When a crisis strikes, having the right tool to help you communicate with the public and monitor their online conversation is crucial to any government’s emergency response plan. Social News Desk has everything you need to share important safety information online while keeping an eye on the community’s social media conversations.
Here’s a first-hand account from Ashley Turner, social media manager for the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners, on how Social News Desk helped elevate their emergency response during Tropical Storm Debby.
How SND Elevated Our Government’s Emergency Response During Tropical Storm Debby
Ashley Turner, Social Media Manager, Charlotte County (FL) Board of County Commissioners
During our recent activation for Tropical Storm Debby, we leveraged the SND dashboard in our response, and it was an overwhelming success! We displayed our Search & Listen streams on monitors within our Emergency Operations Center and Joint Information Center. This real-time insight was a hit, particularly with our Emergency Management Director and Coordinators. The ability to track public sentiment, real-time photos of impacts and local media coverage about the storm was invaluable.
Charlotte County Joint Information Center Lead Todd Dunn praised the tool, saying, “The capability to add and track social media channels in real-time was an invaluable tool. Using Social News Desk’s Search & Listen function proved especially beneficial as we disseminated critical life safety information and monitored what our community was saying during Tropical Storm Debby. We were able to see live photos, videos, and concerns from residents in real time, all in one place.”
We were able to look up keywords for places where we heard flooding was occurring and see what our neighbors were saying about it. This tool also helped us monitor what other local and state agencies were posting on their social media accounts, ensuring we were aware of and could share their messaging. Having this information populate right before our eyes, instead of having to search individual agencies, was a game changer. The pictures and real-life impacts we saw are also valuable for post-storm documentation and other uses.
Our Emergency Management Director had been wanting to track social media conversations for a while, and this tool allows us to do that in real time. He could come into our Joint Information Center and be able to look up specific areas in our county to see what people were sharing about them. In the midst of storms, we aren’t always able to get out into the field right away and rely on reports from field crews and others for impacts. This allowed us to see these impacts directly from residents, not just our crews.
We are grateful for the product that SND has developed. It has elevated our emergency response capabilities. The tool has been beneficial to everyone in our agency, from our emergency management team to our communications team.
