(Course updated July 18, 2012) MCUrgent is a social media emergency notification system developed by Morris County and used in multi-jurisdictional emergencies. This beginner course explains what it is, how it was developed, and how municipalities can post messages.

1. MCUrgent
A Shared Emergency
Information Network
Getting the
word out with
social media
Carol A. Spencer, Web Manager Building a Municipal Social Presence
Morris County NJ July 18, 2012

2. Holy crap!
It’s raining!

3. Disasters
• Hurricane Floyd, Sept 1999
6 NJ deaths, $53M damage
• Severe storms, mudslides, August 2000
2,700 homes damaged
• Torrential downpours, July 2004
1,000 homes damaged
• Hurricane Ivan, Sept 2004
• Flooding disaster, April 2005
43% of NJ impacted
• Severe storms, heavy rains, June 2006
• Severe storms, flooding, April 2007
• Nor’easter, March 2010
• Hurricane Irene, August 2011
• Tropical Storm Lee, Sept 2011

4. People need information
• What roads are closed?
• Where can I find shelter?
• How long might the power be out?
• How high is the river?
• How will I get information without power?
• Where can I get information?

5. Finding information was difficult
• Nothing on town websites
– Maintenance typically contractor or volunteer and
not typically 24/7
• Nothing on County or OEM website
– Information typically coming from towns
– Towns can’t update County website
– County doesn’t have 24/7 web staff
• Limited information in the press
• While government was handling the emergency,
the public didn’t know the government was
doing anything.

6. When disseminating information…
Situation updates need to:
– be timely
– originate from the source
– be accessible even without power
– be available 24/7
– be device independent
– cross municipal boundaries
– be freely available
(no subscription or membership required)
– be accessed anywhere

7. Crafting a solution
We needed to find a way to:
– grab information at the source
– aggregate it
– make it available so the public could:
• view it
• use it
• parse it
• share it

8. Using Twitter to Share Information
Messages can be posted
from a desktop, laptop,
phone
Message can be retrieved
from a desktop, laptop,
phone
Subscription-free access
Fast Follow text messages
AccessibleTwitter.com
Twitter users can:
Retweet (share)
Search by #hashtag
Share with RSS
True social media use allows citizen contribution & sharing:
Twitterers can add #hashtags to their own postings
Twitterers can message MCUrgent

9. What Twitter IS:
•A news service, a microblog
•Information-only notification methodology
•Technology dependent notification
Server overload; “Fail whale” issues
•140 characters only
Very brief announcements or links to more information
•Available on multiple media
Computer, laptop, wireless, smartphone, sms, rss reader,
ipad, and more
•Available without registration

10. What Twitter is NOT:
•A formal, guaranteed notification system
– No guarantee that notices will be posted
– No guarantee on uptime
– No guarantee that applications that pull Twitter feed
will function
•The sole notification system
– TV, radio, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, SMS/text,
reverse 9-1-1, email must all be used
•Substitute for an official emergency
notification service

11. Our vision of MCUrgent
#MCParsip RT 46 WB between New Rd and Rt 202/Parsippany Rd
flooded. All lanes closed. 6:37 AM Mar 15 via Twitter
th
Parsippany
Morris Twp
Towns create a tweet
Denville
#hashtag post
Riverdale
Dover

12. Our vision of MCUrgent
Twitter
(MCUrgent)
Parsippany Facebook
(MCUrgent)
Morris Twp
Towns create a tweet
Denville
#hashtag post
Riverdale
Dover

13. Our vision of MCUrgent
Twitter
(MCUrgent)
Parsippany Facebook
(MCUrgent)
Morris Twp
Twitter
Towns create a tweet (MorrisCountyNJ)
Denville
#hashtag post Facebook
(MorrisCountyNJ)
Riverdale
Twitter
Dover (Town feed)
Facebook
(Town page)

14. Social Media Spreads the Message Quickly
Twitter
1,131
(MCUrgent)
Facebook
1,266 6,387 people could get
(MCUrgent)
the message with just
Twitter 1 click of the mouse.
2,605
(MorrisCountyNJ)
Facebook
Twitter “Fast Follow”
993 users are not included
(MorrisCountyNJ)
here so the contacted
Twitter
157 number is even higher.
(Town feed)
Facebook
235
(Town page)

15. MCUrgent in
practice:
Logged into
Facebook,
visiting the
MCUrgent page

16. MCUrgent in practice: Without logging into Twitter

17. MCUrgent in practice: Logged into Twitter

18. Hurricane Irene: one week
Websites Irene Typical
•Homepage views 75,155 26,000
Blogger
•OEM & MorrisCountyNJ 36,991 2,400
Facebook post views
•MorrisCountyNJ 49,610 5,500
•MCUrgent 99,005 400
Twitter message views*
•MorrisCountyNJ 169,292 18,000
•MCUrgent 20,448 0
TOTAL VIEWS 450,337 52,300
*Does not include Twitter ‘fast follow’ text messages to cell phones

19. The Public’s Opinion

20. Setting Up
Hootsuite

21. Log into Hootsuite.com with any browser
Username is the generic email used to set up Hootsuite:
MC+TownName+NJ@gmail.com
Password is:

22. Hootsuite Setup: Getting Started Tab

23. Hootsuite Setup: Locating social networks

24. Hootsuite Setup: Settings

25. Hootsuite Setup: Add info about you

26. Hootsuite Setup: Change password

27. Hootsuite Setup: Use https, uncheck items

28. Hootsuite Setup: pull in other information

29. Hootsuite Setup: RSS example
The RSS feed from CarolSpencerNJ on Twitter is “fed” to the MorrisTest
account. Each time CarolSpencerNJ posts to Twitter, it also goes out on
MorrisTest. Uses? Nat’l Weather Service, TransOptions, etc.

