View source for Social Media in an Emergency: A Best Practice Guide

{{Guideline
|Publishing Organisation=Wellington Region CDEM Group
|Language=English
|Year Published=2012
|Target Audience=Policy Makers, Practitioners
|Status=Published
|Covers Thematic=Content creation, Crisis communication, Social Media Strategy
|Audience Experience Level=Starter
|Source Website=https://idisaster.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/social-media-in-an-emergency-a-best-practice-guide-2012.pdf
|Synopsis=<big>'''Checklist for authorities'''</big>

'''Actions to take before an emergency '''
*  Decide at what level your organization will engage in Social Media (SM) 
*  Get familiar with the types of SM available (and tasks each tool is best suited to) 
*  Create a SM strategy (through consultation with relevant staff members) 
*  Develop policy for the streamlining of information release during the response phase (if applicable)
*  Develop policy for the staffing of SM and appropriate use of SM for employees 
*  Develop policy for the management of gathered information in the response phase 
*  Develop guidelines for the design of sites (if applicable) 
*  Get familiar with your legal obligations and make appropriate provisions, including for
**Copyright
**Privacy
**Comment guidelines for the public (if applicable) 
** Record-retention
*  Get an adequate number of staff involved and trained 
*  Amend existing training programs with SM content as appropriate 
*  Engage with varying types of SM technologies 
*  Begin to monitor popular sites where conversations are taking place 
*  Set up sites (if applicable) 
*  Begin to build your online presence and trust with your community (if  applicable) 
*  Begin to share relevant information on sites (if applicable) 
*  Begin to interact with your online community (if applicable) 
*  Begin to build relationships with other key Emergency Management organizations 
*  Create contacts with key search engine operators (if applicable) 
*  Run pre-event tests of your use of SM 


'''Actions to take during an emergency'''
*  Remember to be adaptive 
*  Follow your pre-developed plans, procedures, protocols and policies (or alternatively, create necessary plans and policies) 
*  Keep in mind your legal obligations and ensure these are met 
*  Investigate ways to maximize the resources available to you and implement these, where necessary and appropriate 
*  Create and/or maintain strong links with other organizations and community groups 
*  Take steps to build and maintain trust with your online community (if applicable) 
*  If you are using SM to disseminate information: 
**Consider community expectations and tailor your response to meet these where appropriate or act to address unrealistic expectations
**Establish your organization as a credible source of information early after the event and keep releasing
**Point to existing sources of official information where this is beneficial. Do not point to sources of information that are not credible at any stage
**Streamline the release of information – including through the use of templates and through labelling the reliability of information
**Consider what information the public needs to make informed decisions and steer the information released towards this
**Don’t go quiet
**Make use of the #mythbuster hashtag where appropriate
**Obtain sign-off from the Controller for sensitive information, streamlining this process where possible
**For Twitter, ensure popular hashtags are adopted and any that you do create are simple, short, relevant and obvious
**Where appropriate, name the source of your information
**Encourage sharing of messages among your online community
**Consider the risk reward benefit cost of releasing information and of shared misinformation (e.g. allow the community to self-correct where possible) 
* In relation to monitoring/managing incoming information:
**Ensure Planning and Intelligence communicate clearly to Public Information Manager what information they require
**Develop a Collection Plan detailing what sources of information will be monitored and for what types of information
**Utilize traditional methods of collating, aggregating and releasing information where appropriate
**Utilize a monitoring template to aggregate and summarize gathered information
**Make use of analytic tools – ensure these are combined with people-based solutions
**Make use of online map/mashup tools to make information more easily visualized as a whole
* TO validate community information:
**Identify what information requires validation
**Use existing validation tools where appropriate, considering timeliness issues
**Ask the community for additional information to confirm or contradict unconfirmed, important incoming information
**Look to other trusted information sources for validating
* TO integrate community information into the Emergency Operations Center 
**Use pre-existing processes where appropriate
**Consider projecting summary information and/or running registers of common issues onto a wall to help Public Information Manager team identify key actions
**Utilize mashup technologies to identify “hot spot” areas needing resources
**Ensure key factors that need to be addressed are addressed '
* TO prioritize community information
**Look to the community for guidance'
**Hold regular prioritization meetings
**Maximize delegation authorities so personnel can act quickly when needed
* Provide feedback regarding the helpfulness of incoming information to those monitoring Social Media sources and the community 


'''Actions to take after an emergency '''
*  Remember to be adaptive 
*  Continue to monitor and maintain sites, but to a lesser degree than during the response phase 
*  Respond to new issues/queries as required 
*  Consider the original goals you set for your use of Social Media and list out your markers of success based on these 
*  Create detailed records of your response via Social Media including key learnings of what went well as what didn’t g’‘s’‘well 
*  Survey the online community for feedback on the response (through use of a structured survey or more informally) (if applicable) 
*  Measure (through the use of tracker applications, for example) quantifiable factors that provide an indication of your success (if applicable) 
*  Make key information accessible for future events (including across organizations) 
*  Make required changes to policies and processes based on learnings 
*  Debrief all relevant personnel 


''' Recommended reading in the document'''
* Social Media Types - Pros and Cons
|Is Archived=No
|Disaster Management Phase=Before, During, After
|Data Sources=Twitter
}}