Tag Archives: emergency management

I believe that public safety agencies have an implicit obligation to keep our citizens informed and educated about impending harm, e.g., hurricanes, tornados, severe flooding and the like. But more than that, when necessary, we also have an obligation to give them unambiguous instructions on what actions they need to take to protect their lives.

There is a lot more that can be done to use social media in a community emergency, but this should be a good “starter kit”. So what are you waiting for? Your community emergency, either man-made or naturally occurring, is “just around the corner”.

While WBT and social media apps can greatly enhance your community's ability to recruit and mobilize resources in "real time" following an event generator, don't wait until the event happens to put a system in place beforehand. Start now to create a marketing plan to inform and educate the public about how your community will use social media when an EOP/COOP/COG event strikes the community.

In the past couple of years, many communities have been faced with torrential rains and flooding. As we've seen in the most recent flooding in Colorado, we are exposed to a huge risk when it comes to emergency response to both the slow rising water type of flooding and flash floods.

By choosing to use social media tools to engage the stakeholders in its community in developing the Community Risk Reduction plan, Cutting Edge County is giving those same stakeholders an opportunity to become skilled and practiced in their use.

The emergency management community has only just begun to utilize social media networks to capture the collective knowledge of the public during natural disasters and other emergencies to direct response and save lives. But to do this effectively and efficiently your organization and community need a social media strategy. Merely adding a Twitter or RSS feed to your emergency management plan is not a strategy.