Social Media Accessibility article June 2015 IAEM Bulletin

Vol. 32 No. 6 June 2015
201 Park Washington Court, Falls Church, VA 22046-4527
phone: 703-538-1795 • fax: 703-241-5603 • e-mail: info@iaem.com • website: www.iaem.com
CEM News .................... 2
IAEM Student Council
Announces IAEM Student
Essay Contest ........... 2
CEM®
Corner ................. 3
IAEMStudentAnnual
Conference Fee
Stipend ...................... 5
IAEMinAction ................ 6
Conference News ......... 7
Profiles in Service:
Michelle Savoie .......... 8
Special Focus Issue:
“Social Media and
Emergency
Management”
Feature Articles:
INDEX, page 9
Register for the July 24
ETCWebinaron
“BeyondtheBasics
inSocialMedia” ........ 9
IAEM-Canada Professional
Development Committee
Publishes Guide to EM
Further Education in
Canada ................... 21
Inclusive Planning
Tip of the Month ........ 21
How to FormAMS
andIAEM
Student Chapters ..... 36
EM Calendar ............... 37
IAEMStaff .................... 37
New Members ............. 38
In this issue
IAEM-USA Officer Call for Nominations
T
he IAEM Latin America &
Caribbean Council (IAEM-LAC) is
offering free trial memberships
from June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016. This
offer is only for new Individual members
in the IAEM-LAC Council.
New trial members will receive a full
membership for 12 months, with all
member benefits – an incredible oppor-
tunity for them to experience what IAEM
has to offer, in addition to growing our
collective strength in knowledge and
experience. This is a chance for new
members to participate in the IAEM
network, attend our incredible annual
conference, receive our IAEM Bulletin,
and have a voice in our profession and
the policies that impact our communi-
ties. IAEM-LAC members are encouraged
Trial Memberships Are Now Available
for New Individual Members in the
IAEM Latin America & Caribbean Council
to invite their friends and colleagues to
experience IAEM at no charge for 12 full
months.
How Do Prospective IAEM-LAC Trial
Members Sign up for This Offer?
1. Go to the online application page
here.
2. Complete the contact information
fields and all other required fields.
3. In the membership category drop-
down box, select “Latin America &
Caribbean – Trial Membership Offer.”
4. Click on the “Post Changes” button.
5. New trial IAEM-LAC Individual
members will receive a confirmation
email and begin receiving IAEM member
entitlements within 48 hours.
continued on page 2
N
ominations are now being
accepted for IAEM-USA
Second Vice President and
IAEM-USA Treasurer. Candidates must
submit their credentials by 5:00 p.m.
Eastern time, on Monday, June 29,
2015, to IAEM Headquarters via email to
info@iaem.com, to be reviewed by the
IAEM-USA Nominations & Credentials
Committee.
Submit Officer Credentials
To be placed on the ballot, candidates
must submit:
a letter stating candidacy;
a letter of permission from the
candidate’s immediate supervisor
supporting the time and travel necessary
to fulfill duties of office;
a brief resume; and
confirmation of IAEM-USA mem-
bership of at least three years immedi-
ately prior to seeking office.
Officer Candidate Eligibility
Individual members are eligible to
hold national office, provided they have
been a member for at least three
consecutive years, and have served as a
regional or national officer, national
committee chair, or active national
committee member for two consecutive
years. For more details, see the
IAEM Bulletin
Call for Articles:
“Marketing Your
EM Program”
Details on Page 9

2
IAEM Bulletin June 2015
I
n emergency management,
the age-old debate of experi-
ence versus education is
particularly important, given that
the profession and study of emer-
gency management grew from the
practitioner side and the newness of
academic programs in this area.
Choosing to pursue specialized
knowledge and hands-on experience
through practical experience or
seeking academic knowledge
through a university program is
sometimes difficult to decide for a
person entering the profession.
There has even been a term
coined, “pracademic,” for those who
choose to pursue both the practical
and academic paths.
In an effort to raise awareness of
the choices that new emergency
managers must make when choos-
ing their career paths and to better
understand those choices, the IAEM-
IAEM-Global Student Council Announces
2015 Student Member Essay Contest;
Entry Deadline Is July 1
Global Student Council is launching
its 2015 Student Essay Contest to
assess the understanding that
students have of this issue.
Both an undergraduate and
graduate winner will be selected by
a panel of academics, practitioners,
and a member of the IAEM-Global
Student Council.
Each winner will be provided
with a complimentary conference
registration and hotel costs for the
IAEM 63rd Annual Conference &
EMEX, Nov. 17-28, 2015, Clark
County, Nevada.
Additionally, both winning
submissions will be published in the
IAEM Bulletin.
Complete information, guide-
lines, and details are available here.
Submissions must be emailed to
iaemgsc@gmail.com no later than
July 1, 2015, 16:59 hours UTC.
IAEM-USA Administrative Policies &
Procedures.
Candidate Campaign Articles
All of the candidate campaign
articles will be published in the
August 2015 issue of the IAEM
Bulletin. The same articles will be
posted on the online voting area
web page.
As noted above, you must
submit your credentials to IAEM
Headquarters via email to
info@iaem.com no later than 5:00
p.m. Eastern time, Monday, June
29, 2015.
Your campaign article (no
more than 500 words) and photo
must be emailed to Editor Karen
Thompson by 5:00 p.m. Eastern
time, Friday, July 24, 2015. Email
articles in Word or text format to
Thompson@iaem.com. A photo that
is embedded in a Word document
cannot be used in the Bulletin. You
should attach your photo to your
email as an image file (jpg, tif, gif or
png format).
Other Campaign Information
For other campaign information,
please refer to the IAEM-USA
Administrative Policies & Proce-
dures.
continued from page 1
IAEM-USA Officer
Call for Nominations
Presentation of CEM®
/AEM
Diplomas for the Class of 2015
CEM®/AEM candidates in the
Class of 2015 who are interested in
receiving their diploma at the IAEM-
USA Annual Conference during the
awards ceremony on Wednesday,
Nov. 18, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada,
must have their initial CEM®/AEM
credential application approved no
later than the September 2015
online review meeting and must
take and return their completed
exam to IAEM Headquarters by Oct.
12, 2015, as well as receive a
passing grade. No supplemental
reviews will occur prior to the
scheduled November/December
2015 online review meeting.
CEM®
News
Support the future of EM –
donate online today!
www.iaem.com/Scholarships
CEM®
/AEM Prep Course
and Exam Schedule
As of the publication date of this
issue, the following CEM® offerings
are scheduled:
Exam Only:
Aug. 20, 2015, San Francisco,
CA EOC
Prep Course and Exam:
Oct. 20, 2015, Indianapolis, IN
Nov. 16, 2015, IAEM Annual
Conference, Clark County, NV
Questions about the
CEM® Program?
Contact CEM® Administrator
Kate McClimans, 703-538-1795,
ext. 6, KMcClimans@iaem.com

3
continued on page 4
By Daryl Lee Spiewak, CEM, TEM, MEP, Lead Trainer for the CEM®
Commission,
and Chair, IAEM-Global Communications Work Group
Recertification Requirements and Process
CEM®
Corner
T
his month we are taking a
break from discussing and
analyzing a few example
examination questions and instead
discussing the revised recertification
requirements and process that
became effective this year. We are
doing this because of the questions
many current CEM®
s and AEMs have
regarding recertification. Next
month we will return to another
examination topic area and sample
examination questions.
Certified professionals have been
reporting their desire to have an
online submission process for
recertification. They also offered
suggestions to modify the recertifica-
tion requirements to more closely
reflect professional progression.
Based on a recommendation from
the CEM® Commission, the USA
Board approved a streamlined
approach to the recertification
process without lowering standards
or lowering the quality and value of
our certification credentials. The
following revisions are the result of
their efforts.
Recertification Application
NowOnline
The USA Board’s first revision is
the new CEM®
/AEM online recertifi-
cation application. The online
recertification application has been
available since February 2015.
Current CEM®
s and AEMs now must
submit their recertification applica-
tions using the online application
portal rather than submitting a hard
copy application. The recertification
application can be accessed on the
Recertification page of the IAEM
website. The CEM®
Resource Center
has a helpful user guide with step-
by-step instructions for using the
online system.
If you have any questions or
experience any technical difficulties
with the application, please contact
CEM®
Administrator Kate McClimans
or Sharon Kelly. IAEM staff are
happy to assist.
A huge benefit to professionals
seeking recertification is that they
don’t have to wait until their fifth
year to begin collecting and collating
the required documentation.
Certified professionals may begin
filling in their recertification applica-
tion immediately upon becoming
certified or after their most recent
recertification. Simply log in to your
account on the IAEM web page,
navigate to the Recertification link
and open an application. Then
upload your documentation as each
requirement is completed. The
recertification fee is not due until
you hit the submit button once your
application is complete (use the
SAVE feature instead of submitting
the application).
This new process makes it easy
for a professional to maintain the
required documentation online as
each requirement is completed
rather than holding the documenta-
tion in a file and uploading it all in
the fifth year. This was a change
that members wanted, and the USA
Board listened.
Why the
Requirements Revision?
The next big change was in the
requirements themselves. The USA
Board’s concern, and the concern of
many current CEM®
s and AEMs, was
the difficulty of obtaining the
necessary training hours in emer-
gency management and general
management topics. During its
research, the CEM® Commission
found it was very difficult for long-
time CEM®
s and AEMs to obtain
advanced training courses. They
CEM®
Testimonials About Online Recertification
“I found the entire online recertification portal to be well designed and
user friendly. Kudos to the design and implementation team on a job well
done!” – Dennis J. Doherty, CEM, Chief Emergency Management Officer,
Horizon Health Network
“I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you, everyone at IAEM,
and anyone involved with developing the online portal. This is a fantastic
tool! It is easy to use and provides an organized system for monitoring the
progress of recertification. It’s great to have an electronic format to
assemble all the necessary documentation.” – Mike Patterson, CEM,
Emergency Disaster Services Director, The Salvation Army – North and
South Carolina
“I love, love, LOVE the new online CEM® recertification system. It’s a
great replacement for the tree-killing paper monster that preceded it.
– Dee Harrison, CEM, Sr. Planner, Texas Animal Health Commission

