February 21, 2013 Strategic Use of Social Media On Incidents This net meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. mountain time You must dial in to the conference call to receive audio: Phone Number: Participant Passcode: If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please click on Q&A on the toolbar at the top of your screen, write a message in the box that says Type a question for the presenter and click Ask, we will try our best to assist you. Or Jennifer Jones at or call her at (208)

Strategic Use of Social Media On Incidents Jennifer Jones Public Affairs Specialist U.S. Forest Service, Washington Office, Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center Boise, Idaho

What’s the point of this? To supplement information presented in S403 To develop material that may be incorporated into the all risk advanced PIO training course February 28 Leadership: It’s Not In A Taskbook! webinar has been postponed, new date to be determined.

NIFC PIO Bulletin Board

Topics for future training/webinars Evacuations & Road Closures The PAO/PIO relationship More about VOSTs & how to get one Virtual Joint Information Centers/JIS A research informed approach to incident communications Consistent Messaging Advanced News Media Effective public meetings Stakeholder/cooperator engagement Legislative issues/politics Current issues in wildfire/incident management Unified Command Working with multiple teams on a fire/Area Command

Housekeeping Download documents by clicking on pages icon on right side of live meeting toolbar.

Housekeeping Download documents by clicking on pages icon on right side of live meeting toolbar. Questions will be taken at the end in writing or over the phone To submit a question in writing any time during the presentation: Click on Q&A on the toolbar at the top of your screen, write a message in the box that says “Type a question for the presenter” and click Ask

Michelle Fidler NPS Fire Communication and @T1SWIMT

Kris Eriksen National Incident Management Organization- Portland Team: Public Information

What We Won’t Cover: Why you should use social media What social media tools to use How to use social media tools We begin with the assumption that we all understand the need to engage with social media at some level & that it must be part of an overall strategy.

What We Will Cover: How to build a Web 2.0 Unit in your PIO shop if you have the skills available. How to manage Web 2.0 needs if you don’t have the skills available. Social media transition issues – going from an IMT with a staffed SM effort to an IMT with nothing. Social media – can you or can’t you?!

When To Use? Local standard Evacuations National / International Attention Political Pressure from Governor / President Primary systems crash When your story isn’t in the conversation Every incident is different

Not a silver bullet Don’t give up the traditional Able to update from the field Serves as a backup Tools will come and go Choose the tools that meet your needs How Does it Fit? Part of an overarching information strategy

Where to Begin? Start with a 360 review to determine the need and key partners Sample Monitoring Template - Site(s)Type of Content / Frequency of Updates Host Unit(s) IMT(s) Partner Agencies Elected Officials Local Media Community Organizations Social Media Sites Etc.

Plan Ahead Establish a Protocol Have a Contingency Plan Sample protocol:

Think Through Your Needs Initial Setup – Ordering – Organizing – Publicizing Daily Tasks – Pushing – Monitoring – Engaging Closeout – Evaluating – Transitioning 2013 PIO Incident Organizer -

Intel Gathering Traditional planning cycle doesn’t meet our needs We need to provide “nuggets” of info throughout the day Requires buy-in from entire IMT Can be helpful to embed a PIO in Ops

Comment Guidelines

Building Your Organization Lead GatheringWritingPushing Monitoring Lead Internal Texts WebsiteBlogTwitter Photos VideosMonitoring

E-Trapline InciwebTwitterFlickr Internal Texts to PIOs Media Monitoring Photo by Kari Greer How To Structure? Wallow Fire Case Study : E-Trapline Group Lead PIO CommunityMediaE-TraplineInfo CenterCall Center

How To Structure? The Ultimate! Lead MessagingIntel Monitoring Pushing Make public Products Special Projects MediaCommunity Deputy

Tasks any PIO can do Pushing Messages – Post articles and announcements on Inciweb (which will be tweeted automatically – Autopost Inciweb RSS feed to Host Unit and/orIMT account (optional) Monitoring – Do an initial review of partner sites to identify key resources – Scan Icerocket.com ≥ 1x / day Countering Rumors – Address trending social media concerns in Inciweb articles/announcements I have no PIOs with Social Media skills Engagement Pushing Info Monitoring

How to Ramp Up with More PIOs I have 3-5 PIOs who have skills Cross Train Build a Backup Blog Use Facebook as a force multiplier Share breaking news via Tweets as Texts

What If I Have Nothing? You have some options: Order Use an off-site PIO Ask the host unit Use your partner agencies Create a VOST - Trusted Digital Volunteers

How Can I Find A Qualified PIO? Lead = Able to lead a social media group on an incident Advanced = Regularly use social media tools for personal, office, or incident use Intermediate = Comfortable Using a Variety of Social Media Tools Beginner = Have Training and/or Have Tried Using Social Media Tools Contact: Michelle Fidler Social Media PIO Database

