Webinar Replay: Social Media Tools for Effective Emergency Response

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah Loyd: Thank you for joining us today for our webinar, social media tools for effective emergency response. My name is Sarah Loyd, and I’m thrilled to have you join us today for this important session. We have a packed agenda designed to help you harness the power of social media in your emergency management efforts.

If you have questions, please drop those into the questions box as we go through today and time permitting, we will answer those at the end. Before we get started, just a little bit about us. Social News Desk is the only social media management software that’s purpose built for important business. We were founded in 2010, and since then we’ve proudly supported America’s largest news companies, cities, government agencies, universities, and businesses who require powerful, always-on social media tools.

Social News Desk helps organizations save time with a one stop shop for social media publishing, take control of their entire social footprint in a single easy to use dashboard, stay informed and engaged with the community around them with social listening tools, demonstrate value to stakeholders with powerful reporting and gain peace of mind with our always ready human support team.

And a little bit about me. I’m Sarah Loyd, the head of product success and evangelism here at Social News Desk. I’ve been with the team for 10 years now. And prior to joining SND, I managed social media. And worked in several newsrooms. And I was actually a Social News Desk customer before I joined the team.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. The address is there on the screen. And I was hoping today to be joined by Ashley Turner, the social media manager for the Charlotte County, Florida board of commissioners, but unfortunately, Ashley is in the middle of an emergency of activation right now for hurricane Helene, and so we’re wishing her and all of our friends and colleagues around the Gulf coast, all the best as they grapple with that today.

So let’s jump right in and talk about how you can prepare your social media accounts and your audience for an emergency. It’s crucial to start planning and laying the groundwork for emergencies before they happen so that you can save time and execute the plan when seconds count. 

According to FEMA’s National Information Management System Basic Guidance for Public Information Officers, risk communication campaigns can help make the public aware of risks ahead of time in order to help them prepare for hazards in advance.

Before an emergency occurs, PIOs should inform the public about local hazards, prevention, family preparedness, and response activities. Social media campaigns are a huge part of educating the public in advance on what to do in an emergency. 

Examples of risk communication campaigns can include all hazards preparedness, family or business emergency plans, hazmat awareness, messaging for people with low English proficiency, disabilities, or access and functional needs, severe weather awareness, and exit drills in the home. Regardless of the type of emergency, there are common challenges that government communicators face. 

Early on, there may be a lack of confirmed information, which can lead to social media rumors and questions, as well as misinformation out in the community.

There’s also great pressure from both the media and the public to respond to questions and to get more information. If an agency is disorganized, it can be a challenge to find all of the correct passwords and ensure that information is being shared from the correct account. It’s also time consuming to share content across multiple social media channels and ensure that all accounts stay up to date.

And finally, it’s critical to get the correct information out in a timely fashion. A PIO is always prepared with a go kit for emergencies, and your social media accounts shouldn’t be any different. Your social media go kit should include several key features. First, it should give you a way to centralize all of your social media publishing in one place.

Social News Desk allows you to centralize Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and more. threads and next door publishing all together so you can save time sharing content when it counts. Building templates for emergency messaging can help you shave time off of initial communications. Whether it’s a template for a ready statement or a graphic that’s already prepared for weather or traffic alerts, having templates in place in advance can help you stay organized when an emergency hits.

Having mobile access to all of your accounts through your social media management tool allows you to update residents wherever you are. So even if you can’t get to your computer, you can still stay on top of the situation. And finally, a tool with social listening capabilities lets you tap into local conversations, To give you better insight into emergencies before, during, and after the event.

This can help you monitor misinformation, deploy resources, and supplement your post event reporting. Social media is still one of the quickest, most effective ways to communicate with the public during an emergency. Media outlets often rely on social media for information in a crisis as well in between formal media briefings, and it falls on social media and communications managers to connect agencies and municipalities to their citizens and the people they serve.

So which platforms are people turning to when an emergency happens? Facebook has more than 3 billion monthly active users worldwide and is still by far the most commonly used social network. While Facebook’s News Feed doesn’t necessarily display information in a linear fashion, your Facebook page can be a consistent resource for people who may have less awareness about the resources on your website.

You can encourage residents to check in with your Facebook page in order to get the latest information from your agency or municipality. One in three households are active on Nextdoor, with more than 85 million neighbors on the platform. Nextdoor’s advantage is that it’s an opt out platform, which means neighbors are automatically connected to the agencies and municipalities that serve their neighborhood.

Many media outlets also use next door listening via Social News Desk to learn what public agencies are sharing. And while many residents are not on X, media outlets tend to still use this platform to get updates from public agencies during an emergency. When an emergency occurs, there are a few simple steps to handle it effectively on social media.

