Social media can be a powerful tool for disseminating information, a veritable godsend for authorities to contact people… assuming people know the information is there. Let’s review a brief and abridged history;

2005: Hurricane Katrina, NOLA.com (website of the Times-Picayune newspaper, serving New Orleans) and the Biloxi-based Sun Herald legitimised online journalism by receiving the first Pulitzer Prizes awarded to websites for ‘providing a lifeline for devastated readers, in print and online, during their time of greatest need.’ Blogs somehow updated from within New Orleans kept the mainstream media honest. This legitimised the internet as an emergency management tool.

2007: Wildfires in San Diego County, California are tracked by journalists for KPBS San Diego, who were applauded for their efforts to keep residents informed. The Google map that provided a visual guide to the fires is still online.

2010: Twitter proved itself as an Emergency Management tool following the Haitian earthquake, local personalities such as radio and television host Carel Pedre were twittering away, sending short bursts of important information out both to the wider world and the locals who needed it most. Most importantly to this article, it shows the value of mobile internet.

So, social media works in emergencies – the newspaper websites and blogs of Katrina have moved over to include the more immediate Twitter, broadcasting breaking news across the world in real-time. The problem with using Twitter to keep affected people informed is that if they don’t know you’re doing it they may not get the message; the golden rule of social media is visibility.

Visibility: You're welcome, Orlando

This is the situation that the city of Orlando, Florida, is facing as the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season begins. Rolling out just twelve days earlier, the City of Orlando Fire Department Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM) Twitter (@orlOEM) boasted 26 followers as the season opened on June 1st. One week in, and they’ve increased their stock to 40 followers and a timeline averaging a single tweet a week.

I almost followed it until I realised it’d screw up my numbers.

Only one online source even mentioned the account at launch, the Orlando Sentinal, in an article published the day before the season began. The same publication warns on its homepage that ‘Major hurricanes [are] more likely during busy seasons,’ such as the one forecast for this year. With just a few dozen followers, little fanfare, and a hasty release, anyone might think this was a token effort from a town hall that claims, in their own social media guidelines, to want ‘to maintain a moderated online discussion.’ Yet even with this air of tokenism, the OEM intends to roll out a complementary facebook account.

Compare this to the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (@GOHSEP). The account is currently focused on the Oil Spill (you may have possibly heard about it and can read our view on it here) but is legally bound to answer all questions fielded, providing an interesting and constantly moving timeline full of @ messages and announcements. The office considers their 2,052 followers to be low but, as Jennifer Valentino-DeVries over at the WSJ reports, they’re ‘concentrating on responding to people and getting its message out to others who will retweet it. Often, if someone asks a contentious question via Twitter, the staff will take the conversation to Twitter’s private “direct message” system.’ Christina Stephens (the GOHSEP director of communications) gets Twitter.

Michael McCarthy (the City of Orlando’s creative-services manager and social media editor) doesn’t. It’s bad enough for an Office of Emergency Management in a place that tends to get walloped by hurricanes to only have 40 followers – but its just embarrassing to consider that the New York OEM’s announcement of hurricane season was seen by six times as many people. Keep in mind that hurricanes tend to reach NY as gentle breezes and drizzle.

McCarthy would be wise to look at Louisiana’s social media strategy and ask the neighbours for advice; Walt Disney World’s official Twitter account has accumulated over 62,000 followers – that could be one hell of a retweet. Why not simply ask for one? Unless of course there’s been some sort of falling out between the area and the company responsible for driving most of the region’s tourism, which seems unlikely.

These followers are undoubtedly not all locals, but Disney is a remarkably strong presence in the area’s employment and a strong local brand. The local NBA team, and only major professional sports team in the city, the Orlando Magic broadcasts tweets out to over a million followers. McCarthy could use a piece of that action. Once again, these followers will be from diverse areas – but all will have some connection with Orlando (even if it is just liking their jersey colours – which is understandable) and can potentially use this connection to spread the message out even further. It’s often said that important or interesting information will get retweeted, but if you’re the government who helped to fund a stadium, and would be tasked with cleaning up its debris after a hurricane, I’m pretty sure etiquette dictates you can just go ahead and ask for one.

Think of it like a Twitter-based protection racket. Also, nice colours!

This is one of the basic fundamentals of Twitter – get retweeted, get exposure, get followers. A single re-tweet from the official Disney or Magic accounts would undoubtedly increase followers substantially, increasing the effectiveness of the OEM account. After all, what’s the point of a governmental social media campaign if you’re not going to do it properly?

It’s still early days for the OEM social media campaign – most weather based information services don’t rapidly increase in popularity until the weather is rapidly increasing in proximity, and the more traditional emergency warning system already in place works terrifyingly well (weathermen there can tell you the exact time a tropical storm will end while its hitting you; weathermen here barely seem to know what day it is). Equally, hurricanes don’t exactly lend themselves well to sneak attacks – you’re going to know one way or another if one’s on the way. So, maybe I’m overestimating the impact of social media. Maybe social media just isn’t the priority for the Orlando OEM… or maybe they just straight up don’t get Twitter, which is a shame considering these words from Christina Stephens:

“During an evacuation, people don’t have access to computers, but they can get Facebook on their mobile phone. They’re going to use that interface to get information.”

Twitter is more phone-friendly than Facebook, more easily navigated and accessible. By neglecting to properly publicise their account the Orlando OEM is failing in its own commitment to ‘prepar[e] and [inform] all city residents and businesses,’ and hurting its own effectiveness in the event of a devastating landfall. Time will tell.

About The Author

David Shawcross is an Intern for Social Media Library. He has a Degree in History and Politics from the University of Reading.