by Adam Crowe: Practical and strategic application of social media for emergency managers
The second day of the Midwest Disasters 2.0 Social Media Workshop was a great follow-up to the first day's training and exercise. Presentations and speakers from Georgia to Washington provided insight and experience regarding how social media is (and can be) leveraged in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. A summary is as follows:
Dave Daigle (@cdcemergency) -- As a CDC Communication Director, Mr. Daigle presented on the recent Zombie Preparedness campaign. He provided very interesting insight how about an $87 investment lead to one of the most successful online preparedness campaigns ever. More interestingly, he discussed how the campaign has maintained "legs" as it continues to be discussed and leveraged by other groups.
Yazamie August (@AlabamaEMA) -- As the PIO for Alabama Emergency Management Agency, she discussed the State's social media engagement during the April 2011 tornado outbreak that caused significant damage throughout the State. This included a discussion about the challenges of establishing a facebook page after the disaster has struck
Holly Hart (@Toomers4Ttown) -- As the coordinator of the Toomers for Tuscaloosa movement, Mrs. Hart discussed the rise and successes of the crowdsourcing of disaster assistance outside of government approval, engagement, and oversight. This emergent group apparently arose in response to a public perception about a slow response from government
Zachary Toups (@toupsz) -- As an augmented reality specialist with TEEX, Dr. Toups discussed the possibilities (and challenges) of augmented reality in disaster response and recovery. Specifically, the possibility of using technology (ex: iPhone or iPad) to see the world and add data layers (ex: GIS layers) on top of the view. This was a fascinating topic for the future.
Alicia Johnson (@urbanareaalicia), Cheryl Bledsoe (@cheryble), and several others have yet to present, but have scheduled presentations on open data/government, gamification, strategic partnerships, and account management.
The @MWD20 is tweeting regular updates about the event and they are leveraging the #MWD20 hashtag for anyone.
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Midwest Disasters 2.0 Social Media Workshop, Part 2
Midwest Disasters 2.0 Social Media Workshop, Part 1
Quote: Adaptation Relies on PeopleI have the distinct pleasure today of attending the third annual Midwest Disasters 2.0 Social Media Workshop in Kansas City. Like many communities throughout the United States, Kansas City has slowly, but definitively been moving forward on when, where, and how to integrate social media into multi-disciplinary emergency management.
The Midwest Disasters 2.0 Social Media Workshop is a two day event that is divided into three sessions. Today will include a 4 hour social media introductory class taught by Kim Nakahodo (@kimnakahodo) and Almitra Buzan (@almitrab). This afternoon will be a series of social media exercises conducted by Hal Grieb (@hal_grieb) to teach users how to leverage social media monitor tools.
Tomorrow's seminar will include presentations on a variety of topics including the CDC's Zombie Preparedness campaign, gamification in preparedness, mobile apps, augmented reality, strategic partnerships, and crowdsourcing just to name a few. Great and knowledgeable speakers including Cheryl Bledsoe (@cherylble), Alicia Johnson (@urbanareaalicia), Yasamie August (@AlabamaEMA), and Holly Hart (@Toomers4Ttown) will be providing these wonderful topics.
The best part is this entire event was provided for free to the local emergency management and preparedness community by leveraging the few remaining UASI funds available in the region. Great work!
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Emergency and disaster management is a complex process that is filled with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of moving parts that require a delicate balance. Various functions such as operations, planning, communications, media management, public assistance, damage assessment, and debris management are examples of activities that must happen in concert and collaboration to ensure an efficient and effective response and recovery effort.
Occasionally, significant new tools are introduced to this process that often create dissension among practitioners at various levels. The rise and impact of social media is one such example. Emergency management practitioners at all levels -- both public and private -- are struggling to understand the basic concepts and the implementation strategies that will benefit their organization and/or community.
Unfortunately, the introduction of social media seems to have forced many practitioners to extremes. One on side, practitioners are shifting their plans and operations to solely focus on social media based on an assumption that social media is so revolutionary that it will replace all other forms of communication and traditional media. Conversely, others exist at the other extreme and fully believe that social media is insignificant or not important enough to embrace as a new communication tools. In both cases, there is often a strongly implied if not stated belief that any other view is ridiculous.
Unfortunately, this extremism doesn't work and isn't good for the emergency management community. So much of the work we do is based on collaboration and learning from our community and each other. We all need to seek out communities of practice that are open to discussion and disagreement about how social media can (and will be) used.