4
CEM®
Corner
recognized that repeating the same
introductory and basic courses every
few years, without those courses
undergoing significant revision, was
counterproductive.
Another difficulty cited was the
reduction in organizational re-
sources across the world coupled
with increased workloads. This
combination prevented many CEM®
s
and AEMs from having the resources
necessary to complete six different
professional contributions within the
specified five-year time frame. The
USA Board also recognized that
experienced CEM®
s and AEMs should
be giving more back to the profes-
sion through the professional
contributions than less experienced
CEM®
s and AEMs.
After much contemplation and
effort by the USA Board, along with
input from certified professionals,
our recertification requirements
were revised and approved. They
are briefly discussed below.
Revised Requirements
Below is an easy-to-read table
outlining the revised recertification
requirements. Keep a copy handy as
you work on your recertification
packet. Or, you may find it on our
website on the Recertification page
or in the online recertification
application.
As you can see, the training
hours required for recertification are
reduced with each subsequent
recertification. They start with 100
hours total for the first recertifica-
tion. Both emergency management
and general management require a
minimum of 25 hours each, with the
remaining 50 hours divided be-
tween emergency management
and general management topics as
the CEM®
or AEM decides. Remem-
ber to claim no more than 25 hours
in any one topic area.
For each subsequent recertifica-
tion the training hours required are
reduced until the fifth recertifica-
tion, where only 25 hours are
required. A minimum of 10 hours
each are required for emergency
management and general manage-
ment topics with the remaining five
hours allocated to emergency
management and/or general
management topics.
The number of professional
contributions increases from three
to six over subsequent recertifica-
tion. Your first recertification
requires three professional contri-
butions. Then you need one addi-
tional professional contribution for
each succeeding recertification until
reaching a total of six during your
fourth recertification.
Same Documentation Required
The type and amount of docu-
mentation required for recertifica-
tion is the same as that required for
initial certification. The commission-
ers want to see independently
produced documentation with your
name on it, the date, the organiza-
tion providing the documentation,
its contact information, and details
regarding your specific claim.
The criteria for training and
professional contributions remains
the same too, with one additional
professional contribution – CEM®
Mentoring/Proctoring Exams –
available. To gain credit for this
additional contribution, you will
need to document officially guiding a
CEM®
/AEMcandidate through the
process. Proctoring the exam
involves receiving the exam,
administering it, and returning it to
IAEM Headquarters. Proctor/venue
guidelines are outlined in the Study
Guide Brochure. Both require prior
approval from the CEM®
Commission
before being officially conducted.
You must include a copy of the
authorization with your submission
in order to receive credit.
As stated on the IAEM website,
“These changes [to the recertifica-
tion requirements] were designed to
streamline the recertification
process as well as make the recertifi-
cation process more relevant to a
certified professional’s progress in
the emergency management field.
As individuals maintain the certifica-
tion, the training requirements
decrease while the professional
contribution requirements in-
crease.” I believe the USA Board did
a great job, and our certified
professionals should find the revised
recertification process and require-
ments to be more relevant.
Non-IAEM Member Fee
Increases Coming
On June 1, 2015, the recertifica-
tion fee for non-IAEM members
increased to US $325. It remains at
US $250 for IAEM members. The
USA Board made this adjustment in
order to balance the CEM®
continued on page 5

5
IAEM Student Member
Annual Conference Fee Stipend
I
AEM Headquarters is main-
taining a list of current IAEM
student members who wish to
be considered for a student registra-
tion fee stipend in the amount of
$300 (early bird) for the basic
registration fee to attend the IAEM-
USA 2015 Annual Conference in Las
Vegas, Nevada. Students should
email their interest to be considered
for the registration fee stipend
lottery to IAEM Membership
Manager Sharon Kelly
at info@iaem.com no later than
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015, along with
the following information: name;
complete contact information; and
name of university you are attend-
ing. Notifications will be sent via
email by late September.
If selected, in order to claim the
stipend you will be required to do
the following:
Complete an online registra-
tion form and obtain a registration
number no later than Oct. 13, 2015.
In the payment section, please
select “pay by check,” and then
complete the registration process.
Notify IAEM Headquarters by
email that you will accept the
stipend by Oct. 15, 2015. Your
acceptance must include your
conference registration number and
proof of registration for the Fall
2015 semester (or equivalent) at
your university. This can be a copy of
your class schedule, university proof
of enrollment, etc.
Participate in a group picture
during the IAEM Annual Conference
(date, time and location to be
determined).
Attend the Student Council
Meeting at the Annual Conference
(see conference program for
CEM®
Corner
Program’s budget and to take into
account that USA member dues
already support in part the CEM®
program infrastructure.
Next month we will continue our
discussion with a new examination
topic – the Program Manager – and
we will analyze some practice exam
questions. Please send any questions
you have about the examination or
the certification process to me at
info@iaem.com, and I will address
them in future articles.
To see a complete selection of
current CEM® Corner articles, visit
the CEM Resource Center.
details). During the Student Council
Meeting, you will receive informa-
tion on how reimbursements will be
processed after the conference.

6
IAEM in Action
IAEM Scholarship Commission Chair Anthony Mangeri
with IAEM CEO Beth Armstrong, at the IAEM booth,
New Jersey Emergency Preparedness Conference, May 7,
2015.
(L-R) John “Rusty” Russell, IAEM-USA President; Dr. Louis
Uccellini, NWS Director; Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, NOAA
Administrator; and Eddie Hicks, IAEM-USA Past President,
at ribbon-cutting for the NOAA National Water Resource
Center, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Representatives of the North Carolina Emergency
Management Association (NCEMA) met with all of the 13
Members or their key staff of the North Carolina
Congressional delegation during their annual DC visit,
May 18-19, 2015.
Janet Benini, CEM, Senior Advisor, US Dept. of
Transportation (left), met with Beth Armstrong, IAEM
CEO, on May 26, 2015, to talk about IAEM and US DOT
collaboration opportunities.
Billy Zwerschke, CEM (left), and Joe Candelario, CEM,
represented IAEM-USA at the IAEM booth, National
Homeland Security Conference, San Antonio, Texas, June
9-11, 2015.
Barbara Tyeryar staffs the IAEM booth at the New Jersey
Emergency Preparedness Conference, May 7, 2015.

7
IAEM Annual Conference News
Register Today To Be an IAEM Ambassador
Online Registration Now Open for the IAEM 63rd Annual
Conference in Clark County, Nevada, Nov. 13-18, 2015
E
ver get lost looking for the
bathroom at the confer-
ence? The Ambassadors
can help. Curious who your Regional
President is? The Ambassadors can
help. Ever wonder what breakout
session is better suited for you? The
Ambassadors can help.
Being an Ambassador is one of
my favorite parts of attending the
IAEM Annual Conference. It’s the
R
egister today to take
advantage of the early bird
rates for the IAEM Annual
Conference, Nov. 13-18, 2015, in
Clark County, Nevada. Visit our
website to register and see a
complete listing of the fee schedule.
Dynamic Program
The Conference Committee has
been busy planning a dynamic
program for you. The conference
will offer:
70 breakout sessions;
pre/post-conference training
from EMI, Naval Post Graduate
School, NDPTC, EMAP, and more;
CEM®/AEM program offerings;
rary issues that will challenge the
traditional notions of response and
recovery. You will have the opportu-
nity to listen to EM professionals
who have worked disasters in their
own communities, share their
perspectives, and obtain answers to
your questions.
By Noel Kepler, Vice President, Risk Communications at Ogilvy PR
easiest thing you’ll ever do profes-
sionally. All you need to do is to
spend a few minutes together in the
morning getting an update on the
day ahead. Spend the rest of the day
attending sessions and participating
in workshops – just like you were
going to do anyway. The difference
is that you will reach out to attend-
ees, and they will introduce them-
selves to you, asking questions and
getting directions. As a past at-
Questions about the
conference? Contact
Program Manager
Julie Husk,
703-538-1795, ext. 1789,
JHusk@iaem.com
tendee at the IAEM Annual Confer-
ence, an Ambassador will have all
the answers. It’s a brilliant network-
ing opportunity that leads to some
of the best connections I have made
professionally.
So why would you not want to be
an Ambassador too? Interested in
becoming an Ambassador at the
IAEM 2015 Annual Conference?
Check out the Ambassador Program
Online Orientation PowerPoint.
Read it, and complete the online
survey to sign up.
regional/caucus/committee
meetings allowing members to
conduct business face to face;
plenary sessions from world-
renowned speakers; and
keynotes from Julian Castro,
Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development,
and Dr. Richard Knabb, Director of
the National Hurricane
Center.
New Spotlight
Sessions
Be sure to check out
our new spotlight
sessions – extended
sessions on contempo-
www.iaemconference.info
now online!!!

8
Profiles in Service:
Michelle Savoie, CMP, QAS, CVEP
IAEM Program Manager, Meetings Planner,
Competitions Coordinator
MSavoie@IAEM.com
Michelle Savoie, CMP,
QAS, CVEP
The Basics
Years of Service to the IAEM
Team: 7 years.
Responsibilities: Assists with
the IAEM Annual Conference,
registration, awards, and volun-
teers.
Educational Background:
B.A. in anthropology/archaeology,
Boston University.
Skills & Experience: Michelle
has earned the Certified Meeting
Professional (CMP), with compre-
hensive knowledge of meetings
management; Qualified Association
Specialist (QAS) certification; and
the Certified Virtual Event Planner
(CVEP) credential. She is also a
recipient of the Professional Culinary
Arts Certification and Professional
Pastry Arts Certification. She
previously operated a catering
firm for 13 years, as well as serving
as a pastry cook at a Ritz Carlton
Hotel. Her additional experience
includes positions with the State
Department (Refugee Affairs
Advisor), USAID (Program Manager),
Boston University, and several non-
profits.
Things You Probably
Don’t Know About Michelle
(in her own words)
Last Country Visited: France.
Favorite Restaurant: Al Forno,
Providence, Rhode Island.
Better Presentations for Everyone: June 23 Webinar
D
o you want to learn how
to create presentations
that complement and
engage? Then you won’t want to
miss our upcoming IAEM webinar
on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, at 1:00
p.m. Eastern time.
Last Vacation I Took: North-
ern Michigan.
My Favorite Meal Is: Anything
with my family.
Last Sporting Event: Nats
(Washington Nationals) baseball
game.
goes, if a picture is worth a thousand
words, then sharing a slide presenta-
tion with great visuals is priceless.
Register online for this webinar,
and get a sneak peak at the pre-
conference training course “Per-
suade! A course on presenting for
emergency managers,” by Nat
Forbes. Then sign up for the full
course, which will be held on Sunday,
Nov. 15, 2015, at the IAEM 63rd
Annual Conference in Clark County,
Nevada.
The IAEM-USA Conference
Committee, along with seasoned
presenter Nathaniel Forbes, will
share tips on how to deliver a “knock
it out of the park” presentation. You
will learn how to engage the
audience with these three simple
steps:
Develop a story your audience
will remember.
Find the emotional appeal in
your story.
Choose images that reinforce
your message. As the old saying
Visit our new conference website at
www.iaemconference.info
andregistertoday!