Will a name request be approved? Requesting PIO Qualification, Full Name as it’s Listed in ROSS, Cell: xxx-xxx- xxxx, Home Unit: xx-xxx, Dispatch: xx-xxx, Jetport: xxx) to report at date/time. She/he has advanced social media skills and has the skills and experience to serve as a lead PIO for our multimedia unit. He/she will be maintaining electronic public information incident communications (Inciweb, social media, etc.) and needs to work at location with reliable power, phone, and internet. Her/his work station may move throughout the incident to accommodate this need. Work may be performed remotely at official duty station or off-site locations as appropriate. Travel to the incident is authorized. Rental car, laptop, cell phone, handheld radio, portable printer, and digital camera are authorized. Name Suggest Resource Order Language

Use an off-site PIO Ask a PIO or other person, not on your incident, to help Place an order for someone to work remotely – NWCG Memo on Off-Site/Remote Incident Assignments -

Ask the host unit Twitter Website/blog Other standing social media accounts Front desk or PAO staff

Use Your Partner Agencies Fire Departments Chamber of Commerce Sheriff Other Fire Agencies

Build a VOST Virtual Operations Support Team A VOST is a structured group of volunteers, who’s location is irrelevant, who have been organized by you to assist in providing virtual social media support, under your direction, for your incident.

Build a VOST Virtual Operations Support Team cont> 1.Away from the incident 2.In many time zones 3.Give you distance from social media 4.Give you an invisible staff that can accomplish a huge amount of work 5.Ensure the WO & other VIPs are getting info 6.Can supply you with dedicated eyes and ears

Build a VOST Virtual Operations Support Team cont> 4.Give you an invisible staff that can accomplish a huge amount of work 5.Ensure the WO & other VIPs are getting info 6.Can supply you with dedicated eyes and ears

VOST Concerns Most common concerns about VOST: 1.It’s just more people to manage. 2.What if one of them goes rogue, saying things we don’t want them to? 3.I don’t want to have to make sure what they write/say is correct.

Case Study How We was on autoposts from Inciweb AZEIN posted our updates to autopost from Inciweb Monitored Google alerts and Icerocket Gladiator Fire – One PIO Using Existing Resources

Case Study 1 PIO off-site 1 st few days Relocated to ICP once stable connections established Pushed Messages – Inciweb – NMFireInfo blog, FB, Twitter – IMT & Host Unit Twitter – Incident Facebook Monitored & Engaged – Posted consolidated responses – Mitigated Rumors Little Bear Fire – One PIO Off-Site > On-Site

Case Study Little Sand Fire, CO Me as lead PIO 1 Social Media PIO 1 Deputy running day to day Ops Other PIOs as worker bees Lead Ustream, Groupme SM Inciweb, Products, Messages VOST PIO Ops LO, Inciweb PIO Inciweb, photos, video Deputy Messages, all other day to day

Transition This is a new issue as we move into SM because of the disparity. The key is communication Document all accounts and passwords

How to Transition? First Type 1 IMT on-site used a VOST that disengaged with the IMT left We considered stopping posts when the VOST left We ultimately determined there was still value to feeding sites they’d started We only had 1 PIO to manage so we used dlvr.it to autopost We focused on monitoring and responding to trends Wenatchee Complex Case Study – Transitioning From a VOST

Building Social Media Skills There are numerous resources available – the key is getting started and using the tools yourself.

Issues that remain 1.Can you or can’t you?? 2.Use of Social media is not just a PIO decision.

New (er) Tools Ustream - livestreaming of briefings Direct to FB livestream – available now via iPhone; streams live and posts recorded QR codes – allows for easy access to websites from smartphones Avenza Maps - download geotagged PDFs to your mobile device; GPS shows where you are Ipads – updated mapping from the fireline; also used to record/stream briefings / air attack footage Groupme – group texting to inform PIO / PAOs Google Voice – one number; can designate which cell and/or landlines it will ring to; transcribes voic ; group texting feature Wildland Fire Apps (Red Cross, US Fires, Wildfire Info, CO Wildfire Watch) – mobile access to Inciweb and 209 information

Questions or comments? 3 Ways to Ask Click on Q&A on the toolbar at the top of your screen, write a message in the box that says Type a question for the presenter and click Ask Click on the hand icon and ask your question over the phone when you are called on Ask your question over the phone when I ask if anyone has any questions

Contact Info Michelle Fidler NPS Fire Communication and Education Specialist Supporting Parks in AZ, NM, OK, and TX 3693 S. Old Spanish Trail, Tucson, AZ (520) office (520) cell Kris Eriksen PIO U.S. Forest Service National Incident Management Organization (208) cell

Thank you! Jennifer Jones (208) NIFC PIO Bulletin Board PIO, Little Bear Fire, New Mexico, 2012