Social Media 4 Emergency Management

@CherylBle & @MaryJoFly meeting up in Los Angeles!

At least once a month, I meet up with folks that I have initially met on social media.

And whenever a person who isn’t familiar with social media overhears me say “I’m heading to a Tweet-Up,” I get some very strange reactions.

I’ve had people express concern for my safety, insist that I “check-in” with them upon arrival or return home, or just outright laugh at the thought of meeting strangers.

Ironically, as an Emergency Manager, I meet strangers all the time and no one expresses similar concerns. In fact, nearly every meeting I attend has people that are initially strangers to me.

So, let’s demystify a Tweet-Up.

It is usually comprised of the following elements:

• Attendees have either followed or befriended each other on social media,
• Typically, people follow or befriend others because they have an interest or communication style in common,
• People meet in an informal environment….usually over a beverage of some sort which differs with the time of day,
• People chat about their common interests or whatever is on their mind,
• And then, they part ways….just like any other networking group.

Sounds pretty normal, right?

There is one difference. Rarely have I found people exchanging business cards.

If they don’t already know each other, they usually trade Twitter handles or friend up on whatever platform the group is active on.  And yes, I’ve sat in Tweet-Ups where people connected on Linked In, Pinterest AND Facebook (and they have still been called Tweet-Ups, go figure).

What I love about tweet-ups is that, thanks to social media, I start the conversations already having connections with fun people which means that when we get to hang out “in real life,” we laugh, make memories and spawn ideas about future projects that get us all excited.

Sometimes, in our professions, we get into ruts and spend time around the same groups of people.

When is the last time you hung out with a fresh set of people?  Are you mixing it up enough to find those fresh ideas that make you excited about what you do?

If not, make it a point to spend some time networking.

Relationships Matter.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself recommending online vacations to people that are so “connected” to breaking news that they are exhibiting signs of stress.

While the existence of social media provides us with faster and more information, it also requires that we be stay particularly in touch with both our own mental health and how it affects those around us. In the emergency response community, we are familiar with something called “Critical Incident Stress Management” which encourages defusing and debriefing people who are rocked by crisis situations.

But no one ever debriefs people who engage with critical incidents online.

So, as the community engages, chats online and supports our local response agencies, public agencies must stay in touch with how online sharing and communicating may result in new types of stress among those interacting with critical incident information.  As members of an online community, people may feel stress from:

• Too much information,
• Being overwhelmed,
• Feeling unable to turn the tide of concern or bad news,
• Dealing with the emotions and reactions of others, and
• Fatigue over time in seeking quality information.

It’s important as we involve ourselves in the world of online communications, we consider the importance of:

• Taking breaks away from the computer and being able to unplug from our devices and identities,
• Getting fresh air regularly,
• Incorporating physical activities like taking walks or being involved in sports,
• Ensuring quality food & water intake,
• Knowing the signs of mental stress, and
• Defusing and debriefing with your support network.

And while it may seem rudimentary to refresh ourselves on the signs and symptoms of stress, it is often hardest to see stress symptoms in our own lives. I work regularly with folks who can easily spot stress in the work of others, but when it comes to reflecting the mirror back on ourselves, it can result in blind spots that we are slow to admit.  And, it can be even harder to admit that online connectedness can result in stress.

While it may seem easy to say, “I saw this crisis situation and I AM STRESSED”….but it sounds different to say “I saw this crisis situation unfold on Twitter and it STRESSED me out” especially when hundreds of people may have seen the same information and not have the same stress reaction.

So, simple question…..do any of these symptoms of stress sound familiar when you engage online?

• Memory problems
• Inability to concentrate
• Paralysis in decision-making
• Seeing only negatives
• Anxiety
• Moodiness
• Irritability & agitation
• Overwhelmed
• Aches & pains
• Sleeping problems
• Procrastination
• Nervous habits
• Using alcohol & drugs to relax

If you are feeling any of these symptoms, know that you can and should reach out to people you trust to talk about these feelings.  It is okay to seek out professional help. Healthy emergency responders know that it takes a strong network to support the calling of helping others.  Because social media now truly involves the whole community, it is imperative that we all help each other as a community.  Stress is real and your virtual world can influence it.  Ensure that you break away to stay refreshed.