9
Social Media 101: Everything You Wanted to Know about
Social Media but Were Afraid to Ask, by Sarah K. Miller,
CEM, Professional Development and Research Coordina-
tor, IAEM-USA Emerging Technology Caucus ................10
Three Secrets to Great Social Media Messages, Mary Jo
Flynn, MS, CEM, Emergency Operations Coordinator,
Sacramento (California) Office of Emergency Services;
chair, IAEM-USA Emerging Technology Caucus; and co-
chair, DHS S&T Virtual Social Media Working Group ....12
VOSTies: We Listen and Help, by Scott Reuter, Digital
Communications Specialist, FEMA, Astoria, Oregon .....15
Social Media Content Accessibility, by Dawn Brantley,
Regional Inclusive Emergency Planner, Hampton Roads
Planning District Commission, Chesapeake, Virginia ....18
Lessons Learned about Social Media during a Shooting
Crisis on Campus, by Haven P. Simmons, Associate
Professor of Communication Arts, Salisbury University,
Maryland .......................................................................20
Enabling Improved Emergency Response through Social
Media Research Collaboration, by Christopher M.
Gifford, Richard L. Waddell, Mark B. Gabriele, and John
M. Contestabile, The Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory, Asymmetric Operations Sector,
Laurel, Maryland ..........................................................22
Special Focus Issue: “Social Media & Emergency Management”
Index to Feature Articles: June 2015
IAEM Bulletin Call for Articles:
“Marketing Your EM Program”
Deadline for Article Submissions: July 10, 2015
T
he IAEM-Global Editorial Work Group seeks
articles for the third IAEM Bulletin special focus
issue of 2015, on the theme of “Marketing Your
Emergency Management Program.”
Examples of articles could include, but are not limited
to: how to reach out to businesses, schools and other
groups who don’t normally get involved in EM ideas and
concepts; lessons learned: what marketing techniques
worked for your program and what didn’t work; how and
with whom you coordinated your marketing program;
and methods for integrating or collaborating with
stakeholders.
Please read the IAEM Bulletin Author’s Guidelines
prior to emailing your article of 750 to 1,500 words to
Editor Karen Thompson, no later than July 10, 2015.
Just Another Communications Tool, by DeeDee Bennett,
Ph.D., Center for Advanced Communications, Georgia
Institute of Technology .................................................26
Social Media in Emergency Management (SMEM) and
Partnerships, by Sandra Dion, Project K Social Media
Project Manager, Directorate-General, Public Security,
City of Québec, QC, Canada ..........................................28
Rapidly Recruiting Spontaneous Volunteers Through
Social Media: A Rose Parade Case Study, by Jennifer D.
Lazo, MS, CEM, Emergency Services Coordinator, City of
Berkeley, California; Digital Volunteer Lead, Red Cross
Northern California Coastal Region; and Secretary, IAEM-
USA Emerging Technology Caucus ...............................31
Social Media Resources for Emergency Management, by
Steve Peterson, CEM, Emergency Management Special-
ist, National Institutes of Health ..................................34
Many Thanks to the ETC!
The members of the IAEM-Global Editorial
Work Group thank the members of the IAEM-USA
Emerging Technology Caucus, and our ETC liaison
Sarah Miller, for their collaboration on this issue
of the IAEM Bulletin. Watch for more articles
about social media and emergency management
in the next issue of the IAEM Bulletin.
RESERVE YOUR SPACE TODAY!
IAEM-USA Emerging Technology
Caucus Webinar:
“Beyond the Basics in Social Media”
July 24, 2015, 2:00 p.m. EDT
Reserve your space in this IAEM Webinar today!
Go “Beyond the Basics in Social Media” by attend-
ing the IAEM-USA Emerging Technology Caucus’ July 24
webinar.
You know that social media is important and you have
your accounts established. Now what? Social media
affords a lot of opportunities for agencies to engage with
their communities, but how do you get started?
This webinar will cover policy considerations, training
your employees, and various methods of engagement so
that you can be intentional about how to incorporate
social media into your EM program.

10
continued on page 11
Social Media 101: Everything You Wanted to Know
About Social Media, but Were Afraid to Ask
By Sarah K. Miller, CEM, Professional Development and Research Coordinator,
IAEM-USA Emerging Technology Caucus
T
here can be little doubt
that social media is here to
stay. Much like the tele-
phone, personal computer and cell
phone before it, broad adoption of
social media by the public has forced
emergency managers to adopt
strategies for embracing it. The
latest numbers from Pew Research
show that approximately 80% of the
U.S. population, including 87% of
adults, uses the Internet in some
way. Of those who do, more than
70% use Facebook, while 23% report
using Twitter, 26% report using
Instagram, and 28% report using
Pinterest. In all, 74% of adults online
in the United States are using social
media.
Though we’re unlikely to ever see
100% of adults using the internet
and social media, the data clearly
shows an upward trend. Around the
globe, 2 billion people are communi-
cating using social media. They’re
also monitoring what we say and
share online, and many of them
share information that can be
critically useful to emergency
managers in times of crisis.
Tremendous amounts of data
were gathered from social media by
organizations like Humanity Road,
Standby Task Force, and the Red
Cross for recent disasters, including
the Nepal earthquake, Tropical
Cyclone Pam, and the Ebola out-
break. This information was put
directly into the hands of global
responders, often before they were
even on the ground.
Where Do You Start?
Assuming your organization has
decided to embrace social media,
where do you start? It can be a
daunting task, with current plat-
forms constantly tweaking their
interfaces and new platforms
popping up (and disappearing) on a
regular basis.
If you’re completely new to
social media, there are a couple of
free courses available to you. First is
IS-42: Social Media in Emergency
Management, available on FEMA’s
EMI website. It takes approximately
three hours to complete. Second is
PER-304: Social Media for Natural
Disaster Response and Recovery,
which is offered by the National
Disaster Preparedness Training
Center (NDPTC). The course is
available in a FEMA-certified eight-
hour classroom format or in a non-
certified online format. Either will
orient you to the basics of using
social media.
Before You Launch
Before you launch your organiza-
tion into social media, it’s important
to make sure you have the proper
policies and/or guidance in place.
Your internal guidance needs to
cover who has access to your
accounts, how you will capture
interactions, and how you will
ensure consistency across all of your
accounts and platforms. It also
needs to examine applicable state
and/or federal laws to ensure that
you are complying with them. Most
public emergency management
agencies are required by law to
track all social media interactions in
order to comply with public records
laws. Though that can seem like a
monumental task, there are several
third party applications that will do
it for you automatically, at a
reasonable cost. A quick online
search for “social media backups” or
“social media archiving” will lead to
a large assortment of services, many
of which will meet your legal
requirements for document preser-
vation.
If you haven’t done this, but find
yourself in need of the data, you can
generally contact the vendor
directly and pay for data that is
suitable for public records requests.
Remember that there’s probably an
organization in your state that is
successfully using social media. Get a
copy of their policy, and modify it to
fit your local requirements. If you
can’t find one locally, the 2015
Government Social Media Confer-
ence (GSMCON) presented awards
to Palm Beach County, Florida, and
Clackamas County 9-1-1 (C-COM),
Oregon, for their comprehensive
social media policies. Copies of those
policies are available on the
GSMCON website.
Have More than One
Authorized User
One of the keys to having a
successful social media presence is
to have more than one authorized
user for your organization’s ac-
counts. Just as with other positions
in emergency management,
redundancy in the social media
function is important. If you have
successfully established a social
media presence, the public expects
you to be there, regardless of
disasters or vacations. This requires
more than one person to have
account access. It’s also critical that
no single person in your organization
be the sole keeper of account

