A case study of WHNT News 19's crisis response during the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak. Presented November 8, 2013 at #SoMeT13US in Huntsville, Alabama.
How to Set Up a Social Media Crisis Response Team - November 2013
1. @lorimillerwhnt
How to Set Up a Social
Media Crisis Response
Team
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A Case Study from the April 27, 2011 Alabama Tornado Outbreak
Lori Miller | Sales Marketing and Research | WHNT News 19
November 8, 2013
23. @lorimillerwhnt
INITIAL IMPACTS – EARLY PART OF THE DAY
Started out with a plan for a potentially violent day
Lost power around 1:30 or 2pm – and that’s when things started to change
Only “critical” areas were wired to the generator – no one knew which
outlets could be used and only a dozen computers worked
Inboxes quickly began to get overloaded with information – prioritized
storm tracks
Fatigue – and some reporters were trapped in their neighborhoods
Planning for Uncertainty
31. @lorimillerwhnt
IMPACTS – ON OPERATIONS
Employees exhausted and emotionally depleted
Couldn’t find all our employees – and some were still unable to come in
Still on generator -- Services and systems down, limited number of
computers
No gas, no cash
Resource-draining coverage requirements – from Mississippi to Georgia
Planning for Uncertainty
37. @lorimillerwhnt
IMPACTS -- ON INFORMATION FLOW
Internal misinformation (thought we needed air cards, thought all printers
were down, ‘imminent’ email server crash suspected)
Email overload – no volunteer procedures for deleting once received
Multiple web volunteers meant info was overwritten, not saved – in initial
hours
Posting on Facebook like a live blog – added admins – all had different
posting strategies
Planning for Uncertainty
38. @lorimillerwhnt
IMPACTS -- ON VOLUNTEERS
Limited knowledge of News department systems
Overwhelmed by raw data – and no good method to share it internally
Expended too much energy finding the same information
Inadequate briefings at shift changes the first day
No loop between volunteers and News teams (deployment of crews) and
engineers (status of systems) – at first
Planning for Uncertainty
46. @lorimillerwhnt
FACEBOOOK on April 26
• 32,788 Fans
• 1,107 likes and comments
• 613,032 Newsfeed
impressions
FACEBOOK on April 27
• 37,879 fans
• 6,894 likes and comments
• 3.6 Million Newsfeed
impressions
56. @lorimillerwhnt
CONTINUING IMPACT -- ON OPERATIONS
Work schedules and systems began to return to “normal” breaking news
protocols -- Non-news volunteers replaced by sister station personnel
Communications team finally able to focus on fundraising event planning
No commercials, no revenue – and billing was potentially problematic
Diesel consumption at the transmitter tower
Exhaustion – and errors
Overloaded outlets and “coiled” extension cords
Planning for Uncertainty
59. @lorimillerwhnt
SOCIAL MEDIA PROBLEMS
Anger about real or perceived lack of coverage
Rumors
Fundraising sites posted to our wall – legitimate?
Planning for Uncertainty
61. @lorimillerwhnt
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
We mostly ignored Twitter – and that was okay with us THEN…
We inundated Facebook with posts in 2011 for storm tracking –
new algorithms mean that wouldn’t work now
We grabbed evaluation and benchmarking metrics as we
thought about it – which wasn’t a lot
We didn’t update our policies fast enough
Planning for Uncertainty
62. @lorimillerwhnt
WHAT WORKED
Using joint information centers – in the metro,
EMAs/police/mayor’s office – all reported together
Getting help from your partners
Embracing Facebook and getting it done
Taking notes about what worked – while it was still fresh
Sharing our experiences with sister stations
Planning for Uncertainty
63. @lorimillerwhnt
TIPS TO SHARE
Specific roles – no ambiguous “helping”
Step-by-step instructions for common tasks
Training for working from home or offsite
Go-kit of handy items – like extension cords and power strips
Discussions about email limits and scheduled Facebook posts
Planning for Uncertainty
64. @lorimillerwhnt
TIPS TO SHARE
Templates for organization – word templates for the INTERNAL
team, web templates for EXTERNAL audience
Volunteer team leads
Facebook – Shorter posts, subheads for easy scanning, respond
with first names, “I don’t know” is an answer
Volunteers close together – liaise between functional groups
(Chatzy)
Repetitive info on clipboards (no scribbled notes)
Planning for Uncertainty
65. @lorimillerwhnt
TIPS TO SHARE
Choose important evaluation metrics now – so you don’t have
to think about it
Use the cloud
Plan backups for your backups – and maintenance schedules
for them
Test and practice (technophobe employees are test beds!)
Ask for help – know who your partners are
Planning for Uncertainty
66.
67. NO EXCUSES
Not in my job description
No one’s asked me
No one will let me
I can’t get it approved
I don’t have time
I don’t have the experience