First, designate a point person to handle social media and make sure they’re in the loop during ongoing emergency operations discussions. Connect your point person with stakeholders in the appropriate municipal departments to confirm information, get updates, and ask questions as necessary. Having one point person to handle social ensures unified messaging across all social channels without having too many cooks in the kitchen.

Be sure to pause all scheduled or automated content for all of your social accounts for the duration of the emergency. That way, only critical information is being shared, reducing noise, and ensuring a unified voice. Using a single social media management tool helps with this. Craft unified messaging and route all official communications through your main social accounts.

If necessary, publish content on any other involved agency or municipal pages to encourage followers to check the main page for updates. As the emergency unfolds, be transparent and timely with your updates. In situations where your agency is directly affected, your organization should be the first to communicate in order to control the message.

Update as frequently as possible. Regular updates can help counter misinformation. And be as right as you can with the information you have at the time. If you make a mistake, own up to it and move on. The public is much more likely to forgive a mistake than a coverup. It’s generally understood that what we know about an emergency will change as the situation continues to develop.

So be flexible in correcting and updating misinformation, promote action, give simple, clear requests. If you need to motivate people to do something such as evacuate now, or go inside and stay inside. The community wants to feel like they can help in a situation, and giving instructions can help them feel empowered.

Use plain language and avoid jargon whenever possible. This helps to keep your messaging clear and focused, so citizens will understand the actions they should take, if any. And use visual content in order to grab the attention of people scrolling through their social media feeds. Maps, infographics, videos, and images can all help convey information more effectively than a huge block of text.

As the situation unfolds, you may consider editing your social posts, if possible, to reflect updated information. This is important for situations where a call to action is no longer applicable, such as a shelter in place order. While getting your message out effectively is crucial in an emergency, it’s also important to hear what’s happening out in the wider community.

Social listening tools can help you stay in touch with your residents and also keep tabs on messaging from other agencies during the emergency. Use social listening tools to monitor social media comments and replies. Using a dedicated tool like SND’s Search and Listen can also help you to monitor the overall conversation during an emergency.

SND’s Search and Listen tool gives you the capability to monitor four different social networks. On Facebook, you can search for any public Facebook page and even build a list of other local, state, and federal agencies you’d like to monitor. 

We also have a database of first responders across every state in the U.S. and media outlets in all 210 Nielsen designated market areas in the country. Through our partnership with Nextdoor, we’re able to offer the ability to search for other municipal and state agencies pages so you can keep track of their messaging. You can also monitor next door conversations from neighbors in any neighborhood in the United States, and even do a keyword search for a specific location.

For instance, you might search for storm damage or flooding during a weather emergency to monitor storm reports from neighbors. On Instagram, you can search for any public Instagram business or creator account. And on X, you can either perform a keyword search around a particular topic or open up a Twitter list right on your dashboard.

As you monitor the conversation, pay attention to what citizens are asking in the comments or in your mentions. Using a tool like SND’s Universal Inbox gives you a quick, up to the minute view of social media comments and messages. This can help guide any questions you’re asking other departments to get information.

Responding to citizen questions when you’re able also lets them know that you’re listening. Be sure to express empathy in any posts or responses during an emergency. Be sensitive to all those affected as well as their families who are likely looking for updates on social media. Sometimes people will lash out in the comments, but that’s usually because they’re seeking more information.

Updating regularly with empathy can help to mitigate harsh comments from the community. As necessary, respond to comments if you need to address misinformation or answer questions. Correct misinformation in the comments if it’s manageable, or consider creating content and sharing from your main pages if there are rumors circulating in the community.

Again, we want to be transparent and timely in order to cut down on opportunities for misinformation to spread. All right. And since Ashley Turner couldn’t be with us today, I’m going to take you through a brief case study of Charlotte County’s recent activation for Tropical Storm Debbie. And of course, Ashley is currently in an activation for Hurricane Helene.

So she is probably going through much of the same thing today that she did in recent weeks. During the event, they leveraged the SND dashboard in their response, and Ashley tells us it was an overwhelming success. They displayed selected search and listen streams on monitors within the Emergency Operations Center and Joint Information Center.

This real time insight was a hit with their staff, particularly with their Emergency Management Director and coordinators. Ashley says the ability to track public sentiment, real time photos of impacts, and local media coverage about the storm was invaluable. Now this is how the EOC has search and listen set up.

You can see that they have several next door streams open, including keyword searches for flooding and storm in a 20 mile radius around their location, plus their own next door feed to monitor what’s been shared already. They also have search and listen streams for Facebook set up with a page search, including local and state agencies in their area and the Fort Myers Naples media market to keep track of what local TV and newspapers are posting throughout the event.

