Social media’s significant usage and ongoing growth creates opportunity for public safety and emergency management. Information in and around social media can greatly enhance intelligence and the common operating picture. The now commonplace use of social media should encourage public safety and emergency management agencies to get involved. The level of involvement can be staged with monitoring usually being the best place to start. Many social media monitoring tools have been created to help organisations manage the deluge of information and gain intelligence. However, not all tools are alike especially when it comes to features specific to public safety and emergency management. Organisations should consider their requirements carefully when investing in social media monitoring.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA
Considerations for public safety and
emergency management

2. Social Media | Considerations for public safety and emergency management
Social media offers Social media’s continuing rise
opportunities and challenges It’s almost impossible to recite accurate social media
Social networks have rapidly been embraced by statistics as they keep growing at phenomenal rates,
communities across the globe. Services such as but reported in early August 2012
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr are a core • 20% of all online time is spent on a social media network
part of millions of peoples’ lives, allowing them to • Every minute over 500,000 tweets are sent
share their experiences, videos and images, and • 250 million photos are updated daily
provide commentary on the events around them. • One out of every eight people in the world are on Facebook
Such services are also becoming critical vehicles for • Every day 552 million people log into Facebook
communication, creating both opportunities and • 62 to 64% of all Australasian internet users belong to a
challenges for public safety and emergency management. social media site.
Due to its widespread use, social media provides instant access Whether personal or civic, social media is now a part of society.
to real-time information. Such information can provide and/or For example, most mobile users tend to get their news by social
enhance intelligence, helping to ensure public safety and improve media [1], and city, county, state and federal governments
emergency situational awareness. Being able to monitor and nationwide are increasingly embracing social media to
utilise this information is becoming vitally important for disseminate information. [2]
decision makers as part of their common operating picture.
The ever increasing uptake of social media can be demonstrated
Despite the increasing importance and relevance of this by its use at major events e.g. Euro 2012 was the biggest twitter
information, the sheer volume of users and messages can event (previously 2010 World Cup); at the 2012 London Olympics
make monitoring and managing social media very time and American swimmer Ryan Lochte gained over 500,000 twitter
resource intensive. followers in a week, and there were 9.5 million mentions of the
Olympics on Twitter during the opening ceremony – more tweets
This paper looks at the growth of social media, its
than for the entire 2008 Beijing Olympics!
relationship with public safety and emergency management,
and considerations for monitoring social media. Social media is also heavily used around disasters e.g. one minute
after the 2011 Virginia earthquake Twitter was hit by 40,000
comments; Twitter was a tool for good and bad around the
2011 London Riots; there was near instant use of social media
after the 2012 movie theatre massacre in Aurora, Colorado;
around Hurricane Irene there were more than 3,000 tweets per
minute and seven of its top ten trending topics were Hurricane
related posts.
Aiding the rise of social media is ubiquitous technology.
Smartphones and tablet devices, in addition to conventional
laptops and notebooks, allow people to communicate over
cellular and wireless networks.
Growing smartphone penetration, now around 50% in most
countries, is enabling greater use of social media. By 2014 it is
expected that mobile internet usage will surpass internet access
from desktop computers. [3]
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3. Relevance of social media Recent examples of recommendations made after
disaster reviews:
in public safety and “If you are not doing social media, do it now.
emergency management If you wait until its needed, it will be too late”
Before, during and after disaster and crisis situations it “It provides access to immediate feedback and
is critical to have the right information at the right time. information from the public at scenes”
As a result informed decisions and appropriate action Queensland Police Service: Disaster Management
and Social Media – a case study
can be taken.
The information in and around social media is too valuable to
ignore. Posting of pictures and videos, and sharing of information
“Fire agencies should attach the same value to
provides situational awareness. As a result, social media can community education and warnings as they do
provide real time reporting to emergency managers and the to fire suppression operations.”
emergency operations centre. [4] 2009: Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission
Social media tools, if used properly, provide the opportunity to
turn individuals whom the emergency response effort previously
perceived as liabilities in response into critical assets – every
“…agencies should actively pursue the use of
citizen is a sensor. The ability to crowd-source and leverage both social media for warnings…”
affected and unaffected persons as force multipliers in response— “…explore the opportunity for greater use of social
be it as information providers or aggregators—is what separates media as a credible source of information to
new media from old, and this is where the new value
and from the public”
is created.
2010/2011: Victorian Flood Warnings and Response Review
As social media has put the power in the hands of the public,
with anytime, anywhere access, there is risk of unwanted
behaviour and incorrect information. Such actions need to
be corrected via active monitoring and myth busting, whether
through social media alone or a variety of channels.
