Social Media Tools for Disasters presentation given at the Hawaii Emergency Preparedness & Homeland Security Workshop on Oct. 22, 2013. It was part of panel on Media Behind the Scenes.

1. The Role of Social Media in
Disasters
Burt Lum
October 22, 2013
@bytemarks
bytemarks@gmail.com

2. The nature of social media
Web 1.0
● Management in Control
● One Way - Delivering the
Message
● Repeat the Message
● Control the Message
● Educate
● Organization Creates Content
Web 2.0
● Community in Control
● Two Way - Being Part of the
Conversation
● Adopt the Message
● Focus on the Community Voice
● Influence, collaborate
● User created content, co-create

3. 5 Trends in Disaster Management
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Everything Happens at Lightning Speed
People Demand Hyper-Transparency
Dialog is important in Message Delivery
Need to establish Trusted Sources
Misinformation and Rumors Travel at Viral
Speeds

4. Social Media in the EM Cycle

5. Levels of Engagement
Monitor
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Gather information during the response or recovery phase
Identify gaps in response
Understand how opinion of your organization is forming
Identify improvements to the response
Identify people and/or communities in need
Improve situational awareness
Respond
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Increase speed of rumour log addressing (e.g. addressing inaccuracies and
misinformation)
Create a targeted response
Request specific, required information
Build trust between your organization and the public
Engage
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Consult with your community
Obtain in-depth feedback on response and information provided

6. Touchpoints
● Know where your audience is.
● Know how reach them.
● Continue to engage with them.

12. Monitor
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Search sites using hashtags & keywords
Identify people & communities in need
Improve Situational Awareness
Collaborate
TweetTracker

13. The Hawaii VOST (Virtual Operations Support Team) primary
activities during an emergency include:
● Helping to post and retweet information from verified sources
regarding the emergency.
● Monitoring social media for incidents of distress, danger and
system failures.
● Monitoring social media for erroneous reports,
misinformation and rumors.

24. Keys to Digital Crisis Management
● Set up a Listening Post program
● Get management buy-in on the importance of
social media
● Identify the top online influencers (and begin
building relationships)
● Know how you will “speak” online (e.g. Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
● Establish Social Media Engagement Guidelines
across your organization

25. Mahalo!

26. Burt Lum
@bytemarks
bytemarks@gmail.com
Hawaiiopendata.com