Social media use in times of crisis

Editor's Notes

• #6: 19% sagen, dass sie Vertrauen in ihre Regierung haben (= Regierungsorgane)81% sagen, dass die Regierung nur selten oder nie trauen
• #7: Americans primarily use social media to maintain connections with family and friends, with approximately two-thirds reporting this as a main reason for use to learn more about consumer products (60%), read consumer feedback (66%),connect with others who share a hobby or interest (14%), meet new people (9%), ead famous people’s comments (5%), and seek new romance (3%) (NM Incite, 2011; Pew Internet, 2011). Instead gratification nature of each social networking platform drives consumption habits and use.
• #9: Web 1.0Few content creatorsUni-directionalStaticPush technologyWeb 2.0: “Social Web”Presentation & scripting: Sites and applications allow user interaction; many content creatorsStructural:Purpose and layout – exchange content of any kind (text, audio, video)Sociological:Friends and groups; democratic nature; tag, comment
• #10: FEMA:The public uses social media tools regularlyRather than trying to convince the public to adjust to the way we at FEMA communicate, we must adjust to the way the public communicates by leveraging the tools that people use on a daily basis.
• #13: For example, examining Twitter communication related to the 2011 Las Conchas wildfire threat to Los Alamos National Laboratory, researchers found some Twitter users were passive, not tweeting or re-tweeting, only filtering information via Twitter hashtags and searching for information to help mitigate risk and reduce uncertainty
• #15: Not a core respnsibility of government, but a core need of citizens and survivors.
• #16: Social media can become the primary source of time-sensitive disaster information, especially when official sources provide information too slowly or are unavailable (Spiro et al., 2012). For example, during the 2007 California wildfires, the public turned to social media because they thought journalists and public officials were too slow to provide relevant information about their communities
• #18: Education about a warning system is needed before an eventAlertiing needs to attract attention
• #19: Misinformation, uncertainty, and fragmented info. peaks early in a crisis and diminishes over time
• #21: Social media demands that governments communicate in new ways. Briefly. Frequently. Directly.
• #26: U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention created a social media campaign that provided humorous education guide focused on how to prepare for a zombie apocalypseThe blog post received more than two million page views within on week in May 2011 launchZombie campaign made CDC more ‘life-like” – instead of robotic agencyCampaigns and trusted information needs to be released before the actual event/emergencyLight-heartednessPlayful, so that it reaches all audiences (educators, students, in extension then the families/adults)-
• #27: Spent $87 on the campaign logo & comic- Generated over $3.4 worth of media campaign- Team of two people
• #30: Speed and AccuracyReduction of Missed EventsUniformity and Flexibility
• #31: An example eastern US earthquake CIIM for a magnitude 4.6 in Alabama. Inset (boxon main figure) shows smooth variations in intensity and regional extent of the data. There were16,941 individual responses for this earthquake.Interactivity & citizen sciencesprovides a unique opportunity for “citizen science”allowing scientists to obtain vast data collections in ways not otherwise or previously possibleexpands the observational base for data collectionalso empowers the community to take ownership and allow better understanding of important scientific issues of the day
• #34: WHAT IF 911 operators cannot handle the amount of requests?Using social media to create resilient/parallel infrastructure, when all other channels are unavailable. -> Speak in an authoritative voice, provide instant feedback, let others follow along and read12-14 hours shifts during storm (day & night)Before the storm, never tweeted before.Instead of “Trust us” (everything is under control), the ConEdison account, tweeted in a different voice “We hear you” -> Building community and long-term trust.In the aftermath of Sandy, @ConEdison’s follower count has grown nearly 30-times, from 800 to just over 22,000.Con Edison spokeswoman, Sara Banda is quoted saying that social media “allows companies like us to be part of the media. We can get information out directly to our customers, and that’s a great thing.”Building systems of survival (resilient infrastructures): Go beyond informing and broadcasting or marketing…email & Twitter before storm communicate about safety and prepareafter storm passed: amount of damage and the amount of effort it takes to restore Use of Twitter to communicate about tents with generators to allow customers to recharge their cellphones, electronic equipment, ice and food, explain outage and damaged equipmenteducate the public to get power to schoolshistorically only during office hours, 15 hours a day, 7 days/week17 days, 7 days a week, 900 twitter messages, 9,000 messages directed at us, exceeded daily allowance, expand daily capacity in partnership with Twitter
• #35: · Source additional information from affected areas during emergencies to better serve those who need help;· Spot trends and better anticipate the public’s needs; and· Connect people with the resources they need, like food, water, shelter or even emotional support.
