Planning considerations, real world examples and online monitoring tools for social media monitoring for Incident Command System (ICS) for Public Health emergency response operations at NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

1. Social Media Monitoring for Public
Health Response Operations
Tamer Hadi
Strategic Initiatives Coordinator
Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
@tamer_hadi

2.  Brief Social Media Basics
 Why Monitor Social Media?
 Planning Considerations for Developing a Monitoring Team
o Resources (staff and materials)
o ICS positioning
o Logistics
o Agency and Jurisdictional Policies
 Real World & Exercise Examples
 Social Media Tools & Resources
 Future Direction & Discussion
OVERVIEW

3. Types of Social Media
Social Networking
Blogs / Microblogs
Photo / Video Sharing

4. Current Major Platforms & Users
Facebook: Social Networking (1.2B Worldwide, 158 USA)
Twitter: Follow People / Organization (500M)
Google+: Social Networking (340M)
Pinterest: Virtual Pinboard (50M)
Instagram: Photo /Video Sharing (150M, 4B Photos)
YouTube: Video Sharing (1B, 4B)
LinkedIn: Professional Networking (200M)

5. Tweet Breakdown

6. Tweet Breakdown
Twitter Handle Hashtags
Mention
Shortened-Link

7. Composing Tweets

8. • Trending Topics / Hashtags / Keyword Searches
• Twitter API (“Firehose”, “Decahose”, 3rd Party Applications)
• Streaming / Dashboard
• Geo-fenced Searches
• Geo-tagged Posts
• Sentiment
• Influence
• Crisis Mapping
• Crowdsourcing
Definitions / Terminology

9. 1. Situational Awareness
– Pics, videos, commentary on the ground
2. Assess Success (or Failure) of Public Messaging
– Unanswered questions and reach of agency
3. Rumor Control / Reputational Threats
– Identify and dispel false information
– Respond to questions and mentions ( & ) and issues about agency
operations/services
4. Detecting Public Need or Requests for Help
– Respond or Route calls for assistance through appropriate channels
5. Supplement ongoing disease surveillance
– Identify patterns or trends in public health related needs
Why Monitor Social Media?
(from a PH EM standpoint)

10. REASON 1: Situational Awareness
August 16, 2013

11. REASON 1: Situational Awareness
TRUCK FIRE: August 16, 2013

12. REASON 2: Success & Failure of Messaging

13. REASON 3: Rumor Control / Reputational Threats

14. REASON 3: Rumor Control / Reputational Threats

15. REASON 4: Requests for Help

16. • Hard to do with free, active monitoring tools
• Depending on scenario, creating symptom keyword
searches still worth doing
• MappyHealth (NowTrending.HHS.gov)
• HealthMap
REASON 5: Symptom Trends

17. Building Social Media Into ICS

18. Social Media Monitoring Team (SMMT)
Trained agency staff mobilized during ICS activations to monitor
social media in support of incident objectives.
Purpose of Monitoring Social Media
Provide relevant, verifiable and actionable information
to ICS Leadership

19. 1st and foremost
LEADERSHIP BUY-IN
Planning Considerations

20. • Does agency already have established social media / digital
communications program / presence?
– If not, essential to have this come first
• Does agency have 1 staff that can dedicate 50+% of time to
developing/sustaining this capacity?
– If not, consider hiring consultant, but still sustainability issue
– Expertise may reside in-house, but lack of time to dedicate to project
• Does agency have staff that can be trained and dedicated to
perform this role during emergencies?
– If not, consider the “VOST” concept
Planning Considerations (2)

21. • ICS Positioning – PIO vs Planning Section vs Other?
• Communication - Bet team and sections (bidirectional)
• Reporting – Style, Format
• External Agency Sharing – How? Liabilities?
• Training/Exercises - Ongoing to maintain skills and stay
up to date on new trends
Planning Considerations (3)

22. Software / Hardware / Space Requirements:
- Dedicated space w/ desktops/laptops/projector (virtual possible)
- Remove network security barriers/filters
- Unified email address for team members (e.g. socialmedia@xxxxx.gov)
- “Dummy” accounts on various platforms
- Activation / Mobilization Protocol
Planning Considerations (4)

23. • Kickoff Meeting
 Hurricane Sandy    ( 4 month delay!)
• Vendor-Facilitated Workshop w/ ICS Structure Reps
o Familiarize vendor with agency ICS
o Expand Social Media Monitoring project awareness
o Identify section-specific use cases (e.g. specific keywords, strategic goals
and objectives)
• Reference Guide / Training Binder
• Refresher videos
• In-person training
Outsourcing  Vendor Deliverables

24. • Unit under PIO  Serves all branches of the ICS structure
• Mobilized during ICS activations to monitor social media in
support of incident objectives
• 20 staff trained on tools/techniques to gather info
• 10 permanently assigned/dedicated to this function
• 3-5 staff any given operational period
• Room in HQ dedicated to team during activations
• Goal  Provide relevant, timely, verifiable and actionable
information to ICS Leadership
Social Media Monitoring Team (SMMT)

