social media: lessons learned
DESCRIPTION
Francisco Sánchez, Jr. Brian Murray. Social Media: Lessons Learned. Social Media Explained. Began in early 2011 Drive traffic to new readyharris.org site Engage public and raise awareness Build a follower base for future emergencies. A Brief History . - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Social Media: Lessons Learned
Francisco Sánchez, Jr.Brian Murray
Social Media Explained
A Brief History
• Began in early 2011• Drive traffic to new
readyharris.org site• Engage public and raise
awareness• Build a follower base for future
emergencies
• Every organization’s experience is unique. • Trial and error rules!• Demographics will determine
impact.• Every failure is a learning
experience.
Our Best Practices
Our Best Practices
Master One Site FIRST
• All social media sites are not the same. Start with one site and then add others as you learn from your successes and failures.
Our Best Practices
Have a clear purpose
• Do not start a Pinterest page just because everyone else has one.
• Decide what you need a social media site to do for you.
Write for the Medium
• Be concise and be clear• Use simple language and avoid
jargon• Proofread. And then proofread
again• Cover one topic per post
Our Best Practices
Engage the Public
• Ask questions that encourage replies• Respond as appropriate• Use challenges and contests to add
followers• Take advantage of “National fill in
the blank Weeks”
Our Best Practices
Our Best Practices
Be Visual
• Use videos, photos, maps and graphs to help tell your story.
• You are competing with other posts on someone’s wall. Stand out!
Our Best Practices
Integrate SM with other efforts
• Social media is an information appetizer.
• Link users to additional information from your website and partners.
Our Best Practices
Every post should contain one important takeaway
• Confine your posts to the most important nugget of information & direct users elsewhere for more in-depth information.
Our Best Practices
Measure your impact & adapt• Pay for HootSuite or another service
to get insight into your social media penetration.
• Adapt your messaging to what you learn.
Our Best Practices
Promote Your Friends• “Like” and “Follow” partner
organizations and encourage them to do the same.
• Retweet or Share their posts.• Think of social media as a virtual JIC:
Work smart and accomplish your communication goals with less effort.
Our Best Practices
Respond• When the public posts of comments on your
sites, respond!• The public is a valuable source of on-the-
ground intelligence.• Questions need to be answered and bad
information needs to be corrected.• You will get cranks. Do not get into fights
online...ever. • Protect your image. Delete offensive posts.
Automate• Use TwitterFeed or a similar service to
put information directly into your Twitter and Facebook feeds.
• This saves loads of time, communicates while you sleep and allows you to focus on the big picture.
Our Best Practices
Our Best Practices
Twitter: #Hashtag, #Hashtag, #Hashtag!• Adding searchable hashtags helps
maximize your reach! • Hashtags = retweets
Standard Operating Procedures
JIC Standard Operating Procedures - Template
• TYPE OF MESSAGE
• EVENT
• WEBSITE TEXT
• SOCIALMEDIA
• APPROVALS
• DISTRIBUTION
Travis County Labor Day Weekend Fires AAR -
December 2011
“Social media network needs to
established, especially for those
who are not tuned in to their television
sets, and do not have land line phones.”
Travis County OEM. After Action Report: Labor Day Weekend Fires
https://www.llis.dhs.gov/docdetails/details.do?contentID=54495
February 4, 2011Winter Weather Event
• 375,000 website hits
• 19,810 Facebook page views
September 13, 2011 George Bush Park Fire
• Began sending information in the late afternoon
• Posts from residents helped us determine direct threats to the public, road closures as well as control rumors
• Information was verified and then sent back out to the public through web & social media
• #1 trending topic on Twitter that night.
January 9, 2012Severe Thunderstorm Event
• 3-6” Rainfall over Harris County & region
• Tornado touchdowns in Ft. Bend & Galveston counties
• 29 Tweets/RTs with consistent hashtagging
• 11 Facebook posts• 10 RJIC posts - nearly
all information from partners
• #1 trending topic on Twitter that day in Harris County.
• A Houston Dairy Queen owner asked Ponderosa VFD to move its engine because of parking concerns.
This “non-story” pushed #kony2012 off of #1 on Twitter for 36 hours on March 21, 2012.
Social Media is Beyond Your Control
Social Media is Fickle
Questions?