I had a fun conversation this past week with a friend of mine who is campaigning for public office. She said, “Hey, Cheryl, I’m finally using Twitter and I promise I’ll never tweet my lunch.”

To which I replied, “I think that’s a mistake.” She stopped, looked at me quizzically and said “Wait, what? Are you serious?” And I was.

Now before you comment and tell me I’m off my proverbial rocker, let me tell you what I told her.

People connect with all of us for various reasons on social media, right? Sometimes the reason people start conversations with us is because of the grand importance of the topic we are tweeting about, but for most conversations, they start with something even more basic: a human connection that catches our eye.

When people interact with you on social media, it is because something caught their eye within the 5 seconds their eye ran over your post (whether it be on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or something else). It might even be less than 5 seconds. We probably don’t really want to know how few seconds we have to connect with people before they move onto something more fun or visual.

The reason that food catches people is because we ALL eat, right? It isn’t that complicated really. Food is something that is apolitical, requires no belief, and resonates on an instinctual level. When you see a food picture at 1100 or 1600 hours (no matter what your timezone), you may actually salivate.

Food isn’t the only connector on social media, but it is one of the most popular with cute cats being a close second.

Now, if you are not a restaurant, I’m not suggesting that you focus on getting food pictures into your social media streams. What I want you to think about is “how do I connect with my target audience if my mission-focused posts aren’t catching their attention?”

Here are some thoughts for you to consider:

• When is the last time you shared a non-mission-specific post?
• What is the last FUN thing you shared?
• Are you sharing the content of others?
• Are there topics that are tangentially related to your mission that are fun?
• What do people really want to hear from your agency?  (Hint: Have you asked anyone recently what they would hope that your agency would share on its social sites?)

If you are sharing only “official” information, does it excite you?  Because if your content doesn’t resonate with others, it will never catch the eye of your audience.  It is not a terrible thing to share your lunch if it engages other people.

Once upon a time, I tweeted out a picture of a red stapler while we were cleaning out our offices.  It got more people talking on Twitter than any of my agency’s official messages.  My initial reaction was to tell my boss that I wanted to quit because I share emergency preparedness messaging all day long and no one really cares. But a picture of a red office stapler, which was also a pop-culture reference to the movie “Office Space” immediately resonated with people, tweeting from their offices.  It wasn’t emergency preparedness, but a whole group of new folks connected with our agency on Twitter because we shared something that caught their eye.

The small things can be important. Pay attention to what connects others with your agency. You might be surprised at what those things are.

Credited to the New York Times

This past week was historic for the use of social media in crisis.

And while many articles have already been written about the use of social media in the Boston Marathon bombing and the fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, I want to focus on the role for the rest of us.

If you are in a jurisdiction that is dealing with an incident of national significance, you are busy learning the following lessons:

• The world is watching and wants to help,
• Rumors will run rampant because people try to live-tweet scanners and news broadcasts in crisis events,
• Images and videos, no matter how graphic, will surface, and
• The amount of information available will become a sifting and sorting nightmare, but
• There is now little dispute that the use of social media can rapidly allow agencies to share information and employ the public as additional eyes and ears during significant events.

So, what should the rest of us, as fellow public safety agencies, do?

If you were outside of the immediate impact area, were you quiet on social media this past week or did you seek every opportunity to connect with your local community?

It is important to realize that despite geographic distance from these tragic events, they affect all of us.

Our local community members, no matter where they lived….

