This document discusses social media monitoring and how it can help during emergencies. It introduces VOST, which stands for Virtual Operations Support Team. VOST is a group of trained volunteers around the world that can conduct social media monitoring on behalf of emergency responders. During emergencies, everyone will be talking about the event online but responders are too busy to monitor social media themselves. VOST volunteers can monitor platforms, identify trends, rumors and useful information and report their findings to emergency responders, helping them gain situational awareness and manage public communications during the response. The document provides examples of where VOST has assisted with emergencies in the past.

1. Social Media
Landscape
James Garrow, PHLPublicHealth

2. Overview
● where is everyone?
● what are they talking about?
● how can we hear them?
● demo time
● no, really, how can we hear them?!

3. where is everyone?
online statistics

10. facebook.com stats

12. twitter.com stats

14. instagram.com stats

16. what are they talking
about?
social media messages & why it’s important

17. friends and family

18. http://www.getelastic.com/how-people-use-facebook-infographic/

19. one to many &
breaking news

20. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2014/04/12/you-dont-need-to-tweet-to-use-twitter-so-
why-is-everyone-bothered-few-do/
Facebook is, at its heart, a place where you interact mostly with people you
know gives it more of a “many to many” feel, which is why I suggested the 90-
9-1 rule won’t hold as precisely there. Twitter, at its heart is where Lady Gaga,
Ashton Kutcher and Kim Kardashian talk to their millions of fans. It’s mostly
“one to many” with the occasional moment where someone in the “one”
responds to someone in the “many.” If you never do anything but follow people
you like, Twitter could bring you a world of interesting things. If you never
share anything on Facebook, by contrast, you’re either a voyeur of sorts or
probably just not very active on the service.

22. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2014/04/12/you-dont-need-to-tweet-to-use-twitter-so-
why-is-everyone-bothered-few-do/
Facebook is, at its heart, a place where you interact mostly with people you
know gives it more of a “many to many” feel, which is why I suggested the 90-
9-1 rule won’t hold as precisely there. Twitter, at its heart is where Lady Gaga,
Ashton Kutcher and Kim Kardashian talk to their millions of fans. It’s mostly
“one to many” with the occasional moment where someone in the “one”
responds to someone in the “many.” If you never do anything but follow people
you like, Twitter could bring you a world of interesting things. If you never
share anything on Facebook, by contrast, you’re either a voyeur of sorts or
probably just not very active on the service.

23. Seth Mnookin, one reporter who chronicled
the manhunt for bombing suspects in
Boston, told Twitter data editor Simon
Rogers, “for those three or four hours when
a gunman was on the loose and a
neighborhood was under siege, Twitter was
the most efficient way to get information out
to the public.”
http://readwrite.com/2013/11/14/what-is-twitter

24. pictures!

27. how can we hear
them?
social media monitoring

28. #free

29. #paid

30. demo time
hootsuite & topsy

31. no, really, how can we
hear them?
asking for help

33. Virtual
Operations
Support
Team

34. In the event of an emergency…
● Everyone online will be talking about your emergency
● You will not be able to read, watch, view, monitor, respond, fact
check, rumor control, gain situational awareness, control the
message, or get ahead of things
● You have a regular emergency response job that has, you
know, tasks
● You work for local agency and they haven’t seen fit to throw
tens of thousands of dollars per month at monitoring software
● Social media will be a critical part of how your response is
remembered

35. VOST is…
● Trained, trusted volunteers (who have traditionally been local
emergency managers)
● From, ideally, around the world for 24 hour coverage
● Conducting social media monitoring on behalf of your response
● Using community- and response-produced hashtags and
search terms
● Reporting trends, hot topics, rumors and actionable intelligence
to the PIO using standard ICS forms (205A and 214)

36. VOST has been implemented for…
● Shadow Lake, OR wildland fire
● 2015 Alpine World Ski Championships
● NYC 2nd Avenue Building Collapse
● Australian wildland fire season 2014 and 2015
● NEMA conferences 2013 and 2014

37. for more info:
vosg.us

38. Thank You
about.me/jgarrow