“Emergency Management and Social Media” Sarnia, ON October 20th, 2011

When I was a boy, this was my image of Sarnia …

Jim Stanton

Objectives Today 1.Examine the evolution of Social Media. 2.Describe Social Media options. 3.Explore needs to use Social Media. 4.Discuss Social Media opportunities.

Whoever connects with the new and traditional media first sets the news template. Everyone else is in reaction to what you have said. Stanton Communications Principle

You are not just pushing out information, to resonate with your audiences, you need to be pulling in quantifiable data. Stanton Communications Principle

It’s not your emergency … it’s the publics and they want to participate. Stanton Communications Principle

Mistakes Will Be Made When things go wrong, you have one chance to get it right.

The way the world communicates is changing, those that change the quickest will reap the benefits.

Social networks and Google provide three quarters of a billion search results a day. The Internet is a giant public library where users have the ease of discovering and spreading information. Changing Media Landscape

If news is not contained and acted upon quickly, it will spiral out of control. This is particularly applicable to bad news. Social media can reach hundreds of thousands of views. An article can be shared thousands of times through You Tube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter in a matter of 24 hours. Companies cannot ignore social media influences. What does this mean to companies facing a crisis?

Who is the Best Known Blackberry Name? Jim Balsillie

Who Did We Hear From – on Day Four? Mike Lazaridis

How Did He Do?

Make Sure Your Message is Clear

In times of uncertainty people always want to know these fundamentals: “Stanton Method” 1. What is really happening? 2. How will this affect me? 3. What are you doing? 4. What do I need to do? 5. Specific and detailed instructions. 6. When will things get back to normal? 7. Reassurance. 8. Voices of authority they can trust.

Social Media Learning Point #1 Build relationships before crisis occur.

Social Media Learning Point #2 Assemble a social media team.

Social Media Learning Point #3 Listen and tell your side of the story.

Social Media Learning Point #4 Delegate crisis management team “Face.”

Social Media Learning Point #5 Train your staff on the proper use of social media.

Social Media Learning Point #6 Establish a social media policy.

What happens in crisis situations if you don ’ t use Social Media but rely on traditional methods?

“ We are beating the Taliban on the Afghanistan battlefield but they are kicking our asses every single day in the media. They have websites, Twitter and Facebook accounts, we don ’ t. They release footage instantaneously, we take weeks. Isn ’ t it interesting that ‘ cave dwellers ’ are beating the most advanced nations in the world by using the new media so effectively. ” Jamie Appathurai, Senior NATO spokesperson

“ When an incident happens, the Taliban upload their story on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, You Tube and Al Jazeera immediately. NATO goes through its ponderous approval process, taking weeks - by that time we have lost the media battle. ” Jaap de Hoopp Schefffer, Ex-NATO Sec. Gen.

Traditional Media Is Changing

Media No Longer Gatekeepers Media are now “ authenticators. ” Public is also the content creator. Media is the editor.

Division between “ news ” creator and consumer is blurred. “ Audience ” is becoming an outdated term - media now asks its “ audience ” to contribute to the conversation.

Media must cede control of content. Audiences want to use, mix, remix, distribute and view content on own terms.

Print will survive as analytical medium. Already being accessed on-line (no longer charge fee) Breaking news online and constantly updated.

Media Adaptation NEWS TIPS: or BREAKING NEWS ALERTS Sign up to receive alerts on breaking news from The Ottawa Citizen.

1. Traditional methods don’t work. 2. We can no longer “manage” the message 3.Information is out there beyond your control via social media, video cameras, videophones, etc. What Does This Tell Us?

Communicate Directly to Your Publics in Crises

Five Key Questions When Considering Social Media 1.What is the key issue we wish to address by engaging the public? 2. What would constitute a successful outcome?

3. Are the goals SMART? Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely

4.Will the measuring tools provide actionable insight? 5.Are we committed to having a permanent, on-going conversation?

New Rules for Traditional Media No longer writing “ stories, ” they are updating “ topics. ” Deadlines are becoming meaningless, scoops and content control are disappearing.

New Rules Be honest about updates. Fact checking still happens but is driven by getting info out FAST.

New Rules Upload photos and videos as soon as possible. Keep updates short and memorable. Follow related organizations.

New Rules Don ’ t measure success by number of followers. Quality of conversation is what matters. Compelling content is the key.

The Tools Create a social media “ field kit, ” to include: HD video camera Netbook, iPad, etc. 3G Internet stick Air Card Update as soon as possible.

The Tools Upload where people are: You Tube, Twitter and Flickr are searchable Use branded 3rd party tools: Embed a Umapper.com Google map into websites

The Tools Do you have You Tube, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter accounts?

Wikipedia Skype

My Space Quora LinkedIn Foursquare Digg

Social Media Explained

Crowd Mapping Free and open map platforms for information collecting, visualization and interactive mapping. crisismapping.net crisiscommons.org

Crowd Mapping An open source project which allows users to crowdsource crisis information to be sent via mobile. ushahidi.com

We have entered the domain of “i-witnesses” Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya

US Air 1549: Story sequence Plane on the Hudson River

Eyewitnesses

US Airways Crash Caught on Video

First Responders Raymond Kelly, NYPD commissioner: "The bulk of this event was over in 10 minutes.”

NY Time website:

Lesson Learned

New Policies Empower your strategic personnel. Go to where people are. Tag your content intelligently - add as much info as possible.

Worried About Social Networking Posts Falling Into the Wrong Hands? 1.Set up Google alerts for your name at 2.Reverse image search at 3. Search for images through a number of search engines including: images.google.com

4.Use to search for images 5.Yahoo image search: Images.search.yahoo.com or click images on Yahoo. 6.Imagery at elzr.com/imagery 7.

8. Search for your name on pipl.com for a complete contact list. 9. Find yourself on Twitter, monitter.com. 10.MonitorThis, at alp-uckan.net/free/monitorthis. Let ’ s you subscribe to 20 different search engine feeds.

Convergence of six factors have caused a dramatic shift in how we receive communications. 6

World Wide Web The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee 1

Satellite Technology 2

Personal Digital Assistants Video phones, iPhones, iPads 3

You Tube 4

Search Engines 5

wolframalpha.com

Street Video Surveillance Cameras Toronto hit-and-run case aided by video cameras 6

Remember this: A hard-earned and respected corporate reputation can be destroyed in moments if you do not have a proactive, timely, strategic communications plan as part of your business plan. Things cannot be left to chance or put into that category of: “We know how to handle tough situations and we’ll just wing it.”

Experience tells us the following: Be honest. Don’t play the “blame game.” Don’t put your head in the sand. Talk about what you are doing. “Brand” your organization. Be flexible

Individuals to access multimedia Internet content anywhere, and anytime Media producers, corporations, community groups and individuals to reach their audiences

Blogs A blog (an abridgment of the term web log ) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

“New Media” Podcasts A series of digital media files usually audio or video that is made available for download via the web.

On-Line Journalism

Engage the e-public Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Follow us on Twitter: http Stay connected with us on Facebook

Engage the e-public “The police are seeking the assistance of the public. We are interested in speaking to any witnesses and in viewing any photographs or video that may have been captured during the incident.”

Creating Partnerships

“Lead, follow or get out of the way” In the 21 st Century we need to be nimble and adaptive.

We need to use Social Media and traditional media as complimentary tools to communicate our messages.

Old vs. New

Questions?

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Thanks Joan Green Dean C. Edwardson

Thanks for being interested in understanding the importance of the role of social media in communications today.