Engaging The Conversation ( Homeland Security Conference)

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Crisis Communication 3:00-4:30 – Room 214c Engaging the Conversation

The Great Media Shift

The Great Media Shift Source: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1133/decline-print-newspapers-increased-online-news 5 4 34 9 5 25 2006 2008 Print Both Web 43% 39%

Why the Shift? Newspaper companies failed to respond to growing information needs form consumers. Enterprising Americans created alternatives. Craigslist – 1995 Google News – 2001

The New Media World Order
Online traditional publications
Mobile traditional publications
News Aggregators (Google News)
Social News Aggregators (Digg)
Non-traditional media:
Drudge Report
Daily Show

Old Faithful Word of mouth is the oldest and most reliable form of communication.
We trust what our friends tell us
We trust what our friend’s friends tell us
We trust anything enough people tell us
“ Social Media is Word-of-mouth or Community Based Marketing that leverages Technology as a Platform for Conversations .” – Erica O’Grady

Why Should We Care? Social media is fast. Social media is not controlled. Everyone carries a “portable news gathering device.” There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.

Social Media Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

“ If somebody is saying 'My house is on fire' and it's in an area that has wildfires, well, obviously that's not official data. But they're telling us their house is burning down. They're shooting video of their house on fire . I consider that pretty good information.” - Craig Fugate, FEMA Source: http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/interview-craig-fugate-director-federal-emergency-management-agency-fema

So, what now?

Understand the Ethos Web 2.0 is transparent. Web 2.0 is direct. Web 2.0 is fast. If you are too, you will build trust. The currency of communication today is trust.

Transparency Always identify yourself. Disclose your objectives. Answer questions honestly. Offer insight into government processes. Don't be afraid of being honest.

Directness No more press release speak. Use personal pronouns. Have a little heart.

Speed You will sometimes have better information. Communicate better information, fast. You can never be as fast as “us.” Say what you know. Update frequently. The JIC's new role is primarily rumor control.

Improve your Plans and Processes Update your plans to streamline the approval process. Create Social Media monitoring job aids. Get IT and legal approval for software. Give the PIO more autonomy for communication. Shorten the distance info needs to flow. Facilitate two-way information flow with the JIC. Add regular “incident updates” to your communication plan, between news releases.

HouSnow Example
During our winter weather event we set up a tag for our posts: “HouSnow”
We evangelized the tag, even switching most conversation from “storm09”
Thousands of posts tagged with HouSnow
Monitored Twitter and Facebook using TweetDeck
Community established Google Wave
Saw a tweet about Hwy 6 being flooded over and re-tweeted it, 30 minutes or so later it was verified through official channels.

Choose a Platform for a Hub
Pick a content management system (CMS) that embraces open formats.
Be sure your CMS has an approval process and can be used by everyone in your office.
You need to either host it of have a service level agreement with the host with up-time guarantees you can live with.
Build ties from your CMS into Social Media sites.
Take home to your geek: XML, RSS, API, Open Source, extensible.

Hub and Spokes Your CMS becomes the hub, the social media services are the spokes. We can't trust a third-party company like Twitter to stay up when you need it, irregardless of track record.

California Wildfire: Before In 2007 a community effort built a tool called CrisisWire that monitored wildfire information. Twitter ran amok, providing rapid-fire updates. In 2008 California wildfires we had a “mole.” Efforts taken to snuff out mole were unsuccessful. Why did we have a mole? What fundamental problem was he solving?

California Wildfires: After In 2009 LA Fire started a Twitter account. ( http://twitter.com/LAFD ) “ If it was important, LA Fire would have tweeted about it.”

Good Tools to Use Content Management System (Hub) Google News Search Google Blog Search Google Analytics Google Reader Bit.ly (Web-based) TweetDeck (Desktop) HootSuite (Web-based) Seesmic (Handheld / Desktop)

The importance of Openness Mash-ups are how the community can “have it your way.” Using an open platform ensures that operations can be easily resumed if one spoke breaks. The information being posted is public anyway, and should be used and re-used by them. If attribution is a concern, consider Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 United States http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

Sites to be on (for now...) Facebook Twitter YouTube Flickr SlideShare Delicious Apps.gov

Determining what services to use Acceptable terms of service? Easy to use? Easy to integrate? Accomplishes your objectives. Will it make less work for you?

Example of Service Justification YouTube SLA approved by Apps.gov Special YouTube Gov account gives flexibility. Intuitive interface. Publishes RSS feeds. A video can save you an hour of update work.

What is Twitter? Twitter is like posting text messages to the web. Posts and replies are public. Information can be re-tweeted (forwarded)

Setting up Twitter Official Account Work Account Personal Account RSS-to-Twitter of Twitter integration

How Twitter Works Community posts update. TweetDeck and Seesmic “hear” the tweet. We're alerted to new tweet. We reply to or re-tweet the information. We post updates. Community re-tweets or replies. Replies are logged and replied to.

What's Facebook An interactive yearbook. Users post pictures, video and status updates. Walls are like community bulletin boards. Organizations have pages and fans, people have profiles and friends.

Setting up Facebook Page for your Agency Import notes via RSS Personal Account Add administrators

How Facebook Works Updates from our website post automatically. Community posts comments or posts. We reply to posts using personal accounts.

Common Objections Misinformation will spread. I don't have the time. We cannot keep up. What about the haters? What about viruses and malware?

Summary Web 2.0 is the community's plea for more info. Ignoring this need will make us obsolete. Web 2.0 needs to be part of your plans. Services can be integrated. We go where the people are.

Questions? I'll stay around for a few minutes. Feel free to follow-up by email, I'm happy to help. Leave your card if you want a copy of this presentation.

Engaging The Conversation ( Homeland Security Conference)

by Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management on Mar 31, 2010

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