11
gaining popularity among college-
age people. If you have a large
senior population and a small
college-age population, your time is
probably better spent developing a
Facebook presence than an
Instagram one.
Find Sufficient Time
One of the most difficult things
for small organizations is finding
sufficient time to devote to social
media. A primary reason to utilize
social media in emergency manage-
ment is to inform the public about
emergencies. This requires building
an audience prior to an event
unfolding. This requires regular
interaction with your social media
accounts, which takes time. How do
you make time in an already busy
day? One way is through the use of
volunteers. You may have existing
volunteers with an interest in social
media who can assist you by doing
day-to-day content updates and
monitoring basic citizen inquiries
and engagement.
Another primary reason to use
social media is to gather information
from the public during an emer-
gency. This is potentially a very
labor-intensive activity, which is
nearly impossible for you to do
alone. Monitoring social media for
information does not require that
anyone have access to your ac-
counts, nor does it require that
volunteers reside in your local
community. In fact, it’s better if
some of them live far away, outside
the potential impact area of a local
disaster. Locally, you may find that
ham radio operators, CERT team
members, and others have an
interest in monitoring social media
message traffic and passing on
pertinent information to you. On a
larger scale, Virtual Operations
Support Teams (VOST) have mem-
bers throughout the world. Their
role is to provide virtual support to
passwords. Key people should be
able to log in at any time to modify
the account and change passwords if
necessary. Not all of your authorized
users need access to passwords, as
third party products such as
Hootsuite and TweetDeck use a
“team” feature to make it possible
to authorize individuals to access
your accounts without giving them
the ability to delete or modify them.
All of the people tasked with social
media in your organization should be
coordinated so they’re sending the
same message with essentially the
same voice.
What Are Your Goals?
Once you’ve mastered the basics
and put your policy in place, what’s
next? Based solely on the numbers,
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
Pinterest look like good places to
start building a presence. However,
those platforms may not be heavily
used in your area or may not be used
by the audience you want to target.
So you need to figure how what
you’re trying to accomplish on social
media.
Are you trying to push informa-
tion to the entire public, to certain
segments of the public, or to pull
information in during an emer-
gency? Each of these goals requires
different strategies and tactics. If
you’re trying to push information,
take time to learn what platforms
are being used in your community.
Ask community members which
platforms they use. If you’re looking
to create targeted messaging for
certain segments of your commu-
nity, ask those people what plat-
forms they’re on. Facebook, for
example, has a growing senior
demographic (think grandkid
photos!), while Instagram is rapidly
emergency managers by conducting
social media engagement, monitor-
ing, and data analysis on your behalf.
(See the VOST article in this issue of
the Bulletin for more information.)
Stay Up-to-Date
Now that you’ve put all the
pieces in place, how do you increase
your skills and stay up-to-date with
the latest tools and best practices?
Join one of the many online commu-
nities of emergency managers using
social media. Many groups exist on
both Facebook and LinkedIn. If
you’re on Twitter, follow the
hashtag #SMEM (Social Media
Emergency Management) to see
what other people share. Take it one
step further and participate in the
weekly #SMEMChat on Twitter. It’s
held at 12:30 p.m. EDT every Friday
and has participants from around
the globe who engage on a variety
of related topics.
Join the ETC for a Beyond
the Basics Social Media
Webinar on July 24, 2015
The IAEM-USA Emerging Tech-
nology Caucus (ETC) has a special
interest in social media as well. Their
page on the IAEM website includes
links to documents, reports, re-
sources, and recordings of previous
webinars, all of which are available
to IAEM members. You can follow
ETC posts on Twitter by searching for
the #IAEMETC hashtag. As a follow-
up to this special focus issue of the
Bulletin, the ETC has scheduled a
“Beyond the Basics” social media
webinar for Friday, July 24, 2015, at
11:00 a.m. PDT/2:00 p.m. EDT. You
can find it on the IAEM Calendar of
events, where you can sign up.
Conclusion
When used effectively, social
media can be a tremendous asset to
Social Media 101

12
Three Secrets to Great Social Media Messages
By Mary Jo Flynn, MS, CEM, Emergency Operations Coordinator, Sacramento County (California)
Office of Emergency Services; chair, IAEM-USA Emerging Technology Caucus;
and co-chair, DHS S&T Virtual Social Media Working Group
E
rnest Hemingway delivered
the famous quote of “grace
under pressure” as the
definition of “guts” or courage. His
quote also eloquently defines the
emergency management and public
information officer role within the
social media sphere. When posting
to social media, it is with grace
under pressure that managers must
utilize appropriate humor, tact,
knowledge and more. Often, these
managers must go out on a limb and
act with a great deal of autonomy
when preparing public social media
statements. Like a savvy librarian,
doing so deftly requires thoughtful
preparation and an arsenal of
materials at the ready. It often
means establishing authorities and
permissions with incident command-
ers and directors of emergency
services to clearly define how, when
and who will deliver social media
messages and what must be
approved in advance before distribu-
tion.
Emergency managers working in
social media are keenly aware of the
need to deliver information at the
moment it is known. The established
use of social media also has gar-
nered a particular public expecta-
tion of how and when social media
will be used during disasters and
emergencies. In the absence of
official information, the public will fill
their own information gaps and
share with one another. This
dichotomy makes social media both
informative and flawed. When a
government agency is silent on
social media, it is routinely criticized
by the public, and the void is ripe for
the development of rumors regard-
ing the incident. In order to prevent
and manage rumors, minimize time
delay, produce quality posts and
avoid accusations of ignoring the
problem, the following three
techniques may be employed:
acknowledge, script, and library.
ONE: Use messages
that buy time by
acknowledging the incident
One of the most effective posts
at the start of an incident is a
holding message that simply ac-
knowledges the incident. While the
public expects information rapidly,
they are also forgiving regarding the
time it takes to collect quality
information. However, procrastinat-
ing until more information is
collected causes needless delay and
distrust from the public. The
example post below (Figure 1)1
does
the following: (1) acknowledges the
issue; (2) informs the public of what
to expect, thereby hopefully
preventing needless calls to 9-1-1;
and (3) sets the expectation for
follow-up information from the
organization.
Delivering this message type
rapidly allows for the establishment
of the organization as an authority
who will follow through with
additional information as it becomes
available. Once these public expec-
tations have been established, it is
critical that continued messaging be
delivered until closing out the
incident, or re-establishing expecta-
tions (Figure 2). In this next ex-
ample, as the fire was coming under
control, the new expectation was
set that updates would be provided
only under the two conditions
mentioned.
TWO: Script typical
scenarios in advance
Effective social media messaging
ultimately involves creating the
message content. Completing
research in an active incident is
impossible without a number of
supporting resources. Emergency
managers usually offer this content
from direct knowledge or experi-
ence, and accessing this knowledge
1
Retrieved online.
Figure 1. Figure 2.

13
Three Secrets
may not be practical when he or she
is engaged in other duties in the
EOC. It is best to have key examples
and content that can be customized
by others for dissemination. Utilizing
a Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan
(NHMP), Emergency Operations
Plan (EOP) or local Threat and
Hazard Identification and Risk
Assessment (THIRA) as a guideline
for the potential disasters that may
impact a community, craft messages
to address public actions before,
during and after an incident. Draft
an Excel spreadsheet or use Google
Sheets to keep the information
accessible in the cloud.
Use the following formula:
=LEN(B1) where “B1” is the cell with
the message you wish to calculate.
This formula will give a character
count and include spaces; keeping
the total number under the maxi-
mum 140 characters for Twitter or
90 for IPAWS allows one to
wordsmith the messages long before
they are needed (Figure 3)2
.
Furthermore, conditional
formatting with a value greater
than 140 (for Twitter) will color-code
messages that need to be revised to
fit the maximum message
length, allowing a PIO to
rapidly scan and address
messages that need revision.
Available sources of informa-
tion appear on the Ready.gov
preparedness website as
bullet points for each disaster
type, and these happen to be
the perfect length for Twitter
messages. Use these mes-
sages as a starting point for
creating your spreadsheet.
The example in Figure 3 also is
crafted to enable rapid upload to
Hootsuite, should there be a need to
schedule scripted messages through
the bulk upload feature.
Advance work in message
development facilitates reaching
larger audiences, including people
with disabilities and those with
access and functional needs. A
specific messaging tool to reach
these audiences include audio, such
as Soundcloud, or video files, such as
YouTube. These files may be used to
reach individuals who: need audio to
supplement reading difficulty or
vision impairments; record a native
speaker to translate information for
those with language barriers; or
provide closed-captioned video or in-
video sign language for those with
auditory impairments (Figure 4)3
.
This type of messaging is often
time consuming or expensive and if
created prior to the onset of a
disaster or emergency may enable
these populations to have more time
in preparing for and managing their
own needs because they are able to
receive quality information at the
disaster onset.
THREE: Create a content
library of materials
for rapid distribution
Social media can be utilized as a
library resource in addition to a
distribution mechanism. Platforms
such as Pinterest are ideal for this
situation where information may be
categorized by disaster type and
pinned to a board for later use. An
often used example is storing
recovery information with links to
resources that might protect an
individual’s health and prevent
injuries, or direct links to sources of
support like mental and behavioral
health resources. Maryland Emer-
gency Management has a great
collection of categorized boards on
Pinterest (see Figure 5 on page 14)
and is a resource and example to
those interested in creating similar
libraries. Look to alternative sources
like the CDC, Red Cross, National
Fire Protection Association and
other agencies who provide ever-
2
Flynn, Mary J. “Social Media Messaging Disaster Specific.” N.p., 1 Dec. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
3
Anaheim Fire & Rescue. “Heat Wave Health Tips.” Ed. Mary J. Flynn. N.p., 13 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
continued on page 14Figure 3.
Figure 4.

14
your emergency management
agency. From promoting citizen
engagement to adding an additional
tool for emergency alerts and
warnings, social media can help you
reach new audiences and gather
real-time information during an
Social Media 101
green content that may be linked in
a social media message.
During an incident, public
information officers could choose to
utilize the links to entire boards, or
be selective regarding the specific
information shared with the public,
giving them ultimate flexibility in the
message content and timing.
Furthermore, this advance work
allows PIOs to utilize their time
more deliberately in crafting
incident specific messaging.
Conclusion
In conclusion, crafting quality
social media messages under stress
is a daunting and difficult task.
Remember to quickly acknowledge
an incident and set expectations for
delivery of additional information.
Taking the time before an incident
to create messaging allows for
swifter distribution to a larger
audience, especially when messages
are crafted with particular platforms
in mind. Create a custom library and
utilize available resources for
written messaging; take time to
create video and audio content that
is topical, but not incident specific;
and identify photos and infographics
that may help to illustrate expected
behavioral responses by the public.
Employing these techniques will
Three Secrets
Figure 5.
facilitate more rapid messaging and
build trust with the community.
You can contact Mary Jo Flynn on
Twitter at @maryjofly or via
about.me/mflynn.
emergency. Don’t be afraid to try it
out or to add something new if
you’re already using it. Feel free to
reach out to any member of the ETC
if you’re looking for more informa-
tion.
Sarah Miller can be found on
Twitter as @scba or e-mail her at
sarah@skmillerconsulting.com.
Official Pinterest Page, Maryland Emergency Management Agency
Visit the IAEM-USA Emerging
Technology Caucus web page,
and be sure to visit the
Crisis Tech Center that
ETC members will provide
in the EMEX Hall at the
IAEM 2015 Annual Conference.

