication:

• It is decentralized and non-hierarchical.
• It is usually immediate and available globally.
• It consists of many channels, formats and contexts.
• The public obtains its news from multiple sources and contributes to the media discourse.

A FACEBOOK and Twitter post differ by the number of characters, the way they are displayed, and how the recipient receives them. Also, they may differ in the number of people who receive the message and the number of times it may be repeated, through “reTweets”, linking, and reposts. Multimodal media can consist of text, pictures, video or a combination thereof, and can be edited and reformulated with little control over how it might be presented.

James Graybeal, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Public Affairs, NORAD/USNORTHCOM (Lesperance, et. al, 2010:11)

“Social media has added credibility challenges to the formerly unquestioned voice of the emergency manager.”
Tom Olshanski, Director of External Affairs at the U.S. Fire Administration

The widespread adoption of social media has brought many changes to the way information is distributed during emergencies. People who regularly turn to social media for their news and information have access to a multitude of sources and may also see a great deal of conflicting information. Any social media user can participate in spreading information, which presents a challenge to emergency managers.

One way to look at opportunities for using social media is to examine how it fits into the government’s role in providing value in crisis and emergency management (Mark Moore, 1997).  This is done by:

• Providing service.
• Achieving outcomes.
• Stimulating participation.

• Building situational awareness.
• Understanding issues/needs/concerns from the public and survivors.
• Saving lives through rapid communication.
• Fostering transparency and accountability.
• Communicating (more) effectively and directly with constituents.
• Reaching a larger group of constituents.
• Reducing call volume (wired and cell) to call centers (non-emergency and emergency).
• Responding to new, incorrect or conflicting information.
• Building community resilience through prevention, mitigation, and preparedness efforts by the promotion of government participation and building mutual trust in the community.

These are just some of the major social media uses currently in practice by emergency managers. We will cover these in greater breadth and depth in lesson three.

Click this link to access the script for this file.

Saving lives in fast moving disaster events with little or no warning 
Image: Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Twitter site.
[Narrator] In Nashville, Tennessee, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) uses social media to both broadcast emergency alert messages and to monitor and coordinate communication with partners and the public.

Image: Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Twitter site.
[Narrator] During the historic floods in May, 2010, TEMA used Twitter and FACEBOOK to alert the public throughout the State of flash floods and tornado warnings.

Image: Tennessee Emergency Management Agency FACEBOOK site.
[Narrator] This news was quickly re-broadcast by their followers on Twitter and FACEBOOK in a number of ways; re-Tweeted or reposted on other platforms, helping to quickly spread the message to a wider audience.

Communicating directly with constituents rather than through media, responding quickly and effectively to new, incorrect or conflicting information
Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management Twitter site
[Narrator] The Kansas Division of Emergency Management monitors social media to track any new information, rebroadcast or direct messages from their trusted partners, other agencies or organizations and to correct any false rumors or misinformation.

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management Twitter site
[Narrator] They use aggregating sites, HootSuite and Tweetdeck, to filter and screen messages from several social media sites, and Twitter and FACEBOOK, looking for trends and correcting incorrect communication by directing responses to their current status updates.

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management FACEBOOK site
[Narrator] They also use these same platforms to broadcast their message, whether an official press conference, press release or posting, which often helps ensure that the media gets the correct message as they know that the public gets their news from multiple sources and will check one against another.

Building situation awareness
Image: Alabama Emergency Management Agency crowdsourced map
[Narrator] The Alabama Emergency Management Agency worked with a number of partners to create a “crowdsourced” map of disaster requests and services following the destructive tornadoes of April 2011.

Image: Alabama Emergency Management Agency crowdsourced map
[Narrator] With the sponsorship of Tuscaloosa News and Gadsden Times and volunteer support from American Red Cross, CrisisCommons, Humanity Road, GIS Corps, Standby Task Force, and University of Alabama, a site hosted by UCLA’s Office of Information Technology mapped social media posts so individuals and organizations could match services and needs swiftly and appropriately.

Image: Alabama Emergency Management Agency crowdsourced map
[Narrator] A map of unmet needs indicates clusters where emergency managers may need to focus resources. Individuals and organizations can post both needs and available goods and services on the same site cutting out the middleman and reducing logistical demands on emergency managers.

Image: Alabama Emergency Management Agency crowdsourced map
[Narrator] Users can also use social media to connect with familiar sources of goods and services directly. Widespread access to this information through crowdsourced maps helps emergency managers build situation awareness while streamlining response and recovery efforts after a disaster.

Building community resilience through prevention, mitigation, and preparedness efforts by the promotion of participation in government and building mutual trust in the community.
Image: Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness website
[Narrator] The Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness uses social media in their efforts to build community resilience.

Image: Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Twitter site
[Narrator] Following Hurricane Katrina, the State of Louisiana made great strides to prevent and mitigate the impacts of future storms, floods, and other hazards. FACEBOOK, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube were used as part of a strategy to inform and involve the public that included videos instructing people how to prepare themselves and their homes to withstand storm effects.

Image: Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness website[Narrator] Likewise, they shared pictures of mitigation projects such as floodwall construction.  Louisiana officials have also used social media to broadcast public hearings on updates to flood maps in the Greater New Orleans area.

Image: Craig Fugate
[Narrator] “Social media is an important part of the Whole Community approach because it helps to facilitate the vital two-way communication between emergency management agencies and the public, and it allows us to quickly and specifically share information with state and local governments as well as the public.” (Craig Fugate, May 5, 2011 statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs).  Social media is a powerful tool to enable swift and efficient response and recovery efforts on a local basis.

These are just some of the major social media uses currently in practice by emergency managers. We will cover these in greater breadth and depth in lesson three.

We will discuss some examples of common challenges to adopting social media in emergency management in the following slide.

Some of the key organizational challenges to adopting social media in emergency management are:

• Leadership buy-in and organizational culture.
• Organizational capability.
• Privacy of personal information.
• Sustainability (competition for resources, skills, time).
• Security policies and restrictions related to IT systems.
• Public records retention requirements.

• Speed: Doing things quickly; eliminating the middleman, noise and filters between those who have information and those who need or can use it (note: bi- and multi-directional communication).
• Relevance: Doing the right thing; getting the right message to the right audience; focusing on influencers and interested followers in a position to act (such as public vs. media, partners, etc.)
• Accuracy: Doing things right; ensuring that information is correct, confirmed by independent sources and backed up by facts or direct observation.