• Had loved ones in the local area that they were worried about.
• Tried to find any and all evidence that their loved ones were safe.
• Felt glued to the television or social media seeking the “latest” key information.
• Wondered what they would do if a bomb went off near them locally.
• Would like to know if there are emergency plans in place to deal with a similar situation locally.
• Weren’t sure how to report suspicious behaviors to local authorities. Do you call 9-1-1, FBI or file an online report with a Fusion Center?
• Heard the term “shelter-in-place” for the first time and didn’t know what that really meant.
• Wanted to know how they would be contacted by emergency responders and given critical information.
• Were feeling the weight of the crisis events and some may have felt emotionally fatigued, and
• Wanted to help others.

Granted not every community member falls into each of these categories, but the existence of social media now gives everyone the opportunity to share information, render emotional first aid and react to the world around them.

If you are a public safety agency who is involved in social media, this past week was an opportune time to show empathy, answer questions and provoke discussions around some of these key topics.

Here are some key thoughts:

• Acknowledging the crisis event, in some way, shows that your agency is tuned in and aware of national events.
• Empathetic statements can open up a community dialogue.
• It is always wise to provide reminders about not overloading phone lines, using text messages and use of the Red Cross Safe & Well Reporting website.
• Sharing information about your emergency plans or local resources are much more relevant during a time of crisis (and that window of opportunity evaporates quickly).
• You have a unique & local perspective.  Always be thinking, “what might be most interesting to my community right now?”
• If you pre-schedule any of your social media content, turn it off during an active crisis.  Nothing looks more insensitive than sending out irrelevant content.  Be authentic with your audience.

And, if you aren’t affiliated with a public safety agency, it’s good to revisit “How to Help When Disaster Strikes” to evaluate what is most helpful during crisis.

Crisis events show no prejudice and can affect all of us.  Whether it happens in front of us on the streets or breaks out online while we are watching, consider how you can be of value to those around you.  Like CPR/First Aid, being ready to effectively share on social media requires an understanding of how you can help and a willingness to do it.  Be willing.

This coming Tuesday, April 23rd, from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. PDT, I will be speaking more about social media content development both in crisis and during peacetime.

• We are aiming to stream this session via USTREAM.TV although as technology goes, I always figure that the odds are about 50/50 that something could go wrong, but keep your fingers crossed (and accept my early apologies if it fails to be perfect).
• The hashtag for this event will be #smPDX so feel free to follow along on Twitter.
• If you live near Portland, Oregon, you can attend this event in person by registering at this location  http://regionalpio.eventbrite.com/

This morning, I finished an 8K run/walk called the “Bridge to Brews.” This race takes you over the tallest bridge in Portland called the Fremont Bridge (pictured above) and back over the Broadway Bridge (which is the first bridge in the picture).

Now, if you know me, I’m the most unlikely of athletes. I have short legs and am severely overweight which makes me one of the slowest people in any race. Over the past couple of years, I’ve entered 3-4 races a year, including my first half marathon last December.

Race experiences fascinate me as a sociologist. Every runner and walker is different, but they are all on their own individual journeys. And, while it may seem easy for some, races are primarily mental games. Whether you are trying to beat your personal record or just find the motivation to finish each race, you must jump a number of mental hurdles.

Those hurdles can include:

• Not feeling ready (a person can always work out more to prepare themselves, right?),
• Tough weather (last night, the wind gusted locally to 60 miles per hour and rain was scheduled to pour all day today….this was a tough hurdle for this “fair weather walker”),
• Hitting a wall (getting to a point where you aren’t sure you can continue on due to pain, past injuries, or finding a hill that just seems too steep),
• Falling behind the pack (being discouraged at the possibility of being last….while I’m totally comfortable going at my own pace, I watched several talk themselves out of continuing before they finished their 2nd mile), or….
• Feeling comfortable not being challenged (many people never even enter a race because they’d rather do something else, right?)

I’m not saying that everyone should race, but as I pushed through each of these hurdles today, it struck me that these challenges are so similar to what many agencies face as they seek to implement social media.  The exact excuses I see, hear and try to use about racing are the same excuses that so many in leadership use to avoid supporting or committing to use of social media.