I'm certainly social media's biggest fan for use in a disaster, but I can still (and certainly do) learn from others.
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According to a recent study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Center for Marketing Research, Inc. 500 businesses are embracing Facebook and LinkedIn as the most popular and effective tools for fast-growing companies. Additionally, the survey identifies that corporate blogging has fallen over the last year with a general trending away from more mature tools (ex: blogs, message boards, online videos, and podcasting).
So what does this mean for emergency management....?
Emergency management is not a major company with significant investment in marketing or industry trending. However, we should always be aware of what is happening at major companies. Because they do look for efficiency and effectiveness in all the tools they utilize, there are certainly lessons that can be learned.
For instance, in the most metaphysical question possible to ask in this forum....what should emergency management do with blogs? Many great practitioners blog via this site or many others and share unique (and hopefully interesting) perspectives on activities and trends in the field. These types of blogs seek discourse and engagement one a one-to-one or one-to-community basis. This type of engagement is at the crux of emergency management and response. We have to engage sometimes one to one with disaster survivors or one-to-many during community recovery. We have to be honest and true whenever possible. Ultimately, it's all about the humanity, which blogs are true mirrors for. Measuring the idiosynracies and needs of the community are critical whether it's in this forum or during an event.
So even though major companies may think blogging is of less importance, it may be one of the best tools emergency managers have to be genuine and honest.
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Earlier this week, David Armano posted a very interesting article to his Logic+Emotion Blog about the growing trend for major companies and events to utilize social media centers to measure and control social media activity that might impact them. Mr. Armano specifically mentions companies like Dell and Gatorade and the events like the 2012 Super Bowl that will all leverage this concept.
As an emergency manager, this process intrigued me as it was very similar to the coordination and management utilized in multi-agency coordination systems like emergency operations centers (EOC) or joint information centers (JIC). I would wager a guess that an average emergency manager already has some of his/her most significant challenges in the maintenance, upkeep, staffing, and training of EOCs, JICs and the like. So is even a possibility to start looking at centers to manage social media information in a disaster? Maybe not...
However, there are two realities that must be addressed:
1) Social media continues to grow in its use and complexity and routinely is impacting emergencies and disasters from all sorts of angles including information distribution and intelligence about the event. So if this is true, then...
2) Social media has to be monitored and leveraged some way. Is it a special position(s) in the EOC or JIC? Are specialized individuals tasked with this assignment at an incident or in the EOC?
Mr. Armano doesn't provide the specific answer to the above question but does encourage the use of social media to focus on People, Process, and Platforms. These "3 Ps" will help any organization begin to break the complexity of social media into measurable and achievable parts. Using this type of format and structure could greatly improve the usability and management of social media by emergency managers before, during, and after a disaster.
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If previous major disasters teach us anything about social media, it is that local government and emergency managers must already be engaged within the community on systems like Facebook and Twitter to truly leverage these tools and be the trusted, go-to source when an actual disaster strikes. While many emergency managers have accepted the need to use Facebook and Twitter, many still are unsure how to leverage these tools when "nothing is happening". So, I thought I'd share a few ideas for pre-disaster engagement:
PRE-IDENTIFIED HASHTAGS: Hashtags are one of the primary mechanisms to search and classify information on Twitter. Unfortunately, in most disasters hashtags are complete organic and defined by the crowd. However, there is a new strategy to pre-identify hashtags for use. For example, A few days ago, the City of Houston adopted this very strategy for impending severe weather. They identified hashtags like #powerout, #debris, #hail, and #wind to help filter their social media information.
TWITTER TOWNHALLS: Public gatherings (aka townhall meetings) have long been the standard to engage the general public on topics of interest. However, as the general public becomes more dependent on the availability and time-saving possibilities of technology, physical meetings have become less effective. As a result, there is a growing trend for Twitter Townhall meetings. President Obama utilized this functionality in 2011 as did several emergency management offices looking to engage communities before disasters occur.
STREAMING AND RECORDED VIDEOS: The ability to record a video or stream activity to an online video outlet (ex: Ustream or YouTube) has become nearly ubiquitous with inexpensive technologies and integration with cell phones. But emergency managers are often reluctant to use these technologies for anything more than traditional public service announcement videos. These technologies can be utilized (before the disaster) to introduce local staff, highlight activities, or introduce "behind the scenes" components of emergency management.