Even when the electrical supply goes down, or there are
other infrastructure problems, the decentralised nature of
telecommunications allows communications to still occur.
Users of social media, private users or public safety and
emergency management, can utilise the cellular and
wireless networks to maintain contact.
Social media can be used proactively to inform users of
impending events and reactively to monitor awareness
and impacts. The public now expect to be informed,
included and engaged with.
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4. Social Media | Considerations for public safety and emergency management
Benefits of social media through social media to better understand the
Social media can assist public safety and emergency medium and the message.
management as it is: Monitoring focuses on one-way communication
• Information rich. On its own, a tweet or a photo may from the public. This mode informs and instructs the
have limited value. However, when hundreds or thousands Emergency Manager before any action is taken to
of tweets or communications are looked at, patterns deploy or use social media tactically or strategically.
of behaviour. In addition to the raw content of these
This approach allows emergency managers to focus
interactions, additional information – such as the location
on the means by which the public gathers, shares and
from which the post was made – is also captured, creating
richer information. responds to information about emergencies. It does
not necessarily involve the delivery of a service to
• Timely. Services such as Twitter allow people to communicate
secure a particular outcome. Nevertheless, effective
information, and receive it, in real-time. Never before has
social media monitoring can inform response decisions
there been a service which allows such widespread and
and influence plans for its strategic use.
timely information.
• One-to-one or one-to-many. Social media users can have • Mitigate. Activities that actually eliminate or reduce
direct conversations or they can ‘broadcast’ to their followers the probability of a disaster (example, identify “this
and fans. Additionally social media can be used as an official river looks like it could flood”, and create resilience
message amplifier. planning as part of this identified risk).
• Able to be monitored. While many people don’t always realise • Prepare. In the preparedness phase, emergency
it, this information is typically published on public networks management and public safety, governments, multi
and can be accessed, read by anyone and acted upon. agencies, and emergency management practitioners
• Able to be shared. Information of note can be shared develop plans to save lives and minimise damage
among public safety and emergency management staff (for example, preparing New Zealand for NZ
for consideration and action. ShakeOut; monitor the reach of the message, and
• Able to be archived. Robust archiving is critical to assist crystallise official responses to the audiences
investigations, reviews and audits. tone, and sentiment.) Preparedness measures also
strive to enhance disaster response operations
• Familiar. It is the medium in which many sections of society
(for example, by identifying the mobilization of
communicate everyday with their friends and family, and may
therefore be the platform they will go to first in an emergency. spontaneous volunteering efforts).
2. Respond. Immediately following a disaster or
emergency the response phase is designed to provide
Emergency Management Phases emergency assistance for victims (example, monitoring
Emergency management activations can be grouped into search and rescue efforts, identify emergency shelter,
three core phases that are related by time/function to medical care, and provision of food and water). During
disasters and emergencies. Social media can be invaluable a response phase it is also vital to reduce the probability
in all three phases. of secondary damage (example, identify behavioural
1. Plan. The ability to listen, monitor, analyse, document trends and areas prone to looting and public order
and archive information pertaining to a disaster or situations) and to expedite recovery operations (for
emergency and plan for the potential consequences example, identify damage and archive real time image
or impacts on life, and the protection of property. and video for assessment).
This includes assessing hazards, risks, mitigation,
3. Recover. Activities necessary to return to business
preparedness, response, and recovery needs. As part
as usual including: monitoring what do people have,
of the plan phase emergency management will:
what do people need? (example, identifying: clean-up
• Monitor. In the monitoring stage, emergency operations, offers of temporary housing, and access to
managers watch and listen to messages streaming food and water).
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5. Social media when considered across day to day and incident
management can be utilised in a myriad of ways:
Public Safety Emergency Management Business Continuity Management
Day to Day/ • Respond to criminal activity • Identify and correct misinformation • Horizon scan within the PR team and
BAU • Identify locations of criminal activity • Monitor building of preparedness where required, flag or escalate issues
• Anticipate criminal activity among the community to the relevant risk department.
• Gather photographic or • Horizon scan for reported events • Facilitate awareness across the
documentary evidence and hazards organisation (particularly for the
• Improve community relationships human resources, public relations
• Understand/prove criminal networks
and risk management teams)
• Identify persons of interest • Monitor online discussion related to
historical emergency event, exercise • Help review performance
• Build criminal profile – hobbies,
or organisation following an incident
travel dates, places visited
• Increase online credibility. • Monitor risks to infrastructure,
• Locate missing persons
business processes and personnel.