25. SMMT STRUCTURE
PIO Section Chief
SMMT
Shift Manager
Monitoring
Specialist
Analyst

26. Operationalizing SM Monitoring
Input User-Defined Search Parameters
(Topics, hashtags, people, events)
Analysis / Visualization Tools
(Filter, analyze for relevant info using software)
Human Analysis
(Validate and determine if info requires leadership attention)
Reporting
(Provide ICS Leadership reports in easily consumable format)

27. SM Information Flow

28. 1. SMMT Internal SharePoint site:
o Manual, JASs
o Refresher Videos
o Protocols
o Archive for reports
2. All staff have:
o Full network social media access
o Access to socialmedia@health.nyc.gov
o Access to Hootsuite enterprise account
o Access to @SMMT_DOHMH twitter account w/ relevant lists
3. Room Dedicated for Monitoring after ICS Activation
4. Laptops w/ broadband cards (in addition to desktops)
Resources in Place

29. • Team of volunteers activated to perform specific functions using
new communication and social media technologies in support of an
affected organization and/or jurisdiction
• Each VOST has Team Leader that reports directly to the affected
organization/agency
• E.G. DOHMH could call on trained group of NYC MRC to assist w/
monitoring and provide technical assistance such as:
– Providing general awareness of sentiment and commentary by public
– Identifying relevant mobilized organizations
– Mapping specific incidents or calls for assistance
– Be official message disseminators
Virtual Operations Support Team (VOST)

30. Real World Examples
&
Social Media Tools

31. Example of Twitter Impact

33. • Hepatitis A - Food Handler
– Manhattan Supermarket
– Bronx Chinese Restaurant
Real World Examples
• Super Bowl

34. Hot97 NYC Morning Radio Show

35. SuperBowl XLVIII (NY/NJ)

36. Super Bowl Search Strings
("a cold" OR flu OR sneeze OR sneezing OR cough OR
coughing OR "a fever" OR "my fever" OR "sore
throat")((("super bowl" OR superbowl OR
#superbowl OR sb OR #sb OR #sb48 OR #sb2014)
(boulevard OR blvd)) OR #sbboulevard OR #sbblvd
OR toboggan OR #toboggan OR #tobogganrun OR
superbowlboulevard)

38. • Scenario: Citywide aerosolized anthrax release
• Gave PIO keyword trend summaries and relevant twitter mentions to
evaluate how it would be handled
SAMPLE TWEETS
@nycHealthy Got my medication yesterday, already feeling #better. POD staff were nice 
@nycHealthy I think I have a fever. How do I get my shot without spreading illness to other people?
@nycHealthy I saw a man walk out of the POD and into the grocery store. Is it safe to eat fruits and
vegetables that he touched?
@nycHealthy Standing in line at the #POD, dude behind me offered cash to the staff to be moved to
the front of the line.
@nycHealthy I can’t find any masks that filter out anthrax. Where do I get them? #worried #coughing
@nycHealthy Which is more effective against anthrax Ciprofloxacin or Doxycycline? Where can I get
the anthrax vaccine?
@nycHealthy How do I clean my apartment to get rid of anthrax?
@nycHealthy I started having diarrhea, is this Anthrax taking over my body or a side effect of the Cipro
that I was given.
Functional Exercise: Social Media Injects

39. **** EXERCISE ONLY ***

40. Monitoring Tools – LIVE DEMO

41. Identifying Foodborne Outbreaks Using YELP
• Developed program to analyze text of reviews based on:
o Keywords: sick vomiting, diarrhea, etc
o Multiple people ill
o Relevant incubation period
• July 2012 - began analyzing reviews posted on Yelp
o Yelp provides a feed to analyze reviews for NYC restaurants
o DOHMH contacts reviewers to interview them about their
illness
o Identified and investigated 3 outbreaks from July 2012-March
2013 missed through 311 reporting

42. Using Twitter for Foodborne Illness
Currently working to analyze Twitter data
• Creating program to search Twitter  respond to those that may
indicate a foodborne illness for further investigation
• Ask users to complete a web-based survey which collects:
– Contact information
– Name of restaurant
• Can follow-up similar to 311 complaints

43. Resources
• Twitter Chats/Hashtags: #SMEMCHAT #SMEM #SM4PH
• CDC NPIN Webinars
• http://www.sm4em.org - Cheryl Bledsoe @CherylBle
• http://idisaster.wordpress.com/ - Kim Stephens @kim26stephens
• http://crisiscommscp.blogspot.com/ - Patrice Cloutier @patricecloutier
• http://irevolution.net/ - Patrick Meier @patrickmeier
• http://www.agincourt.us/ - Agincourt Strategies @gbaron
• Emergency Management Magazine - blog
• NACCHO / UPMC Research Paper “Riding the Mobile Wave” (2014)

44. Supplemental Passive Surveillance Tool
• Customized algorithms running 24/7 in background at
health departments
• Triggers alerts when keywords above threshold
• Natural language
• Full “firehose” and geographic specificity
FUTURE?

45. Key Questions:
• Did Social Media information assist with decision making?
• Did it help achieve objectives?
At the very least…
• If SM allows agency to rapidly respond to public
confusion/questions and identify and address rumors that
arise in a timely manner, that is success!
Success?

46. CONTACT:
Tamer Hadi
thadi@health.nyc.gov
347.396.2769
@tamer_hadi (opinions my own!)
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tamerhadi