Even in some of the best “user” agencies of social media, I see leaders give tacit support to 1 or 2 people using social media, but don’t actively support it.  While 1-2 champions of social media in an agency can work magic, an agency culture will change significantly and become more open when the leadership actively supports its use and development.

If you sit in a leadership position, you should work to actively engage with your social media champions. You may never feel completely “ready” for the journey of social media and you may find it challenging to stay motivated, but find a rhythm to your learning and engagement.  Even if you never use social media as an individual, learn about how to use it. Actively talk about how and what to share with your constituents. Reflect often on what key messages the public should be hearing from your agency regularly.

I grow concerned when I hear that the only time some public safety agencies share information with the public is during an emergency.  While communicating in crisis is important, building relationships with your community is always better done when stuff isn’t hitting the fan. Trade those business cards AND Twitter handles before disaster strikes and become passionate about communicating with your public.

The starting horn has already sounded and racers are running to keep up with the pace of technology. Are you still sleeping or are you wearing a race bib, looking at the next mile marker?

This past Friday, the #SMEMChat on Twitter focused on the development of social media policies.

And while a number of great links and sample policies were shared, I thought it might be of value to talk about some of the key components you might want to consider if you happen to be tasked with drafting such a policy for a public agency.

First of all, know the difference between a policy and a procedure.

A “policy” or ”directive” governs agency behavior at a relatively strategic level.  You may already have some policies and directives in your agency that simply should be amended to include social media forms of communication.  Keep these as open-ended and non-tech specific as possible.  In order to keep your policies relevant and flexible, identify the type of sharing generically with words like ”messaging”, “social networking”, “picture-based platforms” and “video-based platforms”.

For example, in my agency, we reviewed both our “Electronic Communications” and our “Privacy/Confidentiality” directives.  Both of these policies already outlined expectations for employee conduct, information-sharing and privacy expectations among personnel.

A “procedure” covers the “how we do social media” more specifically.  Procedures or protocols can identify platforms specifically. Though, the more specific you are, the more regularly your procedure will need to be review to ensure it continues to be relevant.

Procedures should identify:

• The parameters of social media use among employees (which should directly relate to your agency’s goals or purpose in using social media),
• Who speaks on behalf of the agency,
• When messages require additional approval or review,
• What is considered “confidential information” that should not be shared (this may include HIPPA issues, identity-based information or other products created in your work environment)
• Your agency’s methods for archiving and ensuring social records are available for public discloure,
• Your agency’s “take-down” criteria for removing or deletion of social content.

There were some policy samples shared during Friday’s chat which include:

• The International Association of Police Chief’s Model Social Media Policy
• Fire/EMS Social Media Policy
• 10 guidelines for Social Media Policies

Also, on the “Getting Started” page of this blog, you’ll find 3 wiki’s that have many different social media policy samples for many different types of organizations.  Find one you like and use it as a base for your agency.

After you get your social media policy and/or procedures developed, there are few other things to consider in their implementation:

• Train your employees.  Not just once, but over and over again.  In fact, the more conversations you have about your social media policies, the more your agency will ensure that it stays relevant to the behaviors and ways employees might be interacting with social media.
• Be clear about how to report emergencies.  If you are an emergency response agency, ensure that all of your social sites clearly identify how your residents can report emergencies.  Because you’ll never want to give the impression that your sites are monitored 24/7 unless your social sites truly are monitored around the clock and information is shared with response personnel.
• Plan to review your social media policies regularly.  I would recommend reviewing these policies annually to see if your goals, behaviors and/or social media expectations have changed.  It is not uncommon for agencies to begin rather restrictively and then become more flexible as their comfort level improves with social sharing.

If, however, you want to jump right into the world of social media with a very open-minded policy, read through two of my favorites: The Navy and the Air Force Social Media Handbooks.

Remember, you aren’t the first person to be tasked with writing a social media policy.  And, just like the world of technology, your agency policies and procedures will be very dynamic. Think about how you want personnel and volunteers to represent the values and mission of your agency in social spheres.  Your reputation is worth it.