“We used to worry about accuracy, now we worry about speed.”
Tom Olshanski, Director of External Affairs at the U.S. Fire Administration

If implemented effectively, social media can improve our speed, relevancy, and accuracy.

Written Statement of Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency, before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs: “Understanding the Power of Social Media as a Communication Tool in the Aftermath of Disasters: Release Date: May 5, 2011 Dirksen Office Building, Washington, D.C.

• Explain the significant benefits of its use.
• Explain the risks of its use along with mitigating factors and steps that can be taken to minimize risk.
• Acknowledge that those unfamiliar with social media may find its use uncomfortable or intimidating.  When the web and email were introduced, people experienced similar anxieties.  Review how central the use of the internet, e-mail and web tools have become in business.
• Emphasize the downside of being excluded from the public conversation already occurring:
  • Do you want the public discussing your emergency or disaster without you?
  • Don’t you want to know what the public is saying (about you)?
  • Do you know how to participate and respond?
• Show examples of other government users and their experiences.
• Suggest starting slowly, experimenting with a few tools, and adapting to ever-changing situations and technologies.

Click this link to access Key Organizational Challenges.

These are some examples of how emergency managers approached the adoption of social media within their own organizations.

Image: State of Kansas Division of Emergency Management FACEBOOK page
[Narrator] From the outset some of the leadership at the State of Kansas Division of Emergency Management were not completely on board, but understood the potential of social media. They allowed their public affairs department to develop social media behind the scenes and on a separate system, off their main computer networks.

Image: State of Kansas National Guard website
[Narrator] They were able to bring in more HR support through the National Guard by convincing leadership to bring in extra staff for video production to reach a larger audience. Their senior managers looked at it as a way to expand their reach.

Image: State of Kansas National Guard website
[Narrator] This, of course, is a natural fit with new media as social media platforms have become the largest platform for multi-media consumption. Their social media exposure has grown exponentially.

Image: Alabama Emergency Management Agency website
[Narrator] The Alabama Emergency Management Agency demonstrated the need and how social media works to their decision makers.

Image: Alabama Emergency Management Agency YouTube channel
[Narrator] The biggest selling-point came when it was used to great effect during emergency responses to major disasters in which social media engaged the whole community in disaster relief efforts.

Image: Arizona Emergency Information Network Twitter site
[Narrator] While the Arizona Emergency Information Network had the support of their senior managers, discovering even that the Mayor of Flagstaff was Tweeting to her constituents, they still took baby steps – initially, getting to know people in the social media community, figuring out who the most helpful connectors were, engaging them in conversation on social media and figuring out a way to work with them.

Image: Tennessee Emergency Management Agency website
[Narrator] The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency encountered some headwinds at first, but now has more of the wind at their backs garnering greater support for social media use.

Image: Tennessee Disaster Agency website
[Narrator] One major selling-point has been the dramatic reduction in call volumes to call centers. After seeing a huge rise in visitors to their website and FACEBOOK page and followers in Twitter, TEMA saw calls to their emergency call center drop by one-half reducing the staff hours needed to operate their call center and lifting some of the burden from the PIO.

All of these agencies agree that it is important to realize that these conversations in social media are going to take place whether you are a part of it or not. We will cover these steps and approaches in greater detail in lesson 3.

• Explained why the use of social media is important for emergency management.
• Reviewed the most common social media sites, their major functions, and features currently used in emergency management.
• Identified the opportunities and challenges of using social media applications in emergency management.
• Reviewed some better practices for using social media applications in emergency management.
• Introduced the process for building the capabilities to sustain the use of social media in an emergency management organization.

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Identify the levels an organization typically transitions through to get to a level of proficiency in use (basic, intermediate, advanced).
• Describe key and current examples of best practices in social media for emergency management.
• Identify and address how organizations have adopted and integrated the use of social media in emergency management while overcoming common challenges.

Image: Cell phone text message
[Narrator] 5:00 AM Four Mile Canyon, Colorado

Image: Fire raging, cell phone text message, phone on desk
[Narrator] In this home, a cell phone rings with a Twitter message: There is a fire raging close to a neighbor’s home. Then the home phone rings with a reverse 911® call to evacuate.

Image: Fire in forest
[Narrator] The mother in the family opens the window and encounters the smell of thick smoke.

Image: Red Cross Go bag, cars evacuating on the highway
[Narrator] Quickly she and her husband gather the family, grab the go bag, and pack them in the car.

Image: Cars evacuating on the highway
[Narrator] The family pulls away.

Image: Cell phone text message
[Narrator] While her husband is driving, the wife texts that they have evacuated and that they are alright. She then posts their status to FACEBOOK and Twitter, as well.

Craig Fugate, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Haiti: the Importance of Social Media Use During a Disaster, Jan 19th, 2011

Before we move into the best practices, it will be helpful to look at the ways in which organizations typically develop social media use in their emergency management organizations.

Let’s begin by revisiting the model for the role of government during a crisis, presented in Lesson 2:

• Providing service
• Achieving outcomes
• Stimulating participation

• Providing service
• Achieving outcomes
• Stimulating participation

We can look at social media as a means (one of many) by which emergency managers can provide service to the public, achieving a successful mutual outcome of protecting the public and mitigating the impact of disasters.  The participation in social media is the bridge between the means and the end when the emergency management community and the public work together.

We will build on this concept with the following model.

Keep in mind that these are generalized categories and that realistically, the journey to adopting social media may not always follow this particular progression.

• Level 1 – Listen
• Level 2 – Command/Control
• Level 3 – Coordinate
• Level 4 – Cooperate
• Level 5 – Collaborate

Monitoring focuses on one-way communication from the public.  This mode informs and instructs the Emergency Manager before any action is taken to deploy or use social media tactically or strategically.

This approach allows emergency managers to focus on the means by which the public gathers, shares and responds to information about emergencies.  It does not necessarily involve the delivery of a service to secure a particular outcome.  Nevertheless, effective social media monitoring can inform response decisions and influence plans for its strategic use.

Note: Although there is no guarantee, these social media practices can deliver the following benefits.

