1. Social Media Operations & Virtual Operations Support Team Mackenzie Kelly, Williamson County OEM Lach Mullen, Fort Bend County OEM

2. Overview Why Social Media is Important Who uses Social Media Gathering intelligence Bringing it into operations Virtual Operations Support Team Sharing information

3. Why is Social Media Important? Direct, Two-way communication Engagement Share Information Ask questions and get feedback Public

4. Who uses Social Media? 200 Million on Twitter 845 Million on Facebook 90 Million on Google+

5. 96% of Generation Y joined a social network. 20% of marriages last year met online 50% of the world’s population is under 30

6. (Not so) Fun Fact! Average age of patients infected by H5N1 is 20 years, across over 160 cases.

7. Displaying Social Media Searches – YourOpenBook.org – http://www.facebook.com/search.php http://www.facebook.com/search.php – Search.twitter.com Tools – TweetGrid-Tweetchat – TweetDeck

8. What to look for Locations Authenticity – Authority – Sincerity – History – Evidence Photos Videos Descriptions Location

9. Evidence & Sincerity Hutto, TX Train Wreck posted on Twitter before EM responders arrived “Miracle on the Hudson” posted on Twitter 27 minutes before FAA internally confirmed crash

10. Authority & History

11. Digging Into the Information Legal methods – Public data – Search engines – Cree.py – Pipl.com No-no’s – Social engineering – Non-official accounts – AKA, CYA

12. Sorting the Information Know your search operators – “” (Exact/Include) – | (or) – AND (&) – - (Exclude) Google-fu – Site:twitpic.com

13. Sorting the Information Mapping – View User Profile Information – Pulling Picture EXIF Data - http://regex.info/exif.cgi http://regex.info/exif.cgi – Pulling location data natively

14. Sorting the Information Hashtags – Custom, on-the-fly categories – Created by users – Curate them!

15. Sorting the Information Crowd-sourcing – Ask for help from trusted sources (VOST) – Don’t bypass ICS inadvertently – Ask your followers for help Ask questions Let them know what is going on

16. Leveraging the Public Damage assessment – Technical information – Photographs Infrastructure Outages – Map reports – Request updates Operational Picture

17. Leveraging the Public Tell them what you want Tell them how you want it – Hashtags – Categories – Mentions Tell them when you want it Give them something in exchange Educate them on your processes (PIO)

19. Social Media Police Scanner “Odessa” “Fire” Shooting Tornado “Thunder” OR ”Lightening” OR ”Lightning” #UTShooter #txwx / #wilcotx / #wilcowx /#okwx #txfire / #okfire

20. Monitoring Operational Security Key words Hyper-local search – TrendsMap – Streamd.in – TwitterVision

21. Gathering Intelligence Information / Intelligence – Work with PIO – Work with Operations Section – Maintain board of figures – Communicate back to Planning Section Chief

22. Gathering Intelligence Tips for Success Staff the position Work with OEM, IT & HR ahead of time – Create Social Media policies Invest in equipment Practice “beat the media” Develop job aids – Know your tools

23. Gathering Intelligence Staff the position PIO APIO Information Gathering Planning Section Chief Information / Intel VOST

24. Virtual Operations Support Teams Trusted agents Work with the PIO, Operations and Planning sections – Extend communication capabilities – Bring information into the EOC – Provide support

25. Virtual Operations Support Teams Functions – Establish & monitor social media – Communicate with the public – Donation and Volunteer Management support Benefits – Tangible support to agencies and the communities impacted by events

26. Virtual Operations Support Teams Examples – Williamson County March 19 th Severe Weather – 2011 Oregon Shadow Lake Wildfires – Vermont Response Tropical Storm Irene http://vtresponse.wordpress.com/

27. Internal Information Sharing WebEOC boards Internal 213 GM forms Briefings for section chiefs Whiteboard Google Docs

28. Public Information Sharing Facebook

29. Public Information Sharing Google Maps Preparing WilCo Facebook Page follower Lynda King shared her appreciation for creating a map of the road closures in Williamson County.

30. Public Information Sharing Ushahidhi/ CrisisMap

31. Other Issues Open floor for discussion

32. Mackenzie Kelly

33. Lach Mullen

34. This Presentation