30. Hootsuite Setup: Social Networks viewable

31. Hootsuite Setup

32. Hootsuite Setup: Add your Town networks

33. Hootsuite Setup: Add your Town networks

34. Hootsuite Setup: Add your Town networks

35. Hootsuite Setup: Terminology
Social Networks
Tabs
Streams
Posts

36. Hootsuite Setup: Adding Tabs

37. Hootsuite Setup: Adding Tabs

38. Hootsuite Setup: Adding Streams

39. Hootsuite Setup: Adding Streams

40. Hootsuite Setup: Adding Streams

41. Hootsuite Setup is done!
Now, we’re ready to post.
Post to:
MorrisTest for Twitter
MyJurisdiction for Facebook

42. Hootsuite
Dashboard

43. Hootsuite Dashboard

44. Hootsuite Dashboard

45. Hootsuite Dashboard

46. Hootsuite Dashboard

47. Hootsuite Dashboard

48. Posting with
Hootsuite

49. Hootsuite Dashboard: Let’s try it…
1. Post to test accounts (MorrisTest, MyJurisdiction)
Click in the ‘Compose message…’ box
Enter a test message. Use abbreviations, hash tags.
Check off MorrisTest first. Note the number of characters remaining.
Check off MyJurisdiction. Note the number of characters remaining.
Click the calendar icon. Schedule for 5 minutes from now.
Note that the ‘Send Now’ button became ‘Schedule’.
Click ‘View date in Publisher’ to see what happens.
Click on the floppy drive icon to see that that does.
Save your tweet as a draft.

50. Hootsuite Dashboard: Let’s try it…
2. Post to test accounts (MorrisTest, MyJurisdiction)
To see your draft posts, click the down arrow next to the floppy drive
icon
If you see the post you want to send, click on it.
Check the social networks to which you want this to go.
If you were to check off one of the MCUrgent social networks,
you would get a confirming slider to prevent accidental posting
to this account.
Click the calendar icon. Schedule for 5 minutes from now.
Note that the ‘Send Now’ button became ‘Schedule’.
Click Schedule.
If you still have the ‘Publisher’ calendar open, see your tweet.

51. Before Posting
Double check before you post
Information is accurate
Information is authorized for public release
Post is 140 characters or less
Spelling is accurate
Link is accurate
Copy it into a new browser window to be sure it goes where you want
Date and time are correct if scheduling into the future
Selected social networks are the correct ones
Once it’s out there, you can delete it but anyone who has read it,
has read it.
To delete in Hootsuite, hover over the tweet in the ‘sent tweets’
stream and click the x.

52. A few more things…
Searching, deleting, filtering
To search Twitter, enter the search criteria in the search box and
click the magnifying glass.
To create a stream of a particular search term, click “+Add Stream”.
Choose a search term or use logic as per examples
To create a stream of keywords, enter the terms. Tweets using any
of the keywords will be returned.
To use hashtags so your comments will be included in a stream using
that term, precede your term with a #. Example: #MCLibrary;
#Jan25; #gov20; #superbowl, #SOTU
To be sure your tweet ends up in someone’s mentions stream,
use @ before their Twitter handle.
To delete in Hootsuite, hover over the tweet in the ‘sent tweets’
stream and click the x.

53. Hootsuite
Tools

54. Hootsuite Tools

55. Hootsuite Tools

56. Hootsuite Tools: Scheduled Tweets

57. Hootsuite Tools:
Analytics

58. Hootsuite Tools: Interactions

59. Hootsuite Tools: Interactions

60. Hootsuite Tools: Applications

61. Summary of MCUrgent
• What: Emergency notifications from
participating towns: MCUrgent
• Web: MorrisCountyNJ.gov Twitter widget
Town info on town website if they want
• Social: Twitter.com/MCUrgent
MCUrgent.org / .net / .com / .info
Facebook.com
(Morris County Office of Emergency Management)
• SMS: text follow MCUrgent to 40404

62. Contact Information
Carol A. Spencer
Web Manager, Morris County
Website : MorrisCountyNJ.gov
Email : CSpencer@co.morris.nj.us or
CarolSpencerNJ@gmail.com
Facebook : Facebook.com/MorrisCountyNJ
Facebook : Facebook.com/MCUrgent
Twitter : Twitter.com/MorrisCountyNJ
Twitter : Twitter.com/MCUrgent (or MCUrgent.com)

63. MCUrgent
A Shared Emergency
Information Network
Getting the
word out with
social media
Carol A. Spencer, Web Manager Building a Municipal Social Presence
Morris County NJ July 18, 2012