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Did you know that there were 9,420 Tweets per second on January 8th when Tim Tebow lead the Denver Broncos over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC playoffs? That's nearly 10,000 people who simultaneously wanted to talk about the same thing at the same time. It comes on the heels of the cultural phenomenon of so-called "Tebowing" that has been praised (and mocked) in a variety of ways including the crowdsourced website www.tebowing.com where individuals provide pictures from all over the world of people tebowing in front of buildings, underwater, submarines and many more.
So what does all this mean to emergency management? Far more than you realize.
Cultural phenomenons like Tim Tebow and his Tebowing can't easily be emulated, but they do often have similarities. They are most often interesting, unique, debatable, transparent, and (perhaps most important) they are genuine. These characteristics are often lacking in emergency management. Frankly, we are often boring and repetitious. We try the same things over and over and hope for some new results.
I applaud those organizations who are striving to be the local "Tim Tebow" by seeking out programs, opportunities, and presentations that can truly make a difference in your community. Unique and fun programs like the "Emergency Kit Cookoff" that was supported by the Arizona Emergency Information Network back in September or the gamification app "SF Heroes" released by the City of San Francisco in 2011. These are both awesome and noteworthy.
Tim Tebow and Tebowing may be gone tomorrow, but some other cultural phenomenon will replace it and another after that. Emergency managers may need to continue to seek out ways to mirror this process. Interesting. Unique. Transparent. Genuine. That's what we need to strive for to help spread our messages more effectively.
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Privacy (or lack thereof) has been the buzz word these last few weeks as issues like SOPA and the corresponding blackout of certain major Internet sites has exploded throughout the Internet and nearly all social media outlets. This comes on the heels of Facebook's November settlement with the FTC about continuing to allow user data to be open and searchable and report earlier in 2011 about certain phones tracking the whereabouts of its users.
It certainly appears that privacy is dead (or at least losing the battle) in a social-based and technology-centric world.
But what does this mean for emergency managers? Should we stay out of the way and let technology advocates hash-out how much privacy (or lack thereof) is acceptable? Do we fight as an advocate against continued intrusions?
Or do we look for opportunities to leverage these new tools for good. This is the kind of issue that has and will always be challenging to emergency management. Do we maintain a clear and ethical stance of neither encouraging nor discouraging current trends or do we ride the wave and identify new ways to leverage these tools.
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Yesterday, Gov 2.0 writer and advocate Alex Howard (@digiphile) posted about the U.S. State Department's intention to answer Twitter questions during upcoming press conferences as part of their "21st Century Statecraft Month". According to his post, the Tweets would be selected by State Department officials from one of their numerous official accounts and answered by the spokesperson during the press conference.
While Mr. Howard questions whether this is merely a public relations gimmick (and I agree), it successfully triggered the question for me of just what will disaster press conferences look like in the future as social tools continue to be embraced by emergency managers of all types and disciplines. While I doubt any emergency management offices are lining up to answer tweets during a press conference, it is probably past time for us to consider what tools can be utilized.
For instance, should all press conferences be streamed via a free tool like UStream? Should someone be assigned to "live tweet" the press conference on behalf of the emergency management agency? Is there a "virtual spokesperson" with the same authority to speak on behalf of your organization in social channels? How does monitoring get fully integrated into formal responses like press conferences? Like all social media integration, these tools take resources and comprehension that is not yet common place.
Press conferences are already challenging events - especially during a disaster. Social media tools may require additional resources, but ultimately will aid how and where emergency messages are disseminated, which is ultimately the point, right?
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With the rise of cable news channels in the early 1980s the concept of a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week news cycle was born. No longer did news wait until the next publication time or news show. If it was important, critical, or breaking, it was aired. This has continued to be the news cycle model and has been heavily taught in emergency public information courses as an important awareness when dealing with the traditional media.
Unfortunately, with the rise of social media systems like Twitter and Facebook, the 24/7 concept is no longer valid. It's too slow. It still implies that news happens by the hour. The shape and feel of an emergent story like a disaster or emergency can change significantly in an hour. We are now working in the window of minutes or even seconds. Perhaps we should be teaching the 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour (or 60/60 news cycle) to up and coming emergency managers and public information officers?
Although this type of shift may not be catchy and certainly will be challenged, it is not only a more accurate description of the actual process, but is an effective reminder that media management and relations must move much faster and leverage all media forms (traditional and social alike) to ensure clear and consistent information is disseminated to those impacted.
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