Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Additionally, some emergency management agencies are overwhelmed with the
process implementation required for utilization of social media. This implementa-
tion includes the identification of personnel to oversee social media as well as vig-
orous and realistic policies. Many emergency management offices are often small
with only part-time or volunteer support staff, which makes new concepts such as
the application of social media challenging if leadership is not passionate about its
use. Rather than seeking out creating and innovative ways to be proactive or at
least reactive, some emergency managers have taken the stance that social media is
simply a fad and will pass along if it is ignored long enough.
Unfortunately, this attitude is shortsighted. The utilization of analytics and
monitoring measurement tools such as Tweetdeck, Google Analytics, and Monitter
will show nearly a constant social media discussion on various issues impacting a
local jurisdiction. This social media conversation will simply grow exponentially
during an emergency or disaster and be occurring all around emergency managers
whether they acknowledge it or not.
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These monitoring tools are free and dynamic
enough to search for certain terms, concepts, and associations to determine how
the public is discussing certain issues, which will ultimately lead to more effective
communications with the public regarding the incident in question.
Lastly, social media is also significantly impacting operational response systems
such as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in the United States
that help define a uniform and coordinated response to emergencies and disas-
ters. Specifically, methods such as NIMS define processes to include the collection,
analysis, and distribution of emergency public information through a command
and control system in which all messages are ultimately approved by a single per-
son with ultimate authority for the overall operations (e.g., Incident Commander
or EOC Manager).
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However, this review-and-approval process is antagonistic to
the speed and formality (or lack thereof) of social media systems such as Facebook
and Twitter.
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No system exists that effectively and efficiently blends operational
models with social media systems, which will continue to be a challenge to emer-
gency managers until adjustments are made to the operational responses systems
that maintain levels of accountability and control without eliminating the benefit
of utilizing social media systems.
Conclusion
Although the utilization of social media systems by emergency management pro-
fessionals is in its infancy, the future benefit and application is nearly boundless.
Emergency managers cannot deny the fact that social media is already being uti-
lized by numerous citizens and media outlets for the monitoring and distribution of
emergency public information. Because of the ever-changing nature of information
related to disasters, social media thrives in emergencies and must be considered in
