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.