15
VOSTies: We Listen and Help
By Scott Reuter, Digital Communications Specialist, FEMA, Astoria, Oregon
I
’m proud to be a “VOSTie," a
practitioner of the concept
known as "Virtual Operations
Support Teams” (VOST). We’ve
grown the VOST Initiative from a
group of emergency management
professionals and enthusiastic,
talented social media volunteers.
We've met on social media, and
have evolved a method for working
together using free, multi-platform,
collaborative tools that allow us to
be flexible, resilient and supportive
of each others’ efforts when extra
help is needed. VOST Teams have
begun forming up to support many
types of emergencies and disasters,
as well as public safety related
organizations of all types. The
concept started in the United
States, but it is growing internation-
ally as well, with teams in Canada,
New Zealand, France, United
Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Panama,
and more.
During a disaster or incident, the
public, the media, local goverment,
law enforcement, public safety
agencies and disaster organizations
are all posting, commenting, asking
questions and sharing information,
images and video in real time. The
amount of information flowing on
social media and the internet during
a disaster or incident can quickly
become overwhelming. Emergency
managers need to know what’s
being shared on social media to gain
real-time situational awareness, to
respond to rumors, misinformation
or old information, and to support
the good information that’s being
shared. A VOST can help to find
useful info and organize it, providing
decision support, sentiment analy-
sis, monitoring, reporting – and also
messaging, if desired.
A VOST is a group of people that
your agency or organization puts
together ahead of time to help listen
and report to you, the VOST agency
liaison. As the agency liaison, you set
up a team to support your agency or
organization. You decide what the
mission is. In a typical activation, the
team listens to what’s being said on
social media platforms and apps,
stakeholder accounts, news article
comments, and anywhere they can
find the public talking about what’s
happening in relation to our as-
signed mission, and reports to the
agency it’s supporting. Once you’ve
built a team of trusted agents, they
can do much more than listening
and reporting. A well-trained VOST
also can answer repetitive questions
that are asked on social media,
direct people to resources, correct
known bad information, monitor
your agency social media accounts,
respond to comments or questions,
and report to you when a question
or comment needs to addressed by
the agency.
Emergency managers should
build a VOST Team ahead of their
need for it. You need to recruit
volunteers, train your team,
determine the skill level and
strengths of your team members,
and build relationships with other
VOST teams for surge support on
large activations. Many experienced
VOSTies are happy to join new
teams to help with your VOST
training and activations and to share
VOST methods, skills and knowledge
in order to help build the overall
VOST movement.
Forming a new VOST organiza-
tion is very similar to forming any
organization; you need to find
people who are interested and
enthusiastic. One of the biggest
differences between forming a VOST
virtual team and another organiza-
tion is that you want to have a
combination of both local and non-
local team members. Local mem-
bers will have geographical and
cultural knowledge of your area of
operations, and non-local members
might be able to work shifts that
local members will not be able to
cover and provide surge support as
needed.
Basic VOST roles and structure:
VOST EM liaison or agency
liaison: person in the agency or
organization that the VOST is being
created to support. (Often a PIO,
but not always.)
VOST team lead: works with
VOST agency liaison to create
mission and objectives for a team;
has a thorough knowledge of social
media platforms, VOST methods and
tools, and how social media is used
by the public in disasters, and
communicates directly with the
VOST agency liaison.
VOST team members: Mem-
bers may have varying skill levels,
from advanced users capable of
identifying platforms to be moni-
tored, set up advanced search tools
or set up incident-specific social
media accounts as needed, to VOST
beginners who can run pre-set
searches and reports. VOST team
members communicate with fellow
team members and the VOST team
lead.
A VOST can be set up to support
any type of incident, event or
disaster; it can have a very narrowly
focused mission or can take on more
complex tasks, depending on how
many people you have to help and
the skills of your VOST team mem-
bers. A VOST can be set up and
operated using volunteers, using in-
house staff, or using a combination

16
The team typically starts by
locating all relevant verified local
accounts that will be sharing
relevant information, then saving
links to all of these accounts to the
“Key Websites and Resources” tab in
the workbook. Members are
assigned to monitor these accounts.
Other team members start running
searches on major platforms, such as
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
others as needed. VOSTies run
keyword searches, geosearches and
hashtag searches to find informa-
tion, and begin sorting it according
to the mission.
The VOST continues to search all
major social media platforms for
relevant accounts, posts on those
accounts, and comments on the
posts. We look for local news sites,
including traditional media such as
newspapers, television and radio
stations with websites, and search
for relevant posts, articles and
comments from the public on those
articles. We try to identify hashtags
and keep track of them as they
change on Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook. We listen on social media
for individual needs and for trends in
needs. We listen for both the good
and bad information being shared by
the public and all other agencies and
organizations who are working the
disaster, and we report this as
needed to the agency we’re sup-
porting. Sensitive or urgent matters
are escalated to the agency liaison
immediately, and matters that are
less urgent but important are
communicated when the agency
liaison asks, or in a regular report
once a reporting schedule is estab-
lished. The VOST EM/agency liaison
and team lead adjust the VOST
mission as needed throughout the
activation. The tools used and the
platforms we search change con-
stantly, but basically a VOST listens
on social media to see what the
needs, concerns, questions and
issues are, and gets that info to
people who can help.
Once you build a VOST and get
comfortable with the team finding
and sharing useful information with
your agency or organization, you
also may wish to have them support
your messaging or the amplification
of messages. You can decide if that’s
needed once you have the team
supporting you with listening and
reporting.
Uniform Training in Tools
One thing that will help keep the
VOST concept strong and growing is
uniform training in the use of the
same basic VOST tools. Some of the
tools, such as the Skype chat room
and shared VOST Workbook (a
shared Google spreadsheet), help
make us more resilient if we train all
members to use the same basic
resources. If we adhere to this, we
can bring people in very rapidly from
other teams to support each others’
efforts. If we keep training all VOSTs
to use the same basic tools, we’ll
always be able to draw from the
larger VOST community for surge
support as needed. This ability for
teams to easily provide mutual aid
and surge support when more help is
needed is a very powerful part of the
VOST concept.
The platforms that we search on
social media are constantly chang-
ing. New ones come and go, so it's
important for us to share that as we
identify new platforms. That’s why
an important part of the VOST
concept is staying involved with the
overall VOST community, sharing as
we learn which platforms are being
used currently, identifying new and
upcoming platforms that get used by
different communities, and sharing
that information with others. We
have ongoing VOST conversations on
the #VOST and #SMEM hashtags on
of both. The most important thing is
to set up ahead of time so that you
have an established, trusted
relationship with your team. If you
have specific needs, such as image
curation, mapping or crowdsourcing
support, you’ll need to look for VOST
team members with those skills –
don’t assume that every team
member has those skills.
Scope of VOST Duties
It's also possible for a VOST to
not only listen and report what's
happening in a disaster, but also to
set up and be ready to amplify your
messaging. They can do this with
your existing social media accounts
or with incident-specific accounts
that are set up as needed. For
instance, wildfires often occur in
rural areas, and may cross boundary
lines. Setting up incident-specific
accounts allows day-to-day opera-
tions to continue on local accounts.
As an emergency manager, once
you determine that there’s a need
to activate your VOST, you contact
the VOST team lead to activate the
team. Most teams are then acti-
vated via group text. Sometimes, if
there’s some prior warning that an
activation will occur, the team is
notified in the team Skype room or
via email.
Once the team is activated, they
assemble in the VOST Team Skype
room and discuss the mission and its
expected duration. Then a new
incident-specific Skype room is set
up, and the activation moves to the
incident-specific activation room.
The team lead sets up a shared
VOST “workbook” (a Google collabo-
rative spreadsheet), and after team
members add their availability and
contact information, they get to
work.

17
Twitter and in the “All Things VOS”
Skype room. We also have a monthly
VOST leadership coalition call that
all teams are welcome to partici-
pate in.
A new Virtual Emergency
Management Association is forming
to address the issues and needs of
virtual team members. We’re
always happy to add new people to
the VOST Skype room or answer
questions asked on the #VOST
hashtag.
During the past four years, OSTs
have been activated for earth-
quakes, wildfires, floods, storms,
public health emergencies, torna-
does, hurricanes, and more. Since
VOST uses ICS, the concept scales
well for incidents of all sizes, from
minor to catastrophic. Many
VOSTies are on multiple VOST
teams, and we often support each
others’ team activations when
requested. This is a way to help
others and to build relationships
with other teams, so that we can
feel comfortable calling on them for
surge support when needed. This
also helps us all to stay current with
the constantly changing landscape
of social media platforms and apps.
There’s no better way to train for
VOST work than to help someone
else on a real, live VOST activation.
Set up your VOST team now so
that it’s ready when you need it.
Feel free to reach out to VOSTies –
especially on Twitter! You’ll see us
talking on the #VOST twitter
hashtag, and we love to share
information and learn from each
other. We’re all very enthusiatic to
help grow the concept, so that we
can call on each other for support
when we need help from others. Join
us!
Disclaimer: I’m just one VOSTie,
and I’m sure opinions will vary
regarding VOST structure and
missions. I didn’t really speak to the
overall vision that we have for VOST,
since my vision might be different
from that of others. I can say,
though, that we all want to help
those affected by disasters and
emergencies, and we want to help
emergency managers to quickly
acquire the information they need
to help their communities. Thanks to
all my fellow VOSTies who I’ve
learned with and from – much of this
article is built from my work with
these great people.
Visit the VOSG.us website to see
a list of current VOST teams and to
learn more about the VOST concept.
And feel free to contact me as well,
I’m always happy to help.
Contact Info: Scott Reuter
Email: scottreuter@mac.com
Twitter: @sct_r
Skype: reuter.scott