Image of the Navajo Nation Twitter account displaying a Tweet about the earthquake that hit the area.
[Narrator] On July 13, 2009, the tribe posted links to information on an earthquake that hit the area including hashtags related to the event, #navajoearthquake and #Navajo, and linking to the US Geological Survey and local news media.

Image of the Navajo Nation Twitter account displaying a Tweet about the Flagstaff fires.
[Narrator] In June 2010, the Navajo Nation Tweeted updates on the Flagstaff Fire. These Tweets helped keep tribal members on the periphery of the fire informed. Using hashtags helped communicate with those who may not follow their Twitter account and increased the visibility of both incidents to other users.  Emergency management staff of the Navajo Nation monitor Twitter feeds to track, respond, send and reTweet information of interest to their community.

Infographic illustrating the earthquake and twitter comments. Courtesy of http://www.leadgenix.com.
[Narrator] The speed of social media is well illustrated by messages sent during the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Northern Virginia in August 2011. The temblor was felt as far away as New York City, where Tweets about the event arrived many seconds before anyone felt the first shake.

Image of the Guam Homeland FACEBOOK post about the earthquake.
[Narrator] Due to the groundwork in social media use laid by the Guam Homeland Security Office of Civil Defense, they were able to use sites such as FACEBOOK and Twitter to help communicate the possibility of an impending tsunami.  They dedicated a person full-time to FACEBOOK to monitor and communicate throughout the event and used it to address questions from the public.

Image of the Guam Homeland FACEBOOK post about the earthquake.
[Narrator] In addition, they posted their message to every broadcast stations’ FACEBOOK page and found that the public was actively posting their ‘post’ to their page to help spread updates on the tsunami. By tagging the Office of Civil Defense to their post, it made the information more credible.

Additionally, members of the media regularly use social media as an information source. By putting official information out on your social media account, the media may also pick it up and help amplify to their audiences.

Image of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Twitter website.
[Narrator] They also use Twitter to provide alerts on wildfires and use their FACEBOOK page to inform the public on preparedness and prevention programs, as well as, fire condition updates.

Image of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection FACEBOOK website.
[Narrator] Using Twitter and FACEBOOK for alerts is very similar to REVERSE 911® technology and the Emergency Alert System (EAS). As explained earlier, social media can be considered another set of communication channels to those who rely predominately on the Internet for their information.

Cellular networks and internet services that rely on fault-tolerant fiber-optic networks also fill gaps in regions with scattered population where news media or community notification services may be unable to get the word out efficiently.

Image of cell messages.
[Narrator] Although the communications infrastructure was virtually destroyed, individuals were still able to use their cell phones to send out (SMS) text messages broadcasting their location, status, needs for help, road closures and other critical information.

Image of rescue works in rubble.
[Narrator] These texts were tracked, mapped, often by remote volunteers based in other countries, and used by search and rescue teams, relief workers and other aid agencies to focus the humanitarian response.

Image of earthquake damage.
[Narrator] Volunteers outside the affected area translated and organized this information so that emergency responders and citizens on the ground could focus on more immediate needs and access the information to locate those in urgent need to provide direct assistance.

Image of cars in the snowstorm and Trendsmap page showing information about the ice storm.[Narrator] They used social media to track road conditions, power outages, accidents, and other major damage and effects of the storms and to pinpoint impacts and emergency service requirements in those areas.  Their well-established and broad-based social media network enhanced the level of trust the community had in their efforts making it more likely the public would share what they knew and enlist their own personal networks to extend the reach of emergency communications.

While social networks are often self-correcting when it comes to misinformation, swift intervention by emergency managers to dispel rumors and spread new information to the public is common practice.

Image of FACEBOOK page showing animals in pet shelters
[Narrator] One involved a horrible rumor that animals in the pet shelters would be euthanized prior to the hurricane.

Image of Twitter post about dam bursting
[Narrator] Another indicated the Tar River Reservoir Dam was about to burst. Emergency managers quickly dispelled these rumors through posts on FACEBOOK and Twitter.

Image of Twitter post about power outage
[Narrator] Over the same platforms, they also broadcast news about closed roads and health and safety information following a power outage.

“Participating in the process of government provides other benefits. If citizens feel empowered, communities get benefits in both directions. Those who believe they can impact their community are more likely to be engaged in civic activities and are more likely to be satisfied with their cities and towns.”
How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems,   Pew Internet Project and the Monitor Institute.

Click this link to access How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems.

Image: Clark County, Washington Regional Emergency Services Agency FACEBOOK post
[Narrator] They used several platforms, including their blog, FACEBOOK, and Twitter sites, to engage the public to participate.

Image: Clark County, Washington Regional Emergency Services Agency FACEBOOK post
[Narrator] One of the great features of this initiative is that it allows citizens to share and engage not only with the agency, but with each other, helping to create a stronger sense of community that also helps build resilience.

Image: Finalists in contest are announced
[Narrator] Participating in the process of government provides other benefits. If citizens feel empowered, communities get benefits in both directions. Those who believe they can impact their community are more likely to be engaged in civic activities and are more likely to be satisfied with their cities and towns.

Images of FACEBOOK post about the Guam Homeland Great Shakeout program and children participating in the program
[Narrator] The Guam Homeland Security Office of Civil Defense has achieved tremendous penetration with their emergency preparedness message. For example, the “Great Shakeout” campaign for earthquake preparedness had over 58,000 participants out of a population of 180,000 people; 15,000 more than the previous year, in large part due to the communication through social media sites; posting the campaign on the pages of their followers and news outlets.

Images of FACEBOOK post about earthquake preparedness
[Narrator] They send out frequent messages encouraging the public to prepare a “Go Kit”, and also post messages from other agencies such as power outages. Using these tools, they can answer immediate questions.

Images of FACEBOOK post about run/walk
Narrator] During National Preparedness Day, they hosted a 5K run/walk, and FACEBOOK was a major tool to spread the word, creating an event and inviting all their followers on FACEBOOK.

Image of participants posing with a disaster preparedness kit
[Narrator] Another campaign, Ready Guam, asks Twitter and FACEBOOK users to simply post a picture of themselves with a disaster preparedness kit to win a T-shirt with the words #Ready#Guam. This simple campaign engages the public to take a proactive approach in being prepared.

