#530Slide - Social Media for Disaster Communications

A brief look at how Snohomish County's deputy director of communications used social media to manage critical information during the deadly 2014 landslide in Washington State.

Transcript

1. Bronlea Mishler @bronleamishler #530slide Why social media works in a disaster
2. Social media in a disaster • Why social media • What we shared • Challenges • Post-incident evaluation
3. Why social media? • News media isn’t the only source of news • More people are getting their news through social media – Facebook and Twitter • There’s value in communicating with the public the way they communicate • It makes you a part of the conversation
4. What we shared: Twitter • The first #530slide tweet went out at 12:17 p.m. – roughly an hour and a half after the slide, and right after SnoCo activated its EOC. • About 17 minutes later, I realized the value of setting an incident hashtag.
5. Twitter • This shows how much the #530slide hashtag was used in just the first 24 hours of the slide. • Just for perspective: From March 22 to March 31, I sent out 333 incident tweets.
6. Twitter • Information was very sketchy at first – responders were still trying to understand the scope and scale of the disaster. • The Sheriff’s Office was first on scene, posting some details on its Twitter account. • I did my best to post what I knew, when I knew it.
7. Twitter • Why was #530slide valuable? I could search posts to see what people were saying about the event. • I could engage in the conversation to answer questions and correct rumors or misinformation. • I could get boots-on-the- ground information from residents or responders near the scene.
8. Twitter
9. Twitter
10. Facebook • Afforded me more flexibility with what I posted. • No 140-character limit meant I could share full news releases, key info from press briefings and emergency alerts. • SnoCo’s FB followers could share with friends and family
11. Facebook • Don’t underestimate social media’s reach: Sometimes it was the only way to get information out to the public. • It was also a quick way to engage in conversations with the public about the incident and what we knew at the time
12. Facebook
13. Facebook
14. Challenges • Only one social media staffer and no backup • Volume of information coming in from the field • Demand for information from the public and media • No time to monitor or track analytics to gauge effectiveness
15. Challenges • Setting social media expectations
16. Challenges • Trying to obtain and verify information once incident command was in place • Keeping track of information posted on social media by partner agencies (USACE, National Guard, Governor, etc.)
17. Post-incident evaluation • Have a larger team to manage the social media accounts / support each other • Set up a team of people (VOST) to monitor incident information/rumors on social media • Have one or two people whose job is solely to run analytics on social media during the incident to gauge reach and effectiveness • Work with DEM to craft a JIC setup that accounts for immediacy of social media • Establish a social media archiving system to easily respond to public disclosure requests
18. Questions? • I’m available by email or the interwebs bronleamishler@hotmail.com Interwebs Twitter: @bronleamishler Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronlea