A 30-minute overview on connecting with your volunteers using social media during all phases of the emergency management cycle.

1. Using Social Media to Engage
Volunteers in Disaster
Tanya Ferraro
@tjlasagna

2. Some things, you can’t stop…

3. The two can come together!

4. Social media is scary…
OMG IDK WTH this says b/c IMHO all of these acronyms are
confusing. FWIW I still say it’s NSFW. LOL j/k.

5. The Big Guys
•
– Short, prompt messages (140 characters)
– Continuous updates
– #hashtags
•
– Longer, interactive messages
– Group dialogue
– #hashtags

6. More Resources
• Visuals
– YouTube
– Vine
– Instagram
• Google +
• Interactive
– Skype
– Voxer

7. They’re already there!

8. What difference does it make in
emergency management?
• Reach people = more resilient community
members
• Educate = people affiliate and STOP
spontaneously volunteering
• Involve = relationship and trust building

9. What can SM do in planning?
• Stay connected
• Provide training
• Control future response efforts
• Involve key players in plans

10. What can SM do in response?
• Alert!
– Twitter alerts
– Facebook posts
• Communicate!
– Voxer (data based radio)
– Google Hangouts
– Skype
• Inform!
– Wordpress, other web

11. Unfortunately…

12. Used by you, for you…
Virtual Operations Support Teams!

13. Basic elements of a VOST
• Information gathering
• Crowd sourcing
• Situational awareness
• Rumor/information control

14. Resources for Social Media!
• http://sm4em.org – Info on using social media
in emergency management
• http://socialmediagovernance.com/ - social
media policies
• http://vosg.us – Virtual Operations Support
Group
• #smemchat every Friday, 12:30 EST

15. Resources for Finding Volunteers!
• Citizen Corps
– CERT
– Medical Reserve Corps
– Fire and Law
• National Volunteer Organizations in Disaster
(VOAD)

16. Questions?
Tanya Ferraro
about.me/tjlasagna
@tjlasagna
tferraro@vaems.org
540-494-4750