1. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
Activity Guide
BASICS OF USING FACEBOOK
ACTIVITY 1: FACEBOOK FOR PREPAREDNESS
STEP 1. A status update can be posted from
your home page or profile page. To get to
either, look for the link in the top right hand
corner of your screen.
STEP 2.Click your cursor in the box that says,
“What’s on your mind?”
STEP 3.Start typing in your message. When complete, click Share.
ACTIVITY 2: FACEBOOK COLLABORATION
STEP 1.Using the search box at the top of the page, type in the name of an organization or agency that you
would like to followsuch as: CDC
or FEMA. For the purposes of
this exercise, please only select a
large federal agency.
STEP 2.Select the appropriate
search result.
STEP 3.Next to the page name should be a “Like” button with a thumbs up. Click this to “Like” the page. If you
do not have a Like button displayed, then you or your page has already selected that they like the page.

2. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
BASICS OF TWITTER
ACTIVITY 3: TWEET
STEP 1.Log-in to www.twitter.com using the username
and password for your organization or the one provided to
your for this exercise.You will be directed to your
homepage. Here you can see recent tweets from users you
follow, your recent tweets, and you can tweet new
messages.
STEP 2.Click in box below “What’s
Happening?”
STEP 3.Start typing your message. It must be
no more than 140 characters.
STEP 4.Check to make sure it lists a
geographic place that is accurate, or click the X
to remove a geographic locator. Then click
Tweet.
ACTIVITY 4: RETWEET
STEP 1.Go to your Twitter home
page by clicking on the Home button
STEP 2.Read through the recent
tweets of users you follow (for this
exercise you are already following
other emergency management
organizations in Ridge County).
STEP 3.Choose the tweet that you feel is the best written and Retweetit by clicking the Retweet button.
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3. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
ACTIVITY 5: FOLLOW ANOTHER ORGANIZATION
STEP 1.Using the search box at the top of you twitter page, type the name of a federal agency that your
organization might want to follow, such as: CDC or FEMA. For the purposes of this exercise,please only select a
large federal agency.
STEP 2.On the right hand
side of your screen, click the
“view all” link next to People
results to search people
instead of tweets.
STEP 3.Select the
organization you were
searching for.
STEP 4.Once on the organization’s page, click the “Follow” button. You are now following this
organization. All of their tweets will now appear on your home page.
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4. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
POSTING MULTIMEDIA
ACTIVITY 6: POST A LINK TO A MAP ON FACEBOOK
STEP 1.Go to www.google.com/maps.
STEP 2.Enter a real address in the search maps field and hit enter.
A pinpoint should drop on the map at the address indicated. If multiple
matches were found, several pinpoints will mark the map.
STEP 3.Link to the map by selecting the Link button, and copying (Ctrl C)
the top URL highlighted.
STEP 4.Return to the home page of your Facebook, remembering to ensure you are still in your business page
and not your personal profile page.
STEP 5.Above the status field, click on the tab that
says Link.
STEP 6.You will be prompted to attach a link. Do
so by pasting (Ctrl V) the URL into the link box and click attach.
STEP 7.Once Facebook populates an image or title for
your link, you can add message to your audience about
the link provided. Click Share to post to your wall.
Using the same steps, you can post links to any public
website.
ADDITIONAL STEPS
Try posting a picture or video from your desktop using the Photo and Video buttons, or share a link to
multimedia using the Link button on the status update toolbar.
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5. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
ACTIVITY 7: POST A PHOTO ON TWITTER
STEP 1.Go to your Twitter home page.
STEP 2.Put your cursor in the box below “What’s
Happening?” as if to post a tweet.
If not already displayed, a small gray icon of a
camera and an icon of a crosshair will appear.
STEP 3.Click on the camera icon.
STEP 4.A file upload window will open. Using this
window, find where your desired image is saved on your computer. Select the image you want to share and
click Open.
STEP 5.A thumbnail of the image will appear below your status bar.
STEP 6.Type in a message (a tweet) to accompany your image.
Your photo will appear as a link in your tweet. Viewers can click on the link to view the image in a new
window, or click on the photo icon or carrot to expand the tweet within the same window.
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6. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
ADDITIONAL STEPS
Twitter also allows users to share pictures from other websites, and post images directly from smartphones.