Charlotte County Joint Information Center lead, Todd Dunn, praised Search and Listen, saying “the capability to add and track social media channels in real time was an invaluable tool. Using Social News Desk’s Search and Listen function proved especially beneficial as we disseminated critical life safety information and monitored what our community was saying during Tropical Storm Debbie.We were able to see live photos, videos, and concerns with residents, from residents in real time, all in one place.” 

Ashley tells us that the staff in Charlotte County was able to look up keywords for places where they heard flooding was occurring and see what neighbors were saying about it. Search and Listen also helped them to monitor what other local and state agencies were posting on their social media accounts, ensuring that they were aware of and could share their messaging.

Ashley says, “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.” Charlotte County’s Emergency Management Director had been wanting to track social media conversations for a while and Search and Listen allows them to do that in real time.

The director can come into the Joint Information Center and be able to look up specific areas in the county to see what people are sharing. In the midst of storms, they weren’t always able to get out into the field right away, and they relied on reports from field crews and others for impacts. Search and Listen allowed them to see those impacts directly from residents and not just their own crews.

Ashley tells us, “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.” And Charlotte County is just one customer who is putting SND through its paces every day.

Social News Desk is battle tested by thousands of communicators daily in municipalities, school districts, universities, journalism, and meteorology. Our consolidated social media tool allows for updating multiple channels at once. And since social accounts are onboarded in advance, users already have access to the accounts they need to get the job done without sharing passwords.

This helps to reduce errors and keeps users from accidentally publishing to personal accounts. Our easy to use tool allows for quick updates and a comprehensive view of all scheduled posts, making it easy to pause any upcoming content in the middle of a crisis. 

I’m going to take a look at our question box here. While those are coming in, if you’d like more information about Social News Desk, you can visit our website at socialnewsdesk.com or email us at info@socialnewsdesk.com. 

If I set up as a set of search and listen streams on my dashboard, can I share them with my staff? 

That’s a great question. Yes, you can share a tab and all of the streams within it with any other Social News Desk user using the three dot menu at the top of the tab. They’ll get a copy of the tab on their dashboard and then from there they can edit the tab independently if they want to add or modify a search column or remove a column and it won’t affect your original tab on your dashboard.

Does SND have a mobile approvals tool in case I still need to approve posts during an emergency? 

Yes, absolutely. If a post is submitted for approval through our approvals workflow, the approver will get an email notification that the post is ready for review, and then you can review and approve or reject the post right from your phone.

Which social networks can I monitor with Search and Listen? 

You can keep track of any public Facebook page, including other public agencies or municipalities. And, of course, we have that database of Facebook pages for first responders in every state, as well as local media in every Nielsen DMA.

And then for Nextdoor, you can monitor other state and local agencies. You can see what neighbors are saying in any city in the U.S. You can search for a location. You can drop a pin and then set a radius. And of course, you can search for keywords within that radius. And we’re actually one of the only tools that allows you to monitor next door content.

And then with search and listen, you can also do keyword searches on X or you can monitor any Instagram business or creator account. All right, next question. 

What is the best way for our team to see posts that other team members schedule in advance? 

There are several ways that your team can keep track of your upcoming scheduled posts and then reschedule if needed.

You can first set up a scheduled post stream on your dashboard, which is a list of any upcoming scheduled posts, and you can edit or delete from there. You can use planner to view scheduled post and reschedule to another time on the same day by dragging and dropping that post on the schedule, or you can use our calendar tool to reschedule post again to later the same day, or even to another day or another week again, just by dragging and dropping that post to a new day and time.

Any tips for rescheduling posts in an emergency situation? Are there quick ways to do that? 

So, yes, dragging and dropping the post to a new time of day, new day or time on calendar or planner is probably going to be the easiest way to reschedule content. You can also edit the post and then save it as a draft and reschedule it later on.

If my team member is out in the field during an emergency, is there a mobile app to allow them to post on the fly? 

Yes. SND Post is our mobile app and it’s available for iOS and Android. It allows you to post from anywhere to all eight of our supported social networks. And it ties into your scheduled posts as well.

So if you need to reschedule a piece of content, you can do that even if you’re not at your computer. 

Once the emergency is over, does SMD provide reporting or analytics tools that allow us to see how our content and accounts performed? 

Yes, absolutely. You can use Post Manager to track individual post performance across all of our supported social networks.

And you can even search by keyword to find a specific piece of content. We also have an internal meta tagging tool. So you can tag posts as they’re going out, or you can use Post Manager to go back and tag them later and then pull a report for just those tagged posts. So if you wanted to pull posts for a particular event that has that meta tag attached it makes it really, really easy to do that.

All right. I am not seeing any other questions. If you do have any questions after the fact, you’re welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn. Sarah Lloyd with one L or you can email us at info@socialnewsdesk.com and someone from our team will be happy to answer any questions that you have.