This post is Part 2 of 5 in a series of reports on the recent annual conference of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) held November 1-4 in San Antonio, Texas.

The Keynote Address by FEMA Administrator, Craig Fugate, as well as numerous conference breakout sessions, stressed the need for emergency management to begin using social media in its work.  The simplest form of this concept is to monitor things like Twitter feeds for keywords (“hash tags”) that reference a particular incident an emergency manager is working.  Fugate highlighted an incident to which he applied this technique: an explosion had occurred halfway across the country, but Fugate was able to assess within 5 minutes of examining Twitter feeds exactly where the event occurred and that it was a chemical plant explosion, not a obvious terrorist-related event.  Fugate is an avid Twitter user; you can follow him at “@craigatFEMA”.  His mantra is, “Don’t treat the public as a liability; treat them like a resource”.  After all, the public is the true “first responder”.  He finds the public’s social media account of events to be largely accurate, especially when numerous reports cite the same circumstances.

Many of the conference sessions suggested more proactive social media involvement, such as establishing Facebook pages.  In this day of instant information, the public expects details on an incident to be available sooner than in the past.  If details are not forthcoming from officials, fake Internet posts and misinformation start flowing.  It is in a public agency’s best interest to post whatever information is available as soon as possible.  Public agencies that have established a social media site or feed prior to an incident will have a much better chance of getting official statements out quickly and be able to counter any misinformation more effectively.  However, participants were cautioned not to create unachievable expectations that websites will be monitored 24/7 or that they are a substitute for the public to call 911.  Panelists suggested agencies post a notice on their websites noting the hours they are monitored and setting the expectation that during major events the public should not expect immediate aid from an Internet posting.

In the next segment of this report, we will delve deeper into the innovative social media ideas presented at the IAEM Conference.