Image: Operation Smoky Hill video image of firefighters in drill exercise
[Narrator] The exercise was run by the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, a division of the Kansas Adjutant General’s Department. The exercise seeks to display and evaluate emergency response to a domestic terrorism scenario.

Image: Operation Smoky Hill video image of firefighters in drill exercise
[Narrator] This exercise involved 300 first responders from local, State and Federal agencies involved in emergency response.

Image: Operation Smoky Hill video image of firefighters in drill exercise
[Narrator] These types of multimedia posts are just one of many ways the Kansas Division of Emergency Management shares information with the public.

Image: Screen shot of How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems document

[Narrator] “Those who think local government does well in sharing information are also more likely to be satisfied with other parts of civic life such as the overall quality of their community and the performance of government and other institutions, as well as the ability of the entire information environment in their community to give them the information that matters.”

Crowdsourcing is aimed at building mutual trust in the community, which in turn helps build more resilient communities.

Image: Group of people working together in a conference room.
[Narrator] The crowd might be a loosely organized group of volunteers all the way to a tightly knit organization that has vetted staff and volunteers. These volunteers might be both in, around, and outside the affected disaster area, and the work might be tasks as:

Image: Tweet about the Navajo earthquake
[Narrator] Monitoring and searching social media sites for important posts during a disaster and in recovery.

Image: FACEBOOK entry about the rumor at Rock Mount Animal Shelter
[Narrator] Verifying the authenticity of the information and analyzing the post for any geodata, alerts, needs or other relevant factors.

Image: Map of East Coast with data points highlighted
[Narrator] Tagging and mapping by data points, for example: time, location, need, service.

Image: Map with data points highlighted
[Narrator] Developing and adapting software applications such as free and open source software (FOSS) for the needs of a particular organization or disaster event.

Image: Ham radio operator
[Narrator] Just like ham radio operators, who are used by emergency managers, using volunteers from CrisisCommons or HumanityRoad or other electronic community volunteers is similar.

Image: HumanityRoad website page
[Narrator] CrisisCommons, HumanityRoad, and Standby Volunteer Task Force are three such specialized groups that have provided volunteers to assist in these emergency crowdsourcing endeavors.

Image: QLD flood crisis map with Ushahidi example
[Narrator] One of the common software applications that is used for crisis data mapping is the Ushahidi platform. Ushahidi is a free and open source software that can be used for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping based on social media posts from a multitude of platforms, whether they are SMS, Twitter, FACEBOOK, or other social media sites.

Image: YouTube video screen capture of Ushahidi Haiti animation
[Narrator] During the response to the earthquake in Haiti of January 2010, Ushahidi was used by a spontaneous cadre of volunteers to map SMS, Twitter, and other web posts.

Image: YouTube video screen capture of Ushahidi Haiti animation
[Narrator] The effort grew so rapidly that the Ushahidi Haiti site became the defacto map for the incident with NGOs and government organizations using it for their response efforts: search and rescue, relief supplies, and other recovery work.

Image: Depicting Snowmageddon and Ushahidi example
[Narrator] During the snowstorms in Washington, DC, of 2010, or Snowmageddon as it was called, Ushahidi was used not only for crowdsourcing information and volunteers but also crowdfeeding of help; serving as a platform for peer-to-peer assistance; linking those in need with those who can give. This helps to create greater community resilience.

There is no single “right way” to measure impact or effectiveness of your social media program. Multiple measurements are recommended.  By relying on a single measure, you’re likely to miss important dimensions of your program.

Measures include:
– Number of inquiries responded to
– Amount of engagement on social media accounts (likes, comments, shares).
– Amount of positive, neutral, or negative comments on social media accounts.
– Number of people referred to a website through links from social media.
– Third-party measures of social media “influence”.
– Documented stories of people who credit your social media accounts with knowledge gained or actions taken during or after an event.
– Number of followers.

Emerging methods for measuring social media impact include doing surveys of community members or giving shelter users the chance to tell how they learned of shelter locations.

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management Klout rating
[Narrator] The team assesses these benefits directly and indirectly by asking the following questions:

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management TweetLevel rating
[Narrator] Popularity: How many followers do we have?

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management TweetLevel weighted scores
[Narrator] Influence: Are posts and Tweets “liked”, commented on, or reTweeted?

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management TweetLevel followers score
[Narrator] Engagement: Do our followers engage our material by responding to posts, sharing them, or including and tagging them in their own posts?

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management TweetLevel summary
[Narrator] Trust: Do followers consider the information we post credible?

Image: Kansas Division of Emergency Management Klout rating
[Narrator] The measurements generated by these analytic tools help them to evaluate what parts of their strategy are working and what steps they might take to improve their performance. They can also use these measures to look at ways to adjust their content and grow their network.

Craig Fugate, Administrator Federal Emergency Management Agency, From Social Data and Emergency Communications Aug. 12, 2010 American Red Cross WDC

• We will identify and address how other organizations have adopted and integrated the use of social media in their emergency management.
• We will focus on how organizations have overcome the challenges.

As stated before, the process of development and expansion is not linear. Many agencies find that their use of social media accelerates during a disaster.

• Focus first on the outcome you wish to achieve.
• Be prepared to adapt how you engage your audience.
• Decide which staff members will be responsible for maintaining social media accounts.
• Choose a few tools and develop them well.
• Establish a support structure.
• Use subject matter experts to help with data collection.
• Develop a mentorship and demonstrations from experienced users.
• Leverage partners and volunteers.
• Make people available to answer questions.
• Trust the public, the community’s most wired citizens.

– Form a cross-functional social media committee to support its use and integration in the agency/organization’s business (e.g. public affairs, communication, operations, exercises, planning.)
– Set expectations and include some room for mistakes.
– Identify the audience for each social media account and explain the benefits that will be derived from social media use and how risks will be mitigated.
– Define an online persona or voice for your agency/organization, to guide social media account managers in making decisions on how to word posts and responses.
– Ensure legal review of your policies and processes, especially regarding the handling of personally identifiable information found online.
– Establish practical and transparent reporting and analysis processes, and track progress to measure program success.
– Continuously improve on the use of social media in after-action reviews and improvement plans.