There is one question that is asked at nearly EVERY social media presentation and it is always “the resource question.”

It sounds like “How do you have time to engage in social media?” or “How many people does it take to effectively use social media?”

And usually, I’ll be told “I don’t have a social media manager or a public information officer in my agency.”

And I grin and say “neither do I”….but the problem is this: new users cannot compare their usage to seasoned users because the more people use social media, the more they begin to understand how inefficient “traditional” forms of communication are.

Consider how much time & effort you take to answer formal letters delivered to your agency by postal mail. Usually, these involve the start of an investigation, audit, or other formally initiated process, right?

Then, you have email.

By time time an author gives you context for a question, you can have 4-5 paragraphs to read and most folks will try to answer in kind. You could easily spend 5 minutes answering each email in your inbox. When I poll audiences about the quantity of time spent on email replies, I am often told that employees perceive they spend about 40-60% of they day answering email. If you answer email as it comes to your inbox, I challenge you to track the time you spend on email in the course of your day. Being reactive to email will result in spending much more time than you anticipate on email.

Now, let me challenge you further….how many emails do you send in the course of day that have more than 1 recipient? Multi-recipient emails can be very inefficient for accepting responses because your responders have 2 options: They can either “reply all” or reply back just to you. If you are trying to collaborate to find solutions to an issue, individual replies can result in 5 different conversations as a result of your one question.

What about texting? When questions are short, answers can be, too. And how fast can you reply in text? 20 seconds? Social media replies are often as speedy as text replies.

The key to “having time” to use social media lays in giving thought to how you communicate:

• Use email less for collaborative projects and more for direct one-on-one communication or information-sharing,
• Communicate collaboratively with groups, using wiki’s or collaborative documents where input can be added visually without causing long email strings,
• Ask direct questions via messenging-based platforms like text, IM chat or Twitter,
• Be proactive about when you answer email….don’t be reactive about it, schedule time in your day to triage it and deal with it. Then, ignore it when you’re focusing on projects or things you need to get done.  It will still be there for you when you get to your next scheduled triage period,
• Don’t watch social media all day. You can, but you will need to hire another person to get your day job done.
• All social media sites have “settings” buttons in which you can set notifications to email or text you when something important needs to be addressed. Use these features and give some thought to what you truly need to know about right away.  Special hint: What you really need to know about and respond to is often less than you think it is.
• Just like email, set a couple of times per day to respond to your social media interactions.

Another big issue with social media management is how you set your engagement “battle rhythm.”  You don’t need to blog every single day to be relevant.  Evaluate what resources you have and aim to be consistent and realistic.

As emergency management professionals, the one commodity we have is “information”…..and often too much of it.  However, when we begin to share that information with our communities on a regular basis, our “whole communities” have the ability to interact and engage with that information.  It can result in interesting and dynamic partnerships that you may never have considered possible in a email-centric world.

When you serve the public and use social media regularly, your brain begins to focus on “how to share” as opposed to “how to file” that information.

If you aren’t sure if you have the time for social media, begin to assess if you truly are using your time in the most efficient manner when it comes to your communications.

In the world of emergency management, responders commonly manage teams to complete a variety of missions and tasks.

But, for the most part, the people being managed exist “in real life” and communicate via voice, if not face-to-face.

And while large companies have been dealing with virtual teams for many years, this concept is still relatively new to the public sector.

As public sector agencies, we aren’t comfortable trusting what we don’t see.

And this has implications for both social media generally as well as working with teams of virtual volunteers.  And yet, use of virtual teams is becoming one of the instrumental ways to monitor and disseminate public messaging via social media.

By now, you should becoming familiar with virtual groups like:

• Virtual Operation Support Teams
• Red Cross Digital Volunteers
• Crisis Mappers
• Standby Taskforce
• Humanity Road
• Geeks Without Bounds
• Crisis Commons

This weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to work on the Virtual Operations Support Team (VOST) for the #CalCERT social media game that was led by Mary Jo Flynn (@maryjofly & @anaheimCERT) during the California Volunteers CERT Conference.

