Emergency management is a growing profession that has a broad reach into our society. While I believe the vast majority of people are woefully unprepared there is a subculture in our communities who are totally vested in disaster preparedness. They are called Disaster Preppers
One of my co-bloggers hit the proverbial "social media nerve" with her blog posting Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish I believe that immediately somewhere someone said, "Release the Kracken" Which led to a social media onslaught of commentary that set records for all the social media aspects at e.Republic across all their media platforms.
These numbers are as of Friday, December 7th (a day that will live in infamy):
- 11,023 page views from one blog posting
- 450 Comments left on the posting
- An additional 250 Facebook postings
- Five minutes dwell time on the page--this is really high!
- There is power and influence in using social media to communicate. Its reaches go deeply into our culture.
- Her posting shows that there are people who care deeply about disaster preparedness and take it to a level that most emergency managers can't match themselves. We need to tap into that positive energy when and where we can
- Val has done a great job of continuing to engage with the readers of her blog. Rather than withdrawing and hiding out in cyberspace she has continued the dialog and engaged in constructive communications with those who want to have a social media conversation.
"All too often, both print and electronic media (and blogs) in EM & HS write, report and thereby simply reinforce concepts and operations that we already know or believe.....and don't utilize the opportunity we have with listeners and readers. Of course, not every blog or presentation will be so challenging. But if we are going to advance the profession, then as speakers, facilitators, teachers and writers, we have the obligation to provide insightful and challenging perspectives on conventional thought and doctrine.
Congratulations on writing a blog that generated responses.....and as a thought-leader who provided a challenge, it should be expected that some of those responses will be emotional. Unfortunate, but true. Emergency Management magazine has always been supportive of those of us who write and speak challenging ideas and I am pleased to see that they continue with that support
Increasingly, Emergency Management magazine, and the blogs, are writing articles and blogs that generate reader responses.......those responses are an indicator that Emergency Management is driving thought-leadership and that the magazine and related media are willing to tackle vexing issues and challenges. That's one of the reasons that so many people actually anticipate the arrival of the next print edition and are reading the various blogs."
