I was digging through some old copies of Emergency Management Magazine and ran across an article on social media in the July-August Edition You will have to dig for it since there are no individual links to articles (page 40-41). I don't think I've blogged on it.
There is a list of ten steps for succeeding with social media. I think these are a good place to start if you are just doing that "starting" or if you have done a little and want to check to see if you are "on course" the list might help with that too. See below:
- Establish goals and create a plan to achieve them.
- Create policies to protect your organization and employees.
- Develop a calendar and strategy for social media content.
- Develop accounts for your organization to support.
- Develop a social media "voice" that is genuine and respectful.
- Establish workflows including triaging and crisis response.
- Identify emergency staffing to support social media messaging during an emergency.
- Train your staff an prepared your administration.
- Ask for guidance from other professionals.
- Review and repeat steps one through nine on an annual basis.
I'll only comment on one of the above, that being number five. Many organizations still treat social media like it was a news release. The writing is stilted and formal. Social media provides the opportunity for a conversation and if you can imagine one side "giving a speech" and the other "talking" you might understand how communications might suffer. Each person participating in social media will have a slightly different voice because of our personalities and writing styles. Don't be afraid of the variety and variation that comes from different people doing the writing. Keep it respectful and informative and it will all be OK.
