Social Media Operations&

Virtual Operations Support Team

Mackenzie Kelly, Williamson County OEMLach Mullen, Fort Bend County OEM

Overview

• Why Social Media is Important• Who uses Social Media• Gathering intelligence• Bringing it into operations• Virtual Operations Support Team• Sharing information

Why is Social Media Important?

• Direct, Two-way communication • Engagement• Share Information• Ask questions and get feedback• Public

Who uses Social Media?

• 200 Million on Twitter• 845 Million on Facebook• 90 Million on Google+

• 96% of Generation Y joined a social network.

• 20% of marriages last year met online

• 50% of the world’s population is under 30

(Not so) Fun Fact!

• Average age of patients infectedby H5N1 is 20 years, across over 160 cases.

Displaying Social Media

• Searches– YourOpenBook.org– http://www.facebook.com/search.php– Search.twitter.com

• Tools– TweetGrid -Tweetchat– TweetDeck

What to look for

• Locations• Authenticity

– Authority– Sincerity– History– Evidence

• Photos• Videos• Descriptions• Location

Evidence & Sincerity

Hutto, TX Train Wreck posted on Twitter before EM responders arrived

“Miracle on the Hudson”posted on Twitter 27 minutes before

FAA internally confirmed crash

Authority & History

Digging Into the Information

• Legal methods– Public data– Search engines– Cree.py– Pipl.com

• No-no’s– Social engineering– Non-official accounts– AKA, CYA

Sorting the Information

• Know your search operators– “” (Exact/Include)– | (or)– AND (&)– - (Exclude)

• Google-fu– Site:twitpic.com

Sorting the Information

• Mapping– View User Profile Information– Pulling Picture EXIF Data - http://regex.info/exif.cgi

– Pulling location data natively

Sorting the Information

• Hashtags– Custom, on-the-fly categories– Created by users– Curate them!

Sorting the Information

• Crowd-sourcing– Ask for help from trusted sources (VOST)– Don’t bypass ICS inadvertently– Ask your followers for help• Ask questions• Let them know what is going on

Leveraging the Public

• Damage assessment– Technical information– Photographs

• Infrastructure Outages– Map reports– Request updates

• Operational Picture

Leveraging the Public

• Tell them what you want• Tell them how you want it– Hashtags– Categories– Mentions

• Tell them when you want it• Give them something in exchange• Educate them on your processes (PIO)

Social Media Police Scanner

• “Odessa” “Fire”• Shooting• Tornado• “Thunder” OR ”Lightening” OR ”Lightning”• #UTShooter• #txwx / #wilcotx / #wilcowx /#okwx• #txfire / #okfire

Monitoring Operational Security

• Key words• Hyper-local search– TrendsMap– Streamd.in– TwitterVision

Gathering Intelligence

• Information / Intelligence– Work with PIO– Work with Operations Section– Maintain board of figures– Communicate back to Planning Section Chief

Gathering IntelligenceTips for Success

• Staff the position• Work with OEM, IT & HR ahead of time – Create Social Media policies

• Invest in equipment• Practice “beat the media”• Develop job aids – Know your tools

Gathering Intelligence

• Staff the position

PIO

APIO Information Gathering

Planning Section Chief

Information / Intel

VOST

Virtual Operations Support Teams

• Trusted agents• Work with the PIO, Operations and Planning

sections– Extend communication capabilities– Bring information into the EOC– Provide support

Virtual Operations Support Teams

• Functions– Establish & monitor social media– Communicate with the public– Donation and Volunteer Management support

• Benefits– Tangible support to agencies and the communities

impacted by events

Virtual Operations Support Teams

• Examples– Williamson County March 19th Severe Weather– 2011 Oregon Shadow Lake Wildfires– Vermont Response• Tropical Storm Irene • http://vtresponse.wordpress.com/

Internal Information Sharing

• WebEOC boards• Internal 213 GM forms• Briefings for section chiefs• Whiteboard• Google Docs

Public Information Sharing• Facebook

Public Information Sharing• Google Maps

Preparing WilCo Facebook Page follower Lynda King shared her appreciation for creating a map of the

road closures in Williamson County.

Public Information Sharing• Ushahidhi/ CrisisMap

Other Issues

• Open floor for discussion

Mackenzie Kelly

Lach Mullen

This Presentation