1. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Suzanne L. Frew
The Frew Group, USA
Information Science Department
Otago Business School, University of Otago, NZ
January 2013
Copyright The Frew Group 20130copy
2. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Lecture Objectives
• Discuss roles and uses for social media in
emergency management (SMEM)
• Identify the benefits and challenges of SMEM
• Review roles in emergency management phases
• Identify how SMEM fits into communication
strategy
• Introduce key implementation guidance
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3. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?
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4. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Examples of Social media
5. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Tools/Platforms Cross Disciplines
Public Business
Safety
Media
Socia
l Technolog
Media y industry
Governmen
t
Community
Communit –based
organization
y s 4
6. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Expanding the Conversation
Enables ongoing
meaningful
engagement
Instantaneous,
Linear information interactive and cost- Provides 2 and 3
distribution effective ongoing
outreach way exchange
Utilizes innovative
technologies and
approaches
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7. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Social Media Attributes
Efficiency and Geographic Low operating
speed reach costs
Instant, highly
Access to
scalable form of
source
communication
8. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Challenges
• Policies/protocols
• Privacy issues
• Internal policy
• Training
• Culture
• Workload/time commitment
• Communication plan integration
• Personal vs. organizational use
9. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Key Platforms
• Facebook • Flickr
• Twitter • Instagram
• YouTube • Foursquare
• LinkedIn • Google+
10. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
ROLES AND USES IN
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
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11. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Historical Benchmark: USA 2007
• April: Virginia Tech shooting
– Students facilitated unofficial information sharing that
informed and guided response activities
• August: Minneapolis, MN I-35W Bridge Collapse
– Extensive on-line photo sharing
• October: Southern California Wildfires
– Government and citizen information exchange
informed response
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12. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Uses in Disaster/Emergency
Management
• Most wide-spread uses:
– Status updates
– User feedback via messages and wall posts
• Expanding uses:
– Alerts and warnings
– Assistance requests
– Monitoring
– Data collection
– Mapping/data visualization 11
13. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Benefits
• Improves situational awareness
• Supports common operating picture (COP)
• Improves rapid real time communications
• Provides two and three way dialogue
• Empowers multi-stakeholder engagement
• Expands fundraising opportunities
• Enhances donations management
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14. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Disaster Management Cycle
• Mitigation/Preparedness
– Information campaigns, readiness
information, community outreach,
stakeholder engagement and feedback
• Response
– Alerts, warnings, information
dissemination, citizen information posts,
victim retrieval alerts, rumor
management, monitoring
• Recovery
– Information dissemination on community
resources and assistance, rumor
management, monitoring 13
15. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Preparedness: Johnson Co, KS, USA
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16. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Haiti Earthquake 2010
Raised $5 million in less than 48 hours.
Text ‘HAITI’ to Red Cross donations for Haiti:
90999 - 60% from online
campaign - 15-20% from text campaign 15
17. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
2011 Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami Twitter feed
About 1200 Tweets
per minute
according to Tweet-
o-Meter during 2011
Japan earthquake
and tsunami
Hashtags included:
#prayforjapan
#japan
#japanquake
#tsunami 16
18. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Expanding SMEM Use
• Preparedness/community outreach
• Notifications, emergency warnings and alerts
• Mapping and geotagging
• Situational awareness
• Assistance requests
• Exercise and training
• Interagency communication and coordination
• On-line data, story and photo sharing
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19. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
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20. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Significant Trends
• Redefining risk & crisis communications
• Citizen journalism
• Geographically-targeted alerts and notifications
• Crowdsourced data
• Volunteer Technical Communities (VTC)
• Rapid data visualization
• Gamification
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21. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
IMPLEMENTATION
22. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Key Elements for Success
• Have a policy, protocol and plan
• Listen, engage and document
• Match objectives to the platforms
• Dedicate resources
• Understand your target audience:
Who they are—what they need—when
they need—where they will look for it—
why they need it—how they’ll use it
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23. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Holistic Communications Strategy
Communication Strategy
Policy and Target Audiences Channels of
Procedures Communication
Approval Process Radio
Who/what/when/
where/why/how Television
engage with the Print/Newsp
public? aper
Social Social
Networks/Nontrad Media
itional
24. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
25. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Building Credibility
Build Reputation
Listen, Listen, Listen!
Create Presence:
Just Do It!
Provide Original
Sources
26. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Messaging
Make social media efforts
message driven, not channel
driven
Keep messages brief and
pertinent
Support a unified message
One voice, multiple channels
27. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Correcting Misinformation
Monitor
Correct Quickly
State and Explain
Alert Command
Accept Viral Reality
Recognize Supporters
28. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Expanding Outreach Network
ID Community targets
Create Partnerships
Develop Potential
Contributors
Keep People & Message
Focused
29. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Summary
• Social media supports communication in
timely, cost effective and interactive ways
• Valuable in all phases of disaster
management
• Requires methodical, dedicated and
planned effort
• Rapidly expanding in uses, expectations
and applications
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30. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
QUESTIONS?
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31. Social Media for Emergency ManagementNatural
Disaster Response and Recovery
Thank you!
For more information contact:
Suzanne L. Frew, The Frew Group
http://thefrewgroup.com
twitter.com/thefrewgroup
Facebook.com/thefrewgroup
Linkedin.com/in/suzannefrew
Copyright The Frew Group 201330copy
Notas del editor
VA TECH SHOOTING SHOT FROM VA TECH, GOOGLE PICSBRIDGE COLLAPSE (Allen Brisson-Smith for The New York Times), CA WILDFIRE( David McNew, Getty Images) the boston globe)