Emergency Management
In the communication of emergencies, social media is used as an essential role. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram are used by individuals to exchange information, especially during emergencies. The different platforms come in handy in user-generated content, collaborating ideas and people virtually and support of online communities. FEMA runs an application that allows access to safety reminders, weather alerts, disaster resources, and submission of disaster photos. They also run active Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts that enhance the exchange of information among officials and the public during a disaster.
There are further opportunities for social media use where, if implemented effectively, can improve speed, relevance, and accuracy hence greater situational awareness for emergency responders, like the use of the hashtag (#) on twitter to speed trending of a specific topic or figure out an emergency. Combing through social media to verify data, inadequate resources in communicating and managing data, and overload of information are the challenges emergency managers face. In the five phases of an emergency, the better practices for social media use entails having a two-way message distribution in the interaction of participants and their constituents. This is to facilitate distributed problem solving, collective intelligence, monitoring, and response to the blog.
For sustaining the usage of social media, open-source applications can be applied. For instance, a digital operations center has been established with trained volunteers by the American Red Cross to monitor social media in building capabilities. In cases of poor infrastructure, social media has the potential to provide crisis communication (Agency, 2014).
Key Takeaways
Social listening entails searching for open sources of conversations on events to better understanding of public sentiment. I would ensure as an emergency manager to relate with the public so as acquire immediate feedback, identify misinformation, which will further enhance operational decision and communication efforts.
The constant public use of social media for communications is imperative to emergency management. Hence, my lesson here is to fully engage with the public, who are critical in the efforts towards emergency management.
Cost-effectiveness would ensure that the support structure has employees with social media experience and ensure they are in charge of the program. My lesson here is to enhance efficiency as they will be in a position to engage constituents actively and ensure all sites are active and contain relevant information.
Reference
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2013)Welcome to the National Preparedness Directorate National Training and Education. Washington D.C