While the VOST experience will be debriefed later this week among participating team members, I wanted to chat about one particular topic today: Virtual Team Leaders.

First, let me clarify, that Virtual Team Leaders should NOT be the “requestor” for the virtual team.

Those that request the services of a virtual team, like a Public Information Officer, EOC Manager or Incident Commander are principally responsible for identifying objectives and metrics for success…..but these folks are often managing so many spinning plates inside of their operation, that makes managing a virtual team particularly challenging as they can’t often have their eyes glued to a computer screen.

To ensure the success of a virtual team, having a team leader working among the virtual participants can have a marked impact on the overall productivity of your team.

But what is uniquely required of Virtual Team Leaders?

1. Excellent Communiction Skills:  The Virtual Team Leader is the direct conduit from the team to the on-site Incident Command Post, Emergency Operations Center or Incident Management Team.  The team leader needs to be able to understand the outcomes and objectives being sought in the delegated mission.
2. Ability to quickly assess team member skill sets through some simple questions (“Which platform are you most comfortable in using? Do you know how to [fill in the blank]?”)
3. Capable of splitting goals & objectives into clear tasks for team members (to ensure adequate coverage of needed tasks and to minimize replication of activity).
4. Quick decision-making skills to answer questions about filtering information (does this activity meet our overall objectives?),
5. Management skills to evaluate sufficient progress towards expected outcomes,
6. Flexibility to work with varying schedules & levels of commitment (virtual team members may be multi-tasking or wandering in and out of operations….touching base on schedules and ability to commit can be an on-going conversation as Team Leaders may need to seek additional assistance if the objectives aren’t being reached),
7. Ability to mentor new volunteers by training them on how to complete tasks or answer questions as they crop up (never assume team members understand everything), and
8. Be good morale-builders (This is particularly true of long-duration missions because people grow tired and apathy can set in over time. If a team gels well and is able to have fun, even during missions, they will be more likely to stay productive. If morale is missing on a team or it becomes a drudgery, your virtual team may develop some relationship baggage that can cause distractions in future missions.)

What is important to notice is that Virtual Team Leaders can rarely focus on the actual tasks of the assigned mission.  The reason? If you get stuck in the weeds of the mission, you’ll forego some of the leadership responsibilities that are required of any high-functioning team.

So, whether you’ll be defining the mission for a team, being a team leader or working on a virtual team, it is important to understand the roles, perspectives and aims of each of your teams, working on behalf of your community, in an emergency.

One of my favorite quotes from Lao Tzu reads as follows:

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his [or her] aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

This coming week, we have a number of activities that you can watch and participate in to share your knowledge and learn some new skills.

First up is the 12th Annual New Zealand Emergency Management Conference on February 26-27, 2013.

This conference will bring together speakers from Emergency 2.0 Wiki (@emergency20wiki) and the New Zealand VOST with speaker Caroline Milligan (@mm4marketing).

For those of you in the United States, remember New Zealand is 20 hours ahead of the West Coast (so do your math if you want to interact live)

Watch Twitter Hashtag #EMNZ for more information from this conference.

Next up, is the #SMARMIE Conference in New York on Thursday, February 28th.

The website for this conference is http://www.smarmie.com/index.html.

Besides having a genuinely memorable hashtag, this conference also has a lineup of excellent speakers including Patrick Meier (@patrickmeier), Jeff Phillips (@_jsphillips), Kim Stephens (@kim26stephens) and Wendy Harman (@wharman) of the American Red Cross.

While the conference is sold out, you can still obtain the link to watch it live.

The Twitter hashtag is #SMARMIE for this event.

On March 1-2, 2013, a statewide CERT Conference will be held in California with a theme of “Building Stronger Communities Together.”

During this conference, sponsored by California Volunteers, there will be a fun social media exercise.

