In a press release , FEMA explained:
1. "Official" social media accounts created by governmental agencies can become a leading hub for sharing critical information.
3. Social media networks are dynamic: the content can be updated in real-time, from diverse users, to share the latest information about real needs and progress
In the aftermath of Katrina, needs went unanswered for too long. While bottled water began to stockpile, baby food was in short supply. Disaster victims can use social media disaster-recovery sites to inform disaster responders to real needs, not imagined ones.
Relief agencies, for their part, can use social networks to keep updated victims on supply deliveries, information on when utilities or other essential services will be restored. Social networks are ideal for dynamic information sharing.
On the Tennessee Facebook set up in the aftermath of the most recent flooding, FEMA and TEMA also included videos showing the recovery efforts and showcasing the volunteers. Updates on the recovery efforts are important not only to the victims and their families, but to volunteers and relief workers who are asked to accomplish daunting tasks under the most trying conditions.
As to spam, most social networks have gotten much better at eliminating spam and regular users of social networks are also pretty adept at differentiating between genuine and spam accounts and messages
Additionally, regular users of social media also develop a base of trusted users. How trustworthy can user-generated content really be though? How trustworthy is Wikipedia? Ask Britannica.
"What about spreading news 'far, wide, and quickly?" If relief agencies take the time to really engage in social media, i.e., share information, follow others, comment, retweet links from other users, etc., they will develop a network that they will be able to trust and that will trust them in return. The benefit? If a disaster were to occur, they could target critical information around the world.
How? An example, if Twitter user @GlenGilmore were to have information that was important to disseminate, he would know that he could turn to his network of Twitter users, send a message with a request that it be "retweeted" (shared by them to their own networks) and also DM them (direct message; a private message) power user (those with large networks of followers who are generally responsive) with an urgent message asking that they share a particular message. With a trusted network of Twitter friends, @GlenGilmore knows that he can DM a core of social media influencers (users with high and responsive followings) and have an important message sent to over a million Twitter accounts within minutes.
An important message could even be targeted geographically. He could send it to a large base of power communicators in France via @JeanLucr, another base of users in California via Zaibatsu, another base in India via @ParmitJNathan, Malaysia via @AskAaronLee, etc. Now the is undoubtedly an overlap of users and where a social media communicator is geographically based may not fully reflect the breadth of the communicator's base, but one could reasonably conclude that a significant core of followers will have a geographic connection to the communicator. Geographic targeting could also be gauged by the sort of content regularly shared by the communicator. The end result of such targeted messaging is that a power communicator in the social media sphere can pretty confidently get a message delivered to over a million other accounts worldwide simply by asking the key communicators within his or her own trusted circle of users.
8. Social networks help in reaching those who are often difficult to reach
Blogging about his own conclusions after being on Twitter "a few months," Ontario Disaster Management Director of the Canadian Red Cross, in his post, "Twittering about Emergency Preparedness," offered:
"I can already see the benefits. The audience that I engage with there are the group hardest to get with the preparedness message. Upward mobile, professionals between ages 30 – 45 are busy with their career, dating, family, mortgages, etc. "
To the point, Saunders, aka, @CRCSaunders on Twitter, wrote: "social media tools, such as Twitter, are generally proving to be important tools for disaster preparedness and awareness." He explained: "If you get enough of the right kind of followers, then your preparedness message will get out there more than any fridge magnet could."
Agreeing on the importance of social media in disaster preparedness, Christopher Juckins, a meteorologist and technology programmer at the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County, noted in a recent Sun Sentinal article about the important role social media is likely to play in the upcoming hurricane season in Florida region, that, "Social media is a very important tool for getting our message to customers who might not otherwise look for our information."
Nonetheless, while it appears that the Center is planning to start a Facebook page by June, it is, according to the Sun, "steering clear of Twitter because the 140-character limit is not enough space to provide enough information." This is an odd decision given the common use of links by Twitter users to convey extensive information in the form of a single tweet.
9. Curation: Twitter Lists and Hashtags are well-suited for identifying reliable sources of up-to-date information
Twitter hash tags are a method used by Twitterers to identify topics of interest. During a crisis, they are used as a way of letting the social media network quickly identify the latest news on the disaster.
Following the Chile earthquake, Twitter hash tags helped one person another who was missing.
To identify particularly reliable sources of information during a crisis, the traditional news networks have been quick to use Twitter Lists to identify their best sources of information.
When the earthquake struck Haiti, the two, major U.S. television news networks, Fox News and CNN, both turned to Twitter for information about what was taking place in Haiti in real-time after the earthquate.
Other traditional news networks turned to Twitter and created Twitter lists that identified the new media sources they were using to find real-time information:
NY Times, @nytimes/HaitiEarthquake
NPR News, @nprnews/HaitiEarthquake
LA Times, @latimes/haiti-quake
10. Geotagging by social network users provides important context to the information being shared
In November of 2009, Twitter announced the activation of geotagging, a service that allowed network users to share their location on the network, i.e., the location from where they are tweeting. Geotagging is an option users must enable to activate. The location-based information is available to third-party developers who are already putting the location-based information to use.
To date, only a small percentage of Twitter users have enabled the geotagging activation. Nonetheless, the ability to include geotagging in one's tweets is an option that user's could be encouraged to be activate were they to find themselves in a disaster zone. This would allow rescuers to pinpoint with precision the location of users sending out requests for help. This is also the very sort of scenario and option emergency responders should be considering as part of their responsibility to educate the public in advance of a disaster.
Sites like flickr also already allow shared content, in this case photos, to be geotagged. Social network giant Facebook is also expected to join the geotagging trend.
Those entrusted with emergency preparedness and response should begin to study and use this powerful medium of comunication that has already proven itself as a primary means of communicaiton during the worst crises of recent times. By investing now, emergency responders will have the understanding and network to put this powerful medium to work when it is needed most
Please share your own suggestions, stories, or links on using social media in crisis preparedness or response in Comments. Thank you!