18
By Dawn Brantley, Regional Inclusive Emergency Planner,
Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, Chesapeake, Virginia
Social Media Content Accessibility
S
ocial media has long been
established as an essential
part of an emergency
communications plan. The Depart-
ment of Homeland Security’s Virtual
Social Media Working Group’s work
in the area of social media in
emergency management and
homeland security has been deemed
so valuable, there is currently a bill
in Congress to permanently establish
the group and direct its activities
(H. R. 623, 2015-2016).
Social media use in emergency
management and public information
distribution has gone from being a
controversial, resisted movement to
being a well-established critical part
of disaster response and recovery.
Why? Because, as David Bray, Chief
Information Officer for the FCC,
explained, social media “empowers
the edge, the edge being where
things are happening” (Federal
Communications Commission, 2014).
He continued by saying “we need to
make sure it’s accessible to every-
one” (Federal Communications
Commission, 2014).
As with all areas of emergency
preparedness and planning, it is
important for emergency managers
and public information officials to
ensure that their social media is
accessible to individuals with
disabilities. Research into social
media use by people with disabilities
shows that there is not a “disability
divide in the use of social media
between the population of people
with disabilities and the general
population” (Morris, Mueller &
Jones, 2014). That means accessible
social media is vital to ensure that all
of the people in the community can
access and use the information
provided by government agencies
before, during and after an emer-
gency.
Use the Social Network
Community to
Everyone’s Benefit
Communities are connected “by
identification with a place, group or
interest and a sense of belonging”
(Bricourt & Baker, 2010). Participa-
tion in communities is of particular
importance to individuals with
disabilities who frequently use
community resources to meet daily
needs ranging from education to
medical equipment to transporta-
tion. Using social network communi-
ties “opens up non-linear informa-
tion sharing and knowledge building
as novel information is shared across
networks” (Bricourt & Baker, 2010)
and offers the ability to expand
“community” beyond a user’s
geographical location. What that
means to emergency managers and
public information officers is that
social media allows individuals to
access information and resources far
beyond their typical community, and
information is shared and gathered
not just from one source but many
diverse sources. These community
networks can be accessed and
employed to distribute information
to a population that is characteristi-
cally hard to reach and even to help
meet typically complex difficult
issues like unmet needs and loca-
tions of individuals with disabilities
needing help; think Snowed Out
Atlanta and the Joplin Bright Futures
web page.
Online social networks, which
are generally “associated with
collective action and mobilization”
(Bricourt & Baker, 2010), can
improve compliance with emer-
gency messaging, provide recovery
resources to meet the needs of
individuals with disabilities, muster
accessibility tools and resources, and
allow for the collection of informa-
tion related to every aspect of the
emergency.
At the core of social media is the
idea of a dialogue approach to
communication instead of the
“directive, single channel tool of a
command-and-control approach”
(Bricourt & Baker, 2010). Social
media creates reciprocal lines of
communication and influence
(Bricourt & Baker, 2010), which
allows emergency managers and
public information officers to identify
needs, adjust messaging, and
provide multiple channels for
individuals to receive information.
When information is unidirectional
and limited to a single source, such
as information only being provided
from a single local government web
page, it is more likely to be inacces-
sible and less likely to reach all or a
majority of the target population.
Things You Can Do Today
to Make your Social Media
more Accessible
The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 are interna-
tionally recognized standards for
accessible online content. WCAG 2.0
provides 12 guidelines for accessibil-
ity, and below are some that can be
applied easily to social media:
Provide text alternatives for
non-text content. For example, the
information available on evacuation
or surge zone maps will need to be
made available in text.

19
Provide captions and other
alternatives for multimedia.
Create content that can be
presented in different ways, includ-
ing by assistive technologies,
without losing meaning.
Make it easier for users to see
and hear content.
Do not use content that causes
seizures, such as flashing GIFs.
Make text readable and
understandable. (Media Access
Australia & Australian Communica-
tions Consumer Actions Network,
2011)
In a report outlining the results
of an online dialogue about social
media accessibility, co-hosted by the
U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of
Disability Employment Policy and the
National Council on Disability,
participants provided the following
recommendations that are appli-
cable to social media in emergency
management:
Provide alt text for all images
on social media. Graphics that
include essential information can be
invisible to screen readers. A simple
solution is to include the information
in the text portion of the same or a
closely-following post instead of only
posting the graphic.
Provide captioning when using
Vine instead of just providing text.
Ensure all PDFs posted are
accessible to screen readers, and
test this capability using the tools
embedded in the software or a
screen reader program. (U.S.
Department of Labor, 2014)
Other recommendations include:
Direct the public to Easy Chirp,
an accessible alternative to Twitter.
Uploaded videos can be
automatically captioned by YouTube
within about 24 hours. Be aware,
however, that this automated
captioning should be checked for
accuracy.
Use a free tool such as
Overstream for captioning videos.
(Media Access Australia & Australian
Communications Consumer Actions
Network, 2011)
Utilize Accessible Social Media
to Help Ensure Program Access
Part of a government agency’s
responsibilities under the Americans
with Disabilities Act is to ensure
equal access to programs and
services. Social media can help with
this requirement. Ensure your social
media messaging includes informa-
tion specific to people with access
and functional needs, such as:
Location of accessible shelters.
Whether power is available.
How to request ASL or other
language interpreters at shelters,
points of distribution or resource
centers, if not already provided.
Confirm that individuals may
bring a care provider to the shelter.
Where individuals can get
more information.
What to do if someone cannot
access or use the phone or web to
ask questions or retrieve informa-
tion.
When creating a social media
program, it is important to create
policies and procedures that allow
for reciprocal dialogue, spontaneous
social media communities, and
information gathering. It is also
important to mandate that informa-
tion posted via social media be
accessible and usable by people with
disabilities so that emergency
information can reach the whole
community.
References
Bricout, John C., and Paul M.A.
Baker. “Leveraging Online Social
Networks for People with Disabilities
in Emergency Communications and
Recovery.” International Journal of
Emergency Management 7.1
(2010): 59. Web.
Federal Communications
Commission. “Accessing Social
Media.” Accessing Social Media.
Federal Communications Commis-
sion, 17 July 2014. Web. 08 Apr.
2015.
H.R.623 - Social Media Work-
ing Group Act of 2015114th Con-
gress (2015-2016).” Web. 08 Apr.
2015.
Kailes, J. I., and A. Enders.
“Moving Beyond “Special Needs”: A
Function-Based Framework for
Emergency Management and
Planning.” Journal of Disability Policy
Studies 17.4 (2007): 230-37. Web.
Media Access Australia and
Australian Communications Con-
sumer Action Network. Sociability:
Social Media for People with a
Disability. By Media Access Austra-
lia, Australian Communications
Consumer Action Network, and
Scott Hollier. N.p.: n.p., 2011. Print.
Morris, John T., PhD, James L.
Mueller, MA, and Michael L. Jones,
PhD. “Use of Social Media during
Public Emergencies by People with
Disabilities.” Western Journal of
Emergency Medicine 15.5 (2014):
567-74. Web.
United States. U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor. Office of Disability
Employment Policy. NCD-ODEP
National Online Dialogue: Advancing
Accessibility and Inclusion in Social
Media - The User Experience,
Participation Metrics. By U.S.
Department of Labor Office of
Disability Employment Policy and
National Council on Disability. N.p.:
n.p., 2014. Print.
Social Media
Content Accessibility

20
E
ven as a longtime media-
public information FEMA
adjunct for nearly 18 years
at the National Emergency Training
Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, I
never anticipated the shooting that
would disrupt my college teaching in
September 2013 and deliver impor-
tant lessons about social media
during crises. But it happened.
The Event
Shortly after 6:00 p.m. during my
communication arts class at
Salisbury University, also in Mary-
land, a student interrupted my
lecture to say that she had received
a text that there was a shooting in
what is known as the student zoo,
only a couple of blocks from campus.
I did not become really alarmed until
she informed us in the next 20
minutes of two texts from a friend of
hers, purportedly near the scene,
alleging the shooter was making his
way toward the campus. I later
confirmed that students working at
a store adjacent to campus received
similar texts.
Level of Preparedness
at the University
As had most colleges and
universities manifesting concerns
about campus security and emer-
gency management, Salisbury
University’s president and police
chief had conducted a publicized
forum the previous year. This forum
attracted fewer than 200 faculty,
staff and administrators. The higher
education culture of openness, a
certain resistance to authority, and
the traditional assumption that
unspeakable violence occurs else-
where often conspires against the
mission of emergency management
to safeguard lives, property and the
environment.
Delay in Notification
My training taught me that I and
the students should remain in the
classroom. As the time approached
7:00 p.m., and I tepidly continued to
lecture, there was still no text
message or information emanating
from the university website. This
delay eventually caused the ire of
our students, expressed through
anecdotal comments, social media
posts and the student newspaper.
It was nearly 7:45 p.m. before
the university informed the campus
community via text and website that
there had been a shooting at the
specified location and that the
situation was under control. As it
turned out, a jealous former student
had critically wounded his ex-
girlfriend and killed her male
companion before committing
suicide in the bathroom of a small
house located in the student zoo.
Student Reaction
In their remarks, students
consistently criticized the university
for what they perceived as a tardy
update on what was happening, a
clear indication of their social media
expectations. They complained of
being frightened and at unnecessary
risk.
Eschewing Monday morning
quarterbacking to the extreme and
with all due respect to the respond-
ers, I argue that it would have been
prudent to send the following
message sooner: “Police are investi-
gating a shooting at a house on
Olney Road. Please stay out of the
area,” implying the situation is
contained and the shooter poses no
imminent threat to the central
campus.
Blurred Boundaries
The social media buzz and
supposition fueled legitimate
concern that there had been
confusion about which law enforce-
ment agency should lead the
response and investigation in a
neighborhood with hundreds of
students on the city-county line, only
a stone’s throw from a university
with its own police department.
In “Blurred Boundaries,” an
investigative article by the Salisbury
Daily Times newspaper several
months later, the sheriff conceded
there was brief indecision before his
agency seized the reins. In spite of
the allegedly belated emergency
messaging by the university, the
sheriff correctly called a press
conference the same evening to
address media and public inquiries.
University Response
To her credit, the university
president regularly conveyed
sympathy for the victims in the
following days, weeks and months,
visiting the survivor at the hospital
and updating the campus commu-
nity through the media and public
relations office. In fact, the young
woman overcame her injuries to be
the keynote speaker at the univer-
sity commencement in December
2014.
Since the fatal shootings, the
university provided instantaneous
messaging and went on lockdown
By Haven P. Simmons, Associate Professor of Communication Arts, Salisbury University, Maryland
Lessons Learned about Social Media
during a Shooting Crisis on Campus