• #38: Decentralized content creation For centralized decision making by a single point of contact Increase trust One voice Created content can then be shared out to all other mediaDon’t do too many tools (widgets, Android, iphone, Google+, and different accounts for different purposes) -> Single point of contact
• #40: Don't do what FEMA did for Hurricane Irene with mobile apps, a mobile site, a normal site, a blog, SMS alerts, etc. Don't make people think they have to check 10 different sources to stay up to date. Try to make it easy and clear for them.Choose mobile optimized channels.Make sure your channels won't go down. If your site isn't stress-tested, don't rely on it. A site that won't load is worthless. (Isn't there an example of some Google site being used instead of an NYC.gov site during Sandy?)Social media channels are a great option for official communications. They're reliable, they're mobile optimized, and they're designed to spread your message.Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are options. While Tumblr has had reliability issues in the past, one major advantage of Tumblr is that it's highly customizable. You can make it look like a normal website available on a custom URL.If you are operating at the federal level and are setting up a new social media channel, make sure you register it as an official government social media account at http://www.howto.gov/social-media/social-media-registry/register-accountsDecentralize information gatheringSet up operations to gather information and verify it internally. Turn that information into clear, trustworthy messages to be published through your official channels.Missouri used Measured Voice to do this when providing official messaging in response to the Joplin tornado. Gathered information from multiple state agencies and FEMA and sent them through a few official social media channels.Google.org project: http://google.org/personfinder/global/home.htmlWhat to share.Be calm and carry on! Seriously, be calm and straightforward. Tell people what they can do, even if it's just to "carry on."Post regularly throughout the situation. Post updates to tell people if there are no new updates. Show people you're alive.
• #41: Misinformation, uncertainty, and fragmented info. peaks early in a crisis and diminishes over time Official press release not much longer: Does not say more, even though it feels/sounds more officials
• #48: Governance: Commitment and buy-in from senior leadership and political officials at the state level is more than double that at the county and local levels.Processes: Formally defined and tested processes and procedures lag behind social media use.Technology: Technology used for other purposes in an agency is often used in an ad hoc fashion to support basic social media operations, such as posting status updates.Data/Analytics: Data-extraction efforts at all levels are still reliant upon manual review, making monitoring efforts difficult to scale-up during large disasters.
• #50: The graph represents a network of 503 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained "NYTstorm", taken from a data set limited to a maximum of 1,500 users. The network was obtained on Saturday, 09 February 2013 at 06:48 UTC. There is an edge for each follows relationship. There is an edge for each "replies-to" relationship in a tweet. There is an edge for each "mentions" relationship in a tweet. There is a self-loop edge for each tweet that is not a "replies-to" or "mentions". The tweets were made over the 10-hour, 48-minute period from Friday, 08 February 2013 at 19:49 UTC to Saturday, 09 February 2013 at 06:37 UTC.The graph is directed.The graph's vertices were grouped by cluster using the Clauset-Newman-Moore cluster algorithm.The graph was laid out using the Harel-Koren Fast Multiscale layout algorithm.The edge colors are based on relationship values. The edge widths are based on edge weight values. The edge opacities are based on edge weight values. The vertex sizes are based on followers values. The vertex opacities are based on followers values.Overall Graph Metrics:Vertices: 503Unique Edges: 1581Edges With Duplicates: 481Total Edges: 2062Self-Loops: 346Reciprocated Vertex Pair Ratio: 0.193296960249415Reciprocated Edge Ratio: 0.323971260613978Connected Components: 21Single-Vertex Connected Components: 19Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 482Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 2036Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 5Average Geodesic Distance: 2.172707Graph Density: 0.00606322226006511Modularity: 0.339618NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.234Top 10 Vertices, Ranked by Betweenness Centrality:nytimesbrianstelterNYTLivenycjimlisatozziSlaughterAMSamSiftonlexinytSkoknicPrimerImpacto 
• #51: Treat the public as a emergency management resource:Solicit public input for creative solutions to government challengesFor example: 2010-2011 FEMA challengeIdeas for innovative and effective ways communities can prepare for a disaster before it strikesOver 150 submissions from the publicFEMA then promoted winning ideas on their own websiteAdditional mechanism for sharing ideas and best practices across the emergency management community.
• #55: Social media strategy:Who's going to do what, when, and why? Always ask why!