To learn more about the exercise, click on this website link: http://certcat3.wordpress.com/cal-cert-social-media-scavenger-hunt/.

The Twitter hashtag is #CalCERT for this event.

And finally, there is an active survey about social media & emergency preparedness that you can help by filling out.  This is research project being conducted by Kayla Grayson at the University of Colorado, Denver.

The link to the survey is at www.surveymonkey.com/s/socialmediapublicpreparedness.

Please fill this survey out by Friday, March 1st.  It is short & sweet and will help advance research within our community.

Any other events to share?  Add them here to the comments.  If you have an event to promote in the future, jet a short email to info@sm4em.org for inclusion in a future blog post.

Last week, I wrote about “mistake” tweets. And this week, we experienced several situations where agencies made requests or shared information in ways that provoked conversations about whether the action itself was a mistake.

Situation #1 occurred during the search for Christopher Dorner when a request was made to the media to stop sharing information on Twitter.

While the San Bernadino Sheriff’s Office initially took a lot of heat on Twitter from folks who saw this tweet, I have a few observations:

• A number of media agencies immediately began complying with the request.  They directed their followers to head straight to their television channel for additional coverage, but compliance initially was the action taken.
• This was a request, not a demand.  Public safety officials regularly make requests of the media during active law enforcement situations.  From establishing no-fly zones to embargoing victim names until families are notified, it is not uncommon for requests like this to occur.  There is no active policing of these requests, although in this case, San Bernadino did express gratitude to media agencies who complied initially.  (Note: both this tweet and the appreciation tweets have since been removed from their timelines.)

Law enforcement situations are always tricky on Twitter. While people do regularly tweet out what they hear on scanners, sharing tactical information is always a risk. And, sometimes, as an outsider, you may not even know what is or is not tactical information.  I’ve had occasion to see folks tweet out pictures of SWAT vehicles, revealing location during an active incident, and not even realizing that they may be sharing tactical information.

What public safety officials need to recognize is that they can make requests like this, but the reaction of the public is dynamic. People, not directly involved in an emergency, will often fail to have context for requests like this or misinterpret it to fill in questions they have about the emergency response.

Would I classify that tweet as a “rogue” or “mistake” tweet?  No. I think it was well-intended and sought to elicit help from the media and the public.

Clearly the agency had second thoughts and chose to pull the tweet out of their stream, but this could also have been an educational moment for the public about why requests like this are made. If other agencies consider sending messages like this, be prepared to be responsive to the collateral conversation this can spark. Pre-answering the “why” for requests like this can be considered prior to an incident ever occurring in your jurisdiction.

Lesson #1: Contemplate your communication strategy in advance for law enforcement incidents.

Situation #2 occurred from the @WAStateGov Twitter Account, relative to the news of leaking radiation at Hanford Nuclear Plant.  What follows is the first tweet from the Governor’s Office in Washington State on this situation:

Yes, @govinslee is holding a press avail at 1:30 today. It is NOT AN EMERGENCY! Details coming soon.

— Gov Press Office (@WAStateGov) February 15, 2013

Does a tweet in all capital letters saying this is “not an emergency” instill confidence in anyone? Remember a tweet like this will actually spark attention among your followers. All caps is the equivalent of yelling at people on Twitter. Don’t do it….unless you really mean to yell.

Further, it is basic risk communication advice to choose words that elicit confidence, exhude a sense of calm and illustrate strong leadership.

While social media communications can comparatively be more casual compared to old-style press releases, your followers still expect to see knowledgeable information shared in a timely fashion. A tweet all in caps without additional information for 30 minutes until the next tweet was issued could have resulted in a painful backfire for this agency. Fortunately, the followup tweet was reshared many more times and didn’t have any capital letters.

Lesson #2:  Don’t ever use all capital letters in a social media communication unless you really are yelling at your audience.   And even then, you have to ask yourself if yelling is ever the right move.

My guess is that if you think about your social communications in advance of an emergency situation, you’ll feel more confident about what to say and how to say it.