Joint Information Systems need to address the use of social media for situational awareness and disseminating information even before an event unfolds.  Whether we like it or not, the disaster-affected public and many responders already use social media for information. During a response that requires coordination of information and messaging across multiple agencies and partners, the Joint Information System should allow social media messaging to be synchronized with messaging across all channels.

Joint Information Centers should allow staff responsible for social media to coordinate and collaborate with counterparts. Ideally, social media tasks can be done in the Joint Information Center to allow valid and approved information to be released as quickly as possible.

Public Information Officers (PIOs) can use social media to support many aspects of their jobs.  Social media helps them stay current with breaking news, allows them to follow journalists and other stakeholders, and helps them engage with those stakeholders and share messaging quickly. Social media has already affected the way journalists do their jobs; many of them are already well positioned to interact with emergency managers through social media rather than through conventional press releases.

Successful communication depends upon PIOs and incident commanders establishing and aligning communication priorities to incident objectives early, and updating them often during the response phase.  Preparing key messages for all hazards and training staff well ahead of time will help PIOs and others hit the ground running when disaster strikes.

Expert Tip: The Tweak-the-Tweet protocol developed by Kate Starbird, a PhD student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, provides a more complete elaboration of protocols for formatting emergency messages on Twitter for easy searching and indexing.

Open vs. closed approach to social media use: Organizations choosing to implement social media strategies have a choice between approaches that can be characterized broadly as open or closed.

Advantages: Open policies present the greatest opportunity to achieve the kind of engagement that builds trusted relationships with communities.  With fewer controls, the open approach can be implemented much faster, be more flexible with changes, and more responsive to the public’s expectations.

Disadvantage: May result in some early mistakes, making some managers uncomfortable with less command and control over official communication.

Advantages: Complies with traditional command and control systems, ensures consistency of official communication.

Disadvantages: Takes much longer to implement. May be less flexible and responsive to the public’s expectations.

• • Explain the benefits of its use and the small risks associated with it.
  •  Acknowledge that there may be a fear of what they do not understand or have a familiarity with.  This fear is similar to that of the introduction of the Internet and Web.  Explain how the Internet and Web have become widely adopted and integrated to a point where e-mail, web pages, text (SMS), etc., are simply a means of doing business.
  •  Highlight the possible downsides of not being included in the conversation.
    • Do you want the public discussing your emergency or disaster without you?
    • Don’t you want to know what they are saying (about you)?
    • Do you know how to participate and respond?
  •  Show examples of other government users and their experiences.
  •  Suggest starting slowly, experimenting with a few tools, and be ready to adapt to ever-changing situations and technologies.

Click this link to access Key Organizational Challenges.

• Identifying the levels that an organization typically transitions through to get to a level of proficiency in use (basic, intermediate, advanced).
• Describing key and current examples of better practices in social media for emergency management.
• Identifying how other organizations have adopted and integrated the use of social media in their emergency management and overcome the challenges.

• Demonstrate how some of the better practices in social media in emergency management would be used in a simulated event.
• Identify where you or your organization are on the development scale (levels) and what actions you might take.

You will be guided through a small-scale simulation and presented a number of scenarios using a fictional county office of emergency management.

At critical points you will be prompted for appropriate answers. Make your decisions and provide answers based on which social media tools and approaches you might use to address the question or issue posed.

While we know that social media is not the sole means to address the issues in each of these scenarios, we want you to consider how social media would be used as part of or as the primary means to address them.

Liberty County has been hit hard in the past couple of years by severe weather disasters that have impacted a number of your communities: historic floods, wildfires, and a major tornado.

If that was not enough, recent budget cuts had led to some staff reductions in your OEM, and you have increasingly found a need to turn to community-based organizations, volunteers, and other municipal and county workers to bolster your response efforts. These efforts have helped each community rise to the occasion in their respective responses to and recoveries from these disasters.

• Some people with disabilities were not able to easily find assistive services.
• Several segments of the county struggled with language issues for non-native English speakers.
• Geographically isolated communities with little access to mainstream media felt that they were out of the communication loop.

You have heard about the use of social media at the State level and from other colleagues and have started exploring its use.

Background information on Liberty County:

• Population: 300,000
• Households: 122,000
• Housing Units: 146,000
• Median Age: 36
• Average household size: 2.6

The Commissioner is very pleased and reports that the Board of Supervisors has commented very positively about the social media presence, and that the public sees the county government in a new light.

What actions might you take with your social media approach to address some of the issues raised?

• Some community groups would like to repost your content.
• One group has posted some incorrect information about services provided by your County OEM.
• You notice that the association of nursing homes in your county has a Facebook page and active Twitter account. Getting them involved in emergency preparation has been challenging for you in the past.
• One of your junior staff members has been posting some non-public organizational information on his personal Twitter account.

• Monitor their accounts, follow the conversation, and take part in the conversation where appropriate.
• “Follow” their Tweets and FACEBOOK page.
• Direct Tweet or post as a comment when information directly relevant to them comes available.

• Speak with the staff member and explain why her/his actions are not acceptable.
• If there is a written policy, explain the policy.
• If there is not a policy, consider putting one in place.

1,200 people have viewed various YouTube videos and hundreds have viewed your Flickr photos.

The local Rotary featured your social media presence in one of their meetings, and a major news channel regularly reposts your Twitter and Facebook postings.

How do you address these issues using social media?

• Some of the community leaders along the riverfront towns have expressed their concern over a lack of awareness of flood mitigation measures that business, home, and building owners might undertake.
• One day your call center receives a large number of calls regarding a concern over pandemic flu.

• Verify flu concerns by checking with public health officials.
• Once the information has been verified, update the call center and your social media sites.
• Monitor social media traffic about the flu, correct or inform as appropriate.

Measures include:
– Number of inquiries responded to
– Amount of engagement on social media accounts (likes, comments, shares).
– Amount of positive, neutral, or negative comments on social media accounts.
– Number of people referred to a website through links from social media.
– Third-party measures of social media “influence”.
– Documented stories of people who credit your social media accounts with knowledge gained or actions taken during or after an event.
– Number of followers.

Emerging methods for measuring social media impact include doing surveys of community members or giving shelter users the chance to tell how they learned of shelter locations.