21
Inclusive Planning Tip
for June 2015
compiled by Elizabeth Davis, JD, EdM
W
hen reviewing your shelter supply list at
this time of year, add to it “rubber
mats.” Use the flat rolls you cut to size
under an area rug in your home to keep it from slipping,
or use the type that you place in your kitchen cabinets to
prevent the stack of plates from moving around. When
cut to the shape of a placemat and available in emer-
gency shelters, these are very helpful in keeping plates
and bowls of food more securely in place during meals.
For some people with disabilities, this added security will
enable more independence at meal time.
Editor’s Note: The Inclusive Planning Tip of the Month
provides practical, useful suggestions to IAEM members
embarking on or continuing with planning efforts to
address the needs of people with disabilities and others
with access and functional needs in all phases of emer-
gency management. Suggestions? E-mail Elizabeth
Davis.
IAEM-Canada Professional
Development Committee
Publishes Guide to EM
Further Education in Canada
I
The IAEM-Canada Professional Development
Committee has published a resource web page on
Emergency Management Further Education in
Canada.
This compilation of resources, developed by the
committee, is an attempt to consolidate and capture all
emergency management further education that is
offered by educational institutes within Canada.
It includes information and links to certificate level
courses, diploma level courses, undergraduate degree
programs, and postgraduate degree programs in
Canada.
when a suspected drug dealer drove
his truck over the hood of a cruiser
and eluded state troopers before
being captured two miles from
campus. This reflects a cautionary
national trend for many reasons,
including liability.
The tragic saga at Salisbury, a
state university of nearly 9,000
students, reinforces the need for the
general population, law enforce-
ment, public relations specialists and
commercial media to train and
network with other people and
entities. This would help everyone to
be more aware of crucial emergency
management protocols and de-
mands, including the breadth and
immediacy of social media.
Recommendations
Here are several recommenda-
tions for superior response:
The potential for viral misinfor-
mation necessitates vigilant moni-
toring of social media by organiza-
tional crisis communications teams
comprised of technical support,
communication and public relations
experts.
The erroneous texts to my
student and the workers at the store
– presumably shared among other
recipients – illustrate the need for
emergency response agencies to
provide rapid social media
messages, however brief, in the
interest of asserting their authority
and reassuring the public.
Colleges and universities
should make certain that campus
police, administrators and public
relations staff are acting in concert
with one another and outside
agencies and organizations. They
should punctually inform students,
faculty, staff and the surrounding
community of germane develop-
ments through social media.
In the vernacular of the courses I
teach at the Emergency Manage-
ment Institute, we must write the
story from our perspective. The
public expects nothing less.
Learning about Social Media
During a Shooting Crisis
on Campus

22
Enabling Improved Emergency Response
through Social Media Research Collaboration
T
he importance of being
able to mine, analyze,
make sense of, and act on
social media data is becoming
increasingly evident to the Emer-
gency Management and First
Responder communities. However,
they typically lack the proper tools,
capabilities, data access, analytics,
and expertise to do so. In May 2014,
The Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) held a
week-long Crisis Response Social
Media Workshop, which brought
together JHU/APL social media
researchers and emergency re-
sponders from Howard County,
Maryland, to focus on current social
media gaps and needs for the
emergency management commu-
nity.
Workshop Background
Social media has the potential to
be a tool for local governments
during crisis events, both as a way of
keeping the public accurately
informed and as a source of rapid
situational awareness. The publicly
available content on social media
and photo sharing sites, such as
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram,
provides a source of unmediated
information concerning disasters
and emergencies. Howard County,
Maryland, received praise for their
timely and accurate Twitter pres-
ence during the recent active
shooter event at the Mall in Colum-
bia. While there has been progress
on how to manage official messages
during such events, leveraging the
raw data posted by citizens presents
numerous technical challenges,
especially in terms of text and image
processing, and appropriate
analytics are sorely lacking.
During the week of May 19-23,
2014, JHU/APL hosted a Crisis
Response Social Media Workshop as
an Education and Training activity in
an innovative JHU/APL laboratory
space. The workshop focused on
Howard County’s use of social media
before, during, and after the
Columbia Mall shooting on January
25, 2014, with emphasis on capabili-
ties that the participants used, those
that they wished they had available,
and the challenges of using social
media during an emergency. A total
of 17 participants from Howard
County Police Department, Division
of Fire and Rescue Services, Office of
Emergency Management, Public
Information Office, and the National
Institute of Justice attended the
workshop, and 12 JHU/APL staff
participated as part of the research
and development team.
Workshop Goals
A primary workshop goal was to
gain insight into what information
can be obtained from social media
during a crisis and how that informa-
tion can be applied in an operational
scenario. We also aimed to develop
capabilities to measure the effec-
tiveness of official messaging related
to an event on social media. From an
education and training perspective,
participation in the workshop aimed
to deepen staff technical expertise
in an emerging critical area and
expose emergency responders to
state-of-the-art technology. These
goals were evaluated using ques-
tionnaire-based feedback mecha-
nisms throughout the workshop for
external participants, and a similar
mechanism to measure JHU/APL
staff benefit from the experience.
Questionnaires were designed to
specifically capture knowledge gain
and utility of the workshop relative
to the baseline of capabilities and
knowledge prior to the workshop.
The workshop organizers envi-
sioned a week-long workshop that
was extremely focused and
immersive, so staff could fully
engage. This model of “learning by
doing” for a short but sustained
period of time was very attractive
for this workshop. Day 1 consisted of
end-user requirements gathering,
Days 2-4 consisted of capability
development by JHU/APL staff, and
Day 5 consisted of a report-out
session with the same end-users. The
ambitious goal of demonstratable
capabilities under such a compressed
timeframe pushed the team to be
efficient, focused, and coordinated.
The workshop represents a data
point in evaluating this model for
future use. JHU/APL stood to benefit
from the experience by obtaining
user needs associated with our
ongoing social media analytics work,
developing important relationships
with local crisis management
entities, and being a “good neigh-
bor” within the Howard County
community.
Example Prototype Capabilities
Twitter was a clear choice as the
social media data source to analyze
for the Columbia Mall shooting. It
was actively used by the local police
and fire departments during the
By Christopher M. Gifford, Richard L. Waddell, Mark B. Gabriele, and John M. Contestabile,
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Asymmetric Operations Sector, Laurel, Maryland

23
incident, as well as by those in the mall and surrounding
areas. Querying Twitter’s Search Application Program
Interface (API) and Decahose1
(a feed of 10% of all
tweets) for tweets originating within 5-miles of the
shooting from January 25th
to February 25th
returned 3.7
million tweets from 24,000 unique users, amounting to
~4 terabytes of data. During the hour of the shooting,
over 10,000 tweets were sent from this small area. This
scale of data is beyond law enforcement capability to
monitor without assistance from tools and technology.
Subsets of the data were used to develop prototype
capabilities based on feedback from the first day of the
workshop. The following items were developed and
demonstrated on the last day of the workshop:
Word Cloud Visualization. An easy way to attain a
summary view of what was happening in social media,
tailored to the specific situation faced by law enforce-
ment, was essential. For the workshop, a word cloud
visualization capability was developed that summarized
the content of tweets.
Dynamic Classification. Finding social media data
about a topic of interest may seem as simple as typing a
Figure 2. Top-ranked images from the AK47 classifier, sorted by score.
term into a search box, but experience shows that such
an approach is riddled with “false positives,” hits that
contain that term but are about something else. Given
the scale of social media data, public safety officials
would be overwhelmed attempting to review search
results, and the output of analytics based on such
inaccurate data would not be credible. To address this
we applied Machine Learning techniques to automati-
cally classify tweets that were genuinely about a shoot-
ing (and not about basketball, for example).
Content-Based Image Retrieval. Tapping into the
social media image output of people in the vicinity of an
event, whether eyewitnesses, bystanders, passers-by, or
victims, multiplies the “sensors” available to public
safety. The challenge lies in culling the relevant images.
Our case involved an active shooter. To test the viability
Figure 1: Word cloud visualization of social media from an
active shooter event.
Improved Response Through
Social Media Research Collaboration
1
The Twitter Decahose represents a 10% random sampling
of the full, real-time Twitter Firehose through a streaming
connection. Twitter’s free Streaming and Search APIs
return a much smaller subset (1% or less) of actual tweets
in comparison, and can be limited by time window and on
a per-user basis.

24
of identifying relevant images in
social media, we trained an auto-
mated classifier to detect images
containing firearms for alerting
purposes.
Detecting Important Anoma-
lies. For law enforcement and public
Figure 3: Detection of anomalies (red circles) in social media activity.
Figure 4: Example visualization of spatial messaging reach, showing the global
heat map of @HCPDNews messages being retweeted.
safety contexts, we examined two
types of anomalies: (1) anomalous
changes for specific topics of known
relevance, and (2) generic, non-
specific changes. We created
visualizations to summarize how
many tweets contained relevant
hashtags over time, and included
markers for anomalous tweets and
activity.
Influence and Reach of
Messaging. For the workshop, we
used a heat map to illustrate the
influence/reach of related tweets
plotted on Google Earth. This
showed that the incident, and
@HCPDNews’ (Howard County
Police Department’s official Twitter
account) messaging about it, was
not of purely local interest but had
spread outside the region, attracting
national and global attention.
Social Crisis Response and
Management (SCRaM) Dashboard.
A suite of open-source technologies
was leveraged to create the proto-
type SCRaM dashboard. Used
together, they help support public
safety needs identified during Day 1
of the workshop.
Lessons Learned
One of the primary lessons was
the utility of the 1-week R&D model
that was employed. The following list
summarizes the key positive aspects
of this model:
Organized. Pre-planning such
an event is imperative, so that the
entire week-long workshop can be
about productivity rather than
organization and management.
More pre-planning could have made
the workshop even more efficient.
For example, while the primary
organizers worked behind the scenes
for quite some time to get everyone
in the same room for the same
purpose, the full team didn’t meet
until the workshop.
End-User Driven. Capturing
requirements from end-users and
letting them drive capability devel-
opment is a powerful and efficient
approach for creating a novel
output.
Diverse. The research and
development team was purposefully
diverse to capture various facets of
expertise, experience, domains,
perspectives, and backgrounds. This
proved useful when exploring
potential solutions and algorithms
that could support them.
Improved Response
Through Social Media
Research Collaboration

25
Figure 6: JHU/APL Crisis
Response Social Media
Workshop Research and
Development Team. From
front-left to top-right: Kim
Glasgow, Christina Pikas,
John Contestabile, Jared
Markowitz, Brant Chee,
Chris Cuellar, Chris Gifford,
Chris Carr, Alison Ebaugh,
Aurora Schmidt, Clay Fink,
Duane Cornish, Zack
Koterba, Pedro Rodriguez.
Not pictured: Mark
Gabriele.
Figure 5: Screenshot of
the Social Crisis Response
and Management
(SCRaM) prototype
dashboard, integrating
the various algorithms and
capabilities developed and
explored during the work.
Collaborative. Working hand-
in-hand with end-users, as well as
with a diverse team, enables
efficient capability development.
Collaboration with local entities
Improved Response
Through Social Media
Research Collaboration
produces trust and strengthens
relationships that can lead to later
opportunities.
Concerted Effort toward a
Goal. Allowing an entire team to
focus on a single project for a full,
uninterrupted week is very rare. This
aspect of the workshop may have
been one of the primary reasons
why it was both successful and
delivered an impressive set of
integrated capabilities in less than
one week’s time.
Location. Getting the proper
end-users and technical minds
together in the same location is
powerful and has been demon-
strated in many other cases. Doing
so in an innovative space such as the
lab space chosen sets the tone for
the workshop.