Flickr.com is a popular website to use for finding
images. When you find an image in Flickr that you want
to share on Twitter, you can easily do so by clicking on
the Twitter icon (called a social plug-in) above the
image.
After clicking on the twitter icon, you will be prompted
to share your username and password for Twitter.
You must “Allow” Flickr to access your Twitter
information, in order use this feature. Accept the terms
and conditions. (You will have to make similar
allowances anytime you want to use a social plug-in.)
After accepting the terms and conditions, a tweet
input field will appear with a pre-populated
message about the picture selected.
Edit the tweet, as desired, and click Tweet to
share it on Twitter.
ADDITIONAL STEPS
To the right of the camera icon is a crosshair. Click on the crosshair to add a geographic identifier to your
tweet. Using this feature allows users to see where you are tweeting from in the world. This is particularly
useful in emergency response when your tweets are relevant to a specific area.
ACTIVITY 8: SHARE AN ARTICLE ON
FACEBOOK WITH A SOCIAL PLUG-IN
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7. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
STEP 1.Navigate to a news website. For the purpose of
this exercise, please use www.wmur.com.
STEP 2.Find an article that you think is valuable to share
with your fans on Facebook.
STEP 3.Look for a share button above or below the
article. These icons allow users to various actions with the
article. Click on the Facebook icon.
On www.wmur.com you can recommend an article, or share
it by posting it to your organization’s wall on Facebook.
STEP 4.Click on share, then select Facebook.
STEP 5. If you are still logged in to Facebook, you will be
directed to a page to edit and confirm that you want to
share your post. Otherwise, the website will prompt you for
your log-in information.
Before sharing a post, click next to
the Shareicon and change your
setting to share “On your page.”
STEP 6.Click Share Post.
ADDITIONAL STEPS
A.Share an article from WMUR on Twitter. Similar to sharing an article to Facebook, click on the Twitter icon;
modify your tweet; and Tweet it!
B.Social plug-ins and shortcuts may look different on various websites and provide different actions. For
example, for Facebook a website may offer you options to Like, Recommend, or Share an article. Visit another
website that has relevant content to your audience. Try sharing a piece of content from your chosen website
on Facebook and Twitter. You can share images, videos, and articles among other types of content.
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8. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
ENGAGING IN CONVERSATIONS
ACTIVITY 9: RESPONDING TO WALL POSTS
STEP 1.Go to your business page’s profile by clicking on
“Profile” in the top right corner.
STEP 2.Look for a wall post on your wall from a local
resident named “Grace”.
STEP 3.Click on “Comment”, or if a comment box
already appears below the posting, put your cursor
inside of it. Type your message and press Enter.
Your comment will be posted on your wall.
ACTIVITY 10:REPLYING ON TWITTER
STEP 1.Go to your Twitter home page.
STEP 2.If someone has recently mentioned you in a post, it may be in your home page feed. To see who has
ever mentioned you, click on the tab @Mentions. This is located just below where you post a new tweet.
STEP 3.Find the tweet from “GraceGTR” and reply to
her by clicking on the small Reply text below her
tweet. You may have to hover over the tweet with
your mouse to see the Reply link.
STEP 4.Type your tweet in the pop-up screen and
click Tweet to complete.
Please note this is not a direct message. It will be posted in both your tweet feed and the feed of the user
referenced. To send a private and direct message, click on the recipient’s profile. Then click on the envelope
icon. A pop-up screen will appear for you to compose your direct message.
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9. DISASTER STRIKES. SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONDS.
AUDIENCE INSIGHT & FEEDBACK
ACTIVITY 11: CREATING A SURVEY QUESTION IN FACEBOOK
STEP 1.Above your status update field in
Facebook (see activity 1), click on the Question
button.
STEP 2.Type in your question.
STEP 3.Click on Add Poll Options. Continue to add
options until all desired options have been listed.
You may also add options after the question has been posted.
STEP 4.Click Ask question. Your question is now a public question that anyone can respond to, or see the
responses to it. You can view your question by navigating to your wall.
STEP 5.Respond to another organization’s
question by navigating to their page using
the search toolbar, finding them in the list of
Pages you like, or by going to your News
Feed (click the Facebook icon in the upper
left hand corner or Home in the upper right
hand corner). If they have posted a
question, it will appear on their wall or on
your news feed if you have liked them.
Respond to the question.
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