Your organization actively monitors and collaborates with several social networks, some managed by community-based organizations.  The Commissioner of Public Safety has mentioned the more cutting-edge uses by some other counties in Columbia; you have been asked for a strategy on how to increase your reach and effectiveness through social media.

Where is your organization on this development scale?  Click on the link below.  Note: this is not necessarily linear; do your best to determine where your use may be in specific emergency management phases.

Click this link to access The Typical Stages of Development in the Use of Social Media.

Please write these down.

What resources or tools might help in the adoption of these practices? Please write these down.

Click this link to access Key Organizational Challenges.

This plan should include:

• Support for maintaining these practices, such as joining a social networking group.
• Periodic public forums.
• Creating an assessment of social media use, etc.

Please write these down.

• Identifying where you or your organization is on the development scale (levels).
•  Determining what actions you might take.

• Discuss the major points from the course.
•  Identify resources for continual learning about social media in emergency management.

Image: CNN video image of tsunami hitting Japanese coast
[Narrator] The earthquake unleashed a tsunami that flooded up to five miles inland, laying waste many coastal communities, killing more than 30,000 people and rendering hundreds of thousands homeless.

Image of woman using cell phone
[Narrator] Japan is a nation steeped in high technology with mobile phone penetration among the highest in the world and widespread social media use.

Image of Social Media map in Japan
[Narrator] Social media sites became a major conduit for communication about the disaster’s impacts, requests for assistance, and information on access to services and help. Countless survivors shared what they witnessed through their own personal posts, pictures and videos.

Image of Twitter feed for Red Cross assistance
[Narrator] Japan and the world community, aided in part by such detailed information, responded with both moral and material support.

Image of FACEBOOK site posting survivor information
[Narrator] What’s more, the Japanese people, as they have done before in hard times, banded together, now using social media sites to gather and share information, using the means of crowdsourcing information and crisis mapping to create increased situation awareness.

Image of Global Disaster Relief FACEBOOK website
[Narrator] As we have seen earlier in this course, this example of social media use demonstrates the capacity for the public and emergency managers to positively influence each other by exchanging information.

Image of Help Japan Now Red Cross QR Code
[Narrator]The relationships formed by using social media can build resilience in the face of disaster, helping a community and society as a whole meet these challenges and come through stronger.

These relationships play key roles in transforming emergency management policy and creating a culture committed to resilience.

• Saving lives through rapid communication.
• Communicating (more) effectively and directly with constituents.
• Reaching a larger group of constituents.
• Building situational awareness.
• Responding quickly and effectively to new, incorrect or conflicting information.
• Building community resilience through prevention, mitigation, and preparedness efforts by the promotion of participation in government and building mutual trust in the community.
• Fostering transparency and accountability.
• Crowdsourcing communication during a disaster.
•  Measuring reach and continuously improving.

It is important to note that as social media changes on a regular basis, with new platforms, sites, apps, and other new functions and features, practices in emergency management will evolve with them.  That is why it is important to stay current with the public’s use of social media and with fellow emergency management practitioners and subject matter experts.  At the end of this course, a list of additional resources is provided for that purpose.

Click this link to access Better Practices.

Improving the effectiveness and reach of your social media strategies requires a commitment to developing relationships in this medium with the public. We can make better use of social media by realizing that every post, every tweet, every share, every plus is an opportunity to learn what others appreciate and how it can have a positive impact on their lives. Following these set of tactical guidelines can help you make LEARNING POP!

Note: This list of social media tactical uses in emergency management is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all those in use nor is it meant as a static list, recognizing that emergency management practices associated with social media are constantly evolving. It is strongly suggested that these tactics be reviewed and evaluated for their effectiveness on an ongoing basis and as social media platforms change and new features and tools enter the market.

• • • • Learn the language of Social Media before an event. If your agency is not familiar with social media, then learn the associated jargon now, before an emergency strikes. The last thing you want to be doing during an event is trying to figure out what a retweet is or how to read a tweet2.
      • Find out more about hashtags and Twitter use at: http://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols
      • Find out more about acronyms on Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/7tb2qxd

There is a list of common Twitter hashtags in general use for emergency management, both in discussion on this topic and general preparedness, included at the end of this document.

• • • Learn what interests others and how they engage one another is essential to gaining acceptance from other social media users.
      • One of the most important ways of showing your interest is in following and friending others online who share your interests.
      • Most social media users find few things more annoying than finding their stream filled with messages from social media dilettantes, so limit the number of messages you send and spread them out so others feel they can get a word in edge-wise.
      • Use your social media presence to gauge public sentiment and information needs, then post what the public is asking for.
    • Keep track of information shared about your agency to help detect rumors and misinformation quickly and make it easier to correct misinformation before it spreads. During all phases of emergency management, but in particular during a disaster response, communication needs to be tracked3:
      • Track blogs via Google Blogs and Google Alerts, aggregate on Google Reader.
      • Track traditional media through Google News and aggregate on Google Reader again.
      • Identify keywords and hashtags (#) on Twitter that are relevant to the incident. Use tools such as hashtags.org, Twubs, Trendsmap, Kurrently, Social Mention and more.
      • Determine where your followers are, what’s trending near you and other location-based searches through tools such as: Trendsmap, TwitterMap, or Monitter.
      • Monitor trends, hashtags and tweets with tools such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Monitter, Netvibes, Tweetgrid and others.
    • For verifying crowd-sourced data see the following report by Patrice Cloutier, one of the leaders in social media emergency management field: http://www.crowdsourcing.org/document/verifying-crowdsourced-social-media-reports-for-live-crisis-mapping-an-introduction-to-information-forensics/8811

E –– Share Experiences. Really, nobody wants to know what you had for lunch today. But they just might find your choice of lunch-spot interesting if you have something to say about the service, quality or atmosphere where you dine. In other words, share the experience not just the event.

• • • • Keep information short and to the point but keep it interesting. Post information that’s relevant, timely and actionable; always include a link back to your agency’s Website and other agency social media platforms.
      • For blogs during the non-emergency phase and for preparedness, people are much more interested in how something made your feel than what you did. Give them something to relate to, and they will come back for more.

A — Ask. Everybody has an opinion, but nobody has all the answers. Questions make us think.