26
Just Another Communications Tool
By DeeDee Bennett, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Communications, Georgia Institute of Technology
S
everal communications
tools are used by emer-
gency management
agencies (EMAs) to disseminate
emergency alerts and warnings,
including sirens, television, radio and
telephones. In recent years, some
EMAs have begun to use social
media for a variety of emergencies
to relay important information to
the public and to engage the
citizenry in useful discussions on
preparedness and recovery.
In a 2014 survey of 139 FEMA-
approved alert authorities, nearly
90% of respondents indicated that
they use social media to disseminate
public alerts. However, there are
still late adopters. In addition, social
media use is not universal or uniform
across all EMAs. The findings
presented in this article are based
on interviews of representatives
from 13 emergency management
agencies (at the state and local
level) in different locations across
the United States.
How Do EMAs Use Social Media?
When there are no active
incidents, social media typically is
used to relay preparedness informa-
tion, public relations, information
about historical emergencies or
disasters, and staff accomplish-
ments. Interviewees in this study use
social media platforms to distribute
information on places to get
assistance, shelters, road closures,
volunteer opportunities, and places
to donate. The identified advan-
tages of using social media platforms
include: the potential for interac-
tion, dialogue, or keeping a two-way
flow of communication; use for
direct communication (usually
equated with Twitter); helping to
quash rumors, especially during
unusual or unexpected events; the
use of well-known partners for
retweeting general information; and
the “crowdsourcing” of information.
What Platforms do EMAs Use?
By the numbers, the majority of
EMAs with social media platforms
use Facebook. However, the
interviewees in this study suggested
that Twitter is more useful during
emergencies. Most interviewees
linked the benefits of using Twitter
to its ability to rapidly disseminate
information in near real-time, as
well as its ability to monitor and
gather information from the public,
including victims, and from other
public safety agencies. Emergency
managers typically used Instagram
for mitigation and preparedness
information. YouTube, when used,
was the most likely place for EMAs
to present information in an acces-
sible format for the deaf or those
with language barriers. While
YouTube has a closed-captioned
feature, the best accessible format
was when the EMAs placed English
text, English voice over, and Ameri-
can Sign Language (ASL) into their
original video prior to uploading it to
YouTube.
Engaging People with
Disabilities and Language
Differences
Emergency management
agencies need to be aware of the
potential that social media has for
reaching the whole community.
Some are using these platforms to
engage the public, but very few are
considering the needs of people with
disabilities or those with language
barriers. Fewer than five of the
interviewed emergency manage-
ment agencies indicated that they
disseminate messages in another
language. Only two used YouTube
videos to present messages in ASL
and with closed-captioning. How-
ever, many are using other methods
to connect with access and func-
tional needs groups, such as having a
monthly meeting with disability-
related organizations.
Liability Concerns
A few interviewees discussed
concerns regarding the potential for
misinformation to be posted on
social media, especially when
engaging individuals directly.
However, these concerns were not
shared among all. Others high-
lighted the usefulness of social
media with regard to their open
records policy. With the exception of
foul language, these agencies allow
all information posted on social
media to be readily available as a
means of compliance with their
state’s open records act. Under-
standably, legal concerns are a
complicated issue, especially when
the question of anonymity comes
into play, against a backdrop where
personal identifiable information is
also readily available.
General Good Practices
to Consider
Social media platforms are just
another method to communicate
with the public and should not be
used as a replacement for other
methods. Be sure to manage
expectations when using social
media, in particular when engaging
in direct communications. The
robust features of social media can
be used to maintain your online
presence, engage the public, and

27
meet the goals of your emergency
management agency’s mission.
Going Forward
Social media platforms can be
used for response, recovery, mitiga-
tion, and preparedness messaging.
The most active EMAs cur-
rently consider Twitter to be the
best for response messaging. How-
ever, Facebook is still the most
popular social media platform.
Don’t forget about the access
and functional needs group. Posting
in multiple languages, including ASL,
can go a long way toward connect-
ing with hard-to-reach populations.
Engaging the public through
two-way communication is one of
the most unique features of social
media platforms used for emergency
communication.
It may be possible to consider
social media content as an addi-
tional means of complying with any
open records policy in your area.
Social media platforms are
constantly evolving. What is most
popular today may not be tomor-
row.
Remember that social media is
just another tool in your toolbox that
enables you to communicate with
more people.
Emergency management
agencies (EMAs) are using social
media during all phases of disaster.
After interviewing several represen-
tatives from EMAs, patterns
emerged in how social media was
used and what social media plat-
forms were preferred. While there
are several other platforms used
among the EMAs, the findings
presented here are based on what
the representatives chose to discuss
as it related to social media. Also,
each of the representative inter-
viewed used social media platforms
in a variety of ways. Some were
more active on social media than
others. A few agencies expressed
concern about not having full control
over their social media sites, as they
were run by another state or local
government agency. Other agencies
were able to delegate the mainte-
nance of their social media site to
more than 10 employees. Even
though social media platforms are
just another tool to disseminate
information to the public, these
platforms allow emergency manag-
ers to engage in two-way (or direct)
communication with the general
public and others with access and
functional needs.
Just Another
CommunicationsTool

28
Social Media in Emergency Management
(SMEM) and Partnerships
By Sandra Dion, Project K Social Media Project Manager, Directorate-General,
Public Security, City of Québec, QC, Canada
T
he city of Québec intends
to become one of the most
resilient cities in North
America. Since 2012, the branch in
charge of public security has been
developing a plan to increase
resilience among the city’s employ-
ees, citizens, economic players and
major regional partners. This goal is
being pursued by consolidating
knowledge, stepping up prepara-
tions, and fostering the develop-
ment of a city culture based on
resilience: “Face, adapt, overcome
and recover.”
Increasing the resilience of the
city means empowering all stake-
holders to make sure they will be
able to react efficiently should a
disaster strike this city. Educating
the citizens on the importance of
having an emergency kit at home
(water, food, candles, etc.) to be
able to survive during five consecu-
tive days without access to the
normal services and encouraging
them to subscribe to the alerts
issued by the authorities via Twitter
are examples of measures to
achieve this. Such measures can
have important repercussions. Less
people will need immediate assis-
tance, so authorities and emergency
teams will be able to devote
themselves more fully to managing
the situation. Moreover, as more
citizens will have the means to go
through the first critical days, more
city employees will be able to come
to work and help with the situation,
knowing that their loved ones are
not in need of immediate assistance.
At the same time, more people will
be informed in real time of the
actual situation and what is ex-
pected of them.
The five-year master plan, called
“Project K,” is a resilience develop-
ment project comprised of 15
complementary structuring sub-
projects related to 15 aspects
identified as needing to be rein-
forced in order
to increase the
Québec City’s
resilience. One
of these subprojects is dedicated to
the use of social media in emergency
or crisis situations.
Recognition of the
Relevance of Social Media
After Hurricane Sandy struck in
2012, the analysis of communica-
tions practices in emergency
situations in North America clearly
revealed that the social media have
a significant role to play in the
general communications strategy.
They support the analysis and
understanding of the situation,
allowing for a faster operational
response. For emergency operations
managers in the city of Québec, it
appears that social media, including
Twitter, offer an unparalleled tool
for vigil, relay, reaction, communica-
tion and response.
To this end, two new Twitter
accounts were created for the city
Québec in May 2014, one for the
police service, @spvq_police, and
one for the fire service, @spciq.
These two accounts are in addition
to the city’s account, created in
2009, @villequebec. Although
Twitter is a useful means of circulat-
ing information quickly, a number of
studies on social media in emer-
gency management (SMEM) raise
new concerns about this tool. The
coordinators wonder, in particular,
how to ensure and maintain the
efficacy of the Twitter platform
during an emergency.
Questions Are Being Asked
How can we ensure that the
residents and
employees of
Québec City, as
well as the
other stakeholders and external
partners, will use Twitter to quickly
receive and transmit information
during an emergency? How should
we approach the handling of
multiple streams of information
when a catastrophe occurs? It is
important, as a public safety
organization, to develop the means
to ensure thorough and effective
handling of Twitter messages
(tweets) when safety is at stake.
In June 2014, to better serve the
residents during a major disaster,
the city of Québec established a
continuous improvement committee
for public safety, which is made up of
the Deputy Director-General for
Public Safety, four directors (Fire,
Police, Civil Security and Project K)
and a committee director, with
members representing each service.
In response to the first concern,
the Québec City civil security service
held more meetings at a conference
called FaireFace. The goal is to meet
and train all city employees – about
5,000 in total – by 2018, so they will
be better prepared and more
resilient in the event of an emer-
gency. The city’s principal partners,
school boards, various businesses
and community organizations in the
city Québec territory will also be

Social Media Accessibility article June 2015 IAEM Bulletin

Social Media Accessibility article June 2015 IAEM Bulletin

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