• Solicit/provide channel for
information on criminal activity
• Support other media initiatives –
Police documentaries, ‘Crimestoppers’
• Act upon information – search
warrants etc
• Identify and correct misinformation
• Support resourcing decisions
• Collect community engagement –
inform, question, what did the Police
do well, and what did not go so well,
recruit – take pulse
• Identify influencers using social
media who actively support and
RT Police news
• Increase online credibility.
Public Safety and Emergency Management Business Continuity Management
Incident/ • Rapidly identify nature, location of event from community reports • Enable HR teams to provide a better
Event • Identify people and/or communities in need level of care to employees in the midst
• Increase understanding of impact of response of an incident
• Identify gaps in response • Understand where, and in what state
of health, are your stakeholders
• Integrate information into EOC to improve response
• Respond quickly to change employee
• Identify improvements to the response
awareness/opinion
• Identify and correct misinformation – myth busting
• Enable communications monitoring
• Improve situational awareness
of team members who are
• Understand how opinion of your organisation is forming geographically dispersed
• Answer queries raised on social media sites • Recognise and react event impacts
• Increase the amount and speed of information gathered on partners, supply chains, clients
during the response phase and community
• Increase the speed at which the community is informed • Use information to set up a temporary
• Improve monitoring of public needs remote workforce
• Improve situational awareness for personnel on the ground in • Monitor the changing sentiment
crisis zones who may have no other communication available of users commenting online about
• Gather information during the recovery phase. an incident to help inform crisis
communication decision making.
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6. Social Media | Considerations for public safety and emergency management
Managing social media Social media monitoring requirements
in public safety and Any organisation wanting to use a social media monitoring
emergency management tool for the purposes of public safety and emergency
management needs to carefully consider its requirements.
A simple plan for the use of social media along The following should be regarded as fundamental for any
with constant use will make its integration into solution in this area:
the public information area and the emergency • Track geolocation. Understanding location
operations centre seamless. of message can add invaluable intelligence.
• Mapping. Visual reference of activity can
Guidance regarding use of social media in public safety and
add perspective to the common operating picture.
emergency management can be found in many places including
‘Social media in an emergency: A best practice guide.’ from • Real-time monitoring. Time is often a critical element.
Wellington Region CDEM Group Plan. [5] • Multi-user support. Limitations on user
numbers can cost lives.
Regardless of the degree of involvement with social media there
can be significant benefit from just monitoring information. • Universal search. Searching across multiple
keywords can increase intelligence.
Emergency personnel can manually filter and research each
• Data archiving. Referencing back to searches
individual source of social media information. However, this
can be vital for evidence, investigations and reviews.
process is labour intensive and delays the ability to make fast,
efficient, accurate decisions when time is a critical factor for • Deployment models. Situation dependent
operational effectiveness. This costs an organisation time, deployment on premise or via hosted application.
money, and in a worst case scenario, lives. • Proven experience. Choosing a social monitoring tool
that has been proven in public safety and emergency
Without the right tool, monitoring social media can be:
management reduces risk for everyone.
• Complex. While most services will provide ways to locate
and search for information, they all approach this task in a
different way. This can create challenges around their use, Conclusion
and integration with emergency management information
systems. Social media’s significant usage and ongoing growth creates
opportunity for public safety and emergency management.
• Time consuming. Due to the high volume of information
Information in and around social media can greatly enhance
being created, and the spikes of activity driven by large
intelligence and the common operating picture.
events (whether planned or unplanned), it can be time
consuming finding, reviewing and acting on social media. The now commonplace use of social media should encourage
• Imprecise. Monitoring any service manually can be a public safety and emergency management agencies to get
challenge and, due to the complexity and the volume of involved. The level of involvement can be staged with
information, can result in incomplete sets of information monitoring usually being the best place to start.
being captured, leading to key information or evidence Many social media monitoring tools have been created to help
being lost – or, rather, not even being found; this problem organisations manage the deluge of information and gain
is compounded when multiple services are involved. intelligence. However, not all tools are alike especially when
• Ill-suited. Public safety and emergency management it comes to features specific to public safety and emergency
organisations have very specific use, security, storage management. Organisations should consider their requirements
and audit requirements. carefully when investing in social media monitoring.
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7. Bibliography
1. http://digitaljournal.com/article/317697
2. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-08-04/government-and-social-media/56759978/1
3. http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/2011-mobile-statistics-stats-facts-marketing-infographic/
4. Social Media and Virtual Platforms White Paper Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response Yale
New Haven Health
5. Social media in an emergency: A best practice guide. Wellington Region CDEM Group Plan
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8. www.intergen.co.nz/signal
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