• • • • Like listening, asking questions gives others the opportunity to offer insights and experiences and shows members of your network that you value their opinions. Making social media interactions true conversations requires give and take. Questions make it clear you want feedback and do a better job of stimulating thoughtful responses than even the most provocative statements.

R — Repeat. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then repeating, sharing and extending the reach of what others have to say is a very close second. Social media demonstrates just how small and interconnected our world is. We tend to repeat and share only those things that resonate most deeply with our core beliefs and attitudes. And authentic, interesting, intimate, or moving images and messages only achieve universal appeal through widespread dissemination across the web of social networks we inhabit.

• • • • During an emergency make sure to repeat critical information every so often as the life of a tweet is very short.
      • Share critical information from partner agencies in a timely fashion. Remember that speed trumps accuracy.

N — News. The reach of traditional media has become increasingly limited as each of us and those with whom we connect becomes a source of information about what’s happening and what it means. We still rely on others to stay in touch with parts of our world beyond our reach, but we no longer assume that traditional sources and mainstream media have any particular advantage over ordinary people.

• • • • Since Twitter only allows for 140 characters, this helps tailor short, simple, factual statements that can be readily approved. Forget word-smithing: stick to the facts and get the info out-the-door.
      • As we learned from the earthquake in Haiti, during an emergency assume that communication will be limited. While still getting your message out on as many platforms as possible, some social media platforms may not function, so you also want to focus your communication within the constraints of those possible limitations. Take into consideration that on Twitter messages longer than 140 characters will be truncated; make sure to make Twitter messages SMS compatible by keeping them simple and to the point, including only critical information. If the message is longer than one tweet, then reference that the two or more tweets are connected.

I — Insight. As noted above, hard, cold facts have their place, but people are more likely to relate to your insights if they shed light on the meaning or impact of an event as opposed to simply offering a restatement of the already available facts. This applies doubly to those instances when those facts are in or of themselves novel, neglected or otherwise surprising.

N — eNlarge. Just as others’ insights offer a glimpse into the meaning of small details we might otherwise overlook, we also need others to help us keep things in context or put them in the proper perspective. Despite the tendency of social media to amplify things that might otherwise seem incredibly trivial, social media does an incredibly good job of connecting us and others to a wider sense of what’s valuable, important or even transcendent.

• • • Follow partner agencies, organizations, and the media, as well as community influencers and leaders. Often those you follow will in turn follow you.

Following others can help grow your group of followers, making it easier to disseminate information quickly. When working in a Joint Command/multi-agency put systems in place for a social media presence before an event4.

G — Gratitude. One of the ways social media achieves its mass appeal and ability to influence what we think and how we act is through its ability to facilitate reciprocity. The act of engaging others is, in and of itself, a way of saying thanks for connecting and sharing your world with me. Of course, it still doesn’t hurt to say thank you from time-to-time. Public—Trust the Public and Encourage their Tech Readiness.

• • • • Trust that the public, who are proficient in these tools, will do the right thing most of the time. The public will answer each other’s questions, often before you even have a chance to respond and will also shout down people who make really stupid or insulting comments. This can allow a government agency to simply ignore this kind of behavior. However, it is still prudent to have a take-down policy stated on your “info” tab that describes how comments will be handled if they do cross the line.
      • Get the word out to the public about social media access to your communication. For non-emergency communications, encourage the public to use text messaging, e-mail, or social media instead of making voice calls on cell phones to avoid tying up voice networks. Data-based services like texts and emails are less likely to experience network congestion. They can also use social media to post status updates to let family and friends know they are okay. They can also use resources such as the American Red Cross’s Safe and Well program.
      • In addition to standard personal and household preparedness, an important component is tech readiness. See the following list on how the public can prepare: http://www.ready.gov/get-tech-ready
    • Prepare—During an emergency be prepared to staff 24/7 and have your communications strategy ready.
      • When planning for a social media presence, include staffing measures for 24/7, even if that means using volunteer services or partnering with other agencies. Facebook and Twitter are a beehive of activity by the public and reporters. It is preferable to be on those platforms in order to not only provide information, but also to monitor the conversation. Make sure employees have access to social media from their desktop computer and mobile means (smartphone or mobile laptops).
      • Make sure that you have prepared messages for all hazards that require only event specific information to be added and then sent out. Developing some predefined hashtags and keywords to use for a type of hazard. For example Jeff Phillips, Emergency Management Coordinator, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico has established some set hashtags for emergency communication such as #NMEM, #NMFire, #NMStorm and #NMwx.
      • Using some of the aggregating sites referenced in the course for multiple platforms can help with this and to prime the pump so when you have to push out emergency messages to multiple platforms, you will be ready.

Twitter Hashtags Related to Social Media for Emergency Management5

• • • General Hashtags
      • #SMEM = Social Media & Emergency Management [Used to share info on the intersection between social media & emergency management. You may see articles shared, questions posed and broad information-sharing.]
      • #SMEMChat = Used during Friday one-hour conversations on Twitter between 12:30p-1:30ap EST
      • #EM = Emergency Management
      • #EGov or #OGov = Electronic Government or Open Government
      • #Gov20 = Government 2.0 references government use of online tools, broader than
    • Emergency Management
      • #HSEM = Homeland Security Emergency Management (discussion underway about using this instead of SMEM to designate incident underway)
      • #SM = Social Media
      • #WX = Weather-Specific Tweets (for state-specific, these will be preceded by state initials).
      • #2BeeRdy = Grassroots Preparedness Website at http://2BeeReady.org
      • #CoEMS = Chronicles of EMS Conference & Association Hashtags
      • #NEMA = National Association of Emergency Management
      • #IAEM = International Association of Emergency Management
      • #UASI = Urban Area Security Initiative
      • #VSMWG = Virtual Social Media Working Group (w/ DHS Science & Technology Directorate)
      • #IAEMETC = IAEM Emerging Tech Committee

In order to facilitate further discussion, FEMA created the following hashtags:

• • • #imprepared used to encourage individuals and families to get prepared
    • #kidsfiresafety used to encourage parents to practice fire safety tips
    • #howihelp (in partnership with the ARC)used to encourage people to talk about how they help their neighbors and communities.

2 From http://idisaster.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/top-7-lessons-on-sm-from-la-arson-fire-event/ based on the experience of the L.A. Arson Watch Task Force

3 This list was gathered and edited from Emergency 2.0 Wiki http://emergency20wiki.org/wiki/index.php/Monitoring#Monitoring_the_emergency

4 From http://idisaster.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/top-7-lessons-on-sm-from-la-arson-fire-event/ based on the experience of the L.A. Arson Watch Task Force

5 List of Hashtags courtesy of Cheryl Bledsoe, Emergency Management Division Manager at the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency http://www.sm4em.org/active-hashtags/

Common Steps to Adopting the Use of Social Media in Emergency Management

• • Focus first on the outcome you wish to achieve
  • Be prepared to adapt how you engage your audience
  • Choose a few tools and develop them well
  • Create a trial account before creating an official one
  • Establish a support structure to help with data collection
  • Develop a mentorship and demonstrations from experienced users
  • Establish news feeds (RSS)
  • Leverage partners and volunteers
  • Make people available to answer questions
  • Trust the public, the community’s most wired citizens

Click this link to access Common Steps.

• • • Establish the outcome that you wish to achieve: With whom are you communicating and why? What is the communication about? What is the intent of the message or what are you looking to know?

Be prepared to adapt how you engage your audience

• • • Be prepared to adapt how you engage your audience through social media as you and your audience explore applications and their limitations. Create an emphasis on making your tools and communication accessible through mobile means.

Choose a few tools and develop them well*

• • • Many new users to social media start with one platforms, become comfortable with the communication and its relationship to existing operations, and then slowly start to use other social media platforms, naturally picking them up, learning, and then expanding. This includes integration between social media platforms and organizational websites and the use of multimedia sites which are a natural progression with links to multi-media.

* Tinker, T. & Vaughan, E. (2010) Risk and Crisis Communications: Best Practices for Government Agencies and Non-Profit Organizations. Washington, DC: Booz Allen Hamilton. Available online at http://www.boozallen.com/media/file/Risk-and-Crisis-Communications-Guide.pdf, accessed October 8, 2011.

Create a trial account before creating an official one

• • • While still operating out in the open, creating a trial account allows you to gain familiarity first before broadly rolling out your official presence. This will give you the opportunity to make some mistakes, operating under the radar, without having them publicized broadly at the start.

Establish a support structure

• • • Develop a support structure, including human resources who will manage the accounts with guidelines (policies and procedures when necessary), and training in their use at all levels. Be creative in using current staff to enhance what you want to do and cross train staff on the different platforms used. Use subject matter experts to help with data collection* Social media management and measurement can be complicated and using subject matter experts who understand the field can help make use out of the wealth of data available.

Develop a mentorship and demonstrations from experienced users

• • • Wading into the language of social media may be like reading to a foreign language. It can help to have those who are familiar with those platforms explain the terms and ways they are used so that all staff can communicate effectively. Pairing staff who understand the platforms with those less familiar is a good way of bridging the knowledge gap.

Establish news feeds (RSS)

• • • Establishing a news feed or using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows an organization to publish new content on a website, blog, or other news and syndicate this to subscribers. The feed is a summarized text of the original web page along with metadata, such as date, ownership, title, and description. News feeds make it easier for people to subscribe to your web pages without having to go and visit.

Leverage partners and volunteers

• • • Partner agencies and volunteers, whether under the umbrella of an organization or independent, should be taken into consideration. Establishing connections formal and informal where you can coordinate your messages or activities before, during, and after an emergency helps to communicate with one voice. Using trained volunteers, be they collocated or remote, can help increase your capacity to manage social media communication, in particular during a crisis when social networks are lit up with posts.

Make people available to answer questions

• • • Remember that social media is a conversation and not just a broadcasting channel. Make sure that you have staff who can monitor your social media sites on a steady basis using an aggregating tool or other regular update, and reply to questions or correct misinformation when it appears.

Trust the public, the community’s most wired citizens

• • • Encourage participation and public feedback to encourage ongoing investments in social media use. Social media communities are surprisingly self-correcting when users are out of line or feed incorrect information, although they do require some level of involvement by an organization. However, engaging with the public and allowing them to actively communicate with your organization can bring about a greater relationship of mutual trust.

Develop a strategy

• • Form a social media committee to support its use.
  • Set goals: identify the audience explain what benefits will be derived from social media use and how risks will be mitigated.
  •  Develop simple metrics of evaluating the benefits, some qualitative and some quantitative.
  • Define an “online persona” or “character” for your online presence, this may or may not be the same as your offline presence.
  • Establish practical and transparent reporting and analysis processes, and track progress to measure program success.
  •  Set expectations, including some room for mistakes.
  • Ensure legal language is included where needed. Make sure that promises are kept.
  • Integrate social media into organization’s business: website, operations, exercises, and plans; continuously improve on its use in after action reviews and improvement plans.

Here are additional resources for social media in emergency management and reference information for them:

Click this link to access Social Media Sites. These social media links are provided as a reference. FEMA does not endorse any non-Federal government websites, companies, applications, or products.

Click this link to access a list of Commonly Used Social Media Sites, Platforms, and Tools by Emergency Managers.

While this course is focused on strategic better practices in the use of social media for emergency management, here is a list of tactical better practices.  This document is not meant to be an exhaustive list of these practices, as the nature of social media is constantly changing and evolving.

Click this link to access a List of Tactical Better Practices.

• • DigitalGov Social Media Community of Practice (https://www.digitalgov.gov/communities/social-media/)
• • Verification Handbook (http://verificationhandbook.com/)
• • Guide to Writing for Social Media [CDC] (https://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/guidelines/guideforwriting.html)
• • Create Accessible Video and Social Media [GSA](https://www.section508.gov/content/build/create-accessible-video-social)
• • Search the hashtag #smem on Twitter (https://twitter.com/search?q=#smem&src=typd)
• • Innovative Uses of Social Media in Emergency Management [DHS] (https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Social-Media-EM_0913-508_0.pdf
• • Best Practices for Incorporating Social Media into Exercises [DHS] https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=802144
• • Social Media Use in Emergencies: Homeland Security Digital Library [DHS] (https://www.hsdl.org/?collection&id=1843)

• Reviewing the major points from the course.
• Identifying resources for continual learning about social media in emergency management.