Presentation delivered at CASE District V-CASE

1. Follow the Better Together Conference on Twitter #CASEV
SOCIAL MEDIA AND
CRISIS COMMUNICATION
BRIAN HUONKER, ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
@BKHUONKER
ANDREW CAREAGA, MISSOURI S&T
@ANDREWCAREAGA
DECEMBER 11, 2012 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

2.  According to a recent
survey by the Red Cross,
people now expect to
receive emergency
information on social
media sites.
 30% of survey takers
expect help to arrive in less
than an hour if they posted
a call for help on a social
media site
SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRISIS
COMMUNICATION

3. Accuracy
and speed
become an
issue
SOCIAL MEDIA TURNS
EVERYONE INTO A
REPORTER

4.  October 30, 2011
 5:43 p.m. A tweet announced
“some idiot was climbing” the
scaffolding an the side of
Watterson Towers.
 5:45 p.m. A 911 call was
received about a person
climbing the east-side of the 28-
story Watterson Towers.
 5:53 p.m. Twitter users were
reporting that the “student
jumped of the towers”.
CASE STUDY: SUICIDE JUMPER

5.  Fact: The “jumper” did not jump,
but slipped and fell off the
scaffolding
 Fact: It was a person from outside
the Bloomington/Normal
community (age 45), not a
student.
 It was 6:45 p.m. before the
university posted the facts about
the incident.
 For the next 24 hours,
contradictory stories were being
posted and shared via Twitter and
Facebook, inciting phone calls
from parents to the university with
false information obtained from
Facebook and Twitter.
CASE STUDY: SUICIDE JUMPER

6.  9:45 p.m. An employee in the
Bone Student Center reported
smoking coming from a room
in the Bone Student Center
 9:47 p.m. A tweet announce
“the Bone was on fire!”
 9:48 p.m. A Twitpic showed
smoke coming out of the roof
of the Bone Student Center
 9:49 p.m. Fire Department
arrived to find a crowd of
students outside the Bone
Student Center, joining the
group of students and
employees who were on scene.
 9:52 p.m. Video of the scene
appeared on YouTube
CASE STUDY: FIRE

7.  Fact: The fire was contained
to the ductwork leading from
the a restaurant to the roof.
There was only moderate
water and light smoke
damage, mostly in the
restaurant area. The source
of the fire was the grill or the
exhaust hood.
CASE STUDY: FIRE

8.  In the last five years social media have played an increasing
role in emergencies and disasters.
 Social media sites rank as the fourth most popular source to access
emergency information.
 Uses have included:
 conduct emergency communications
 issue warnings
 receive victim requests for assistance
 monitoring user activities to establish situational awareness
 uploaded images
 And others
EVERYONE IS A REPORTER

9. Social media
put to the
test at
Missouri S&T
SOCIAL MEDIA IN CRISIS
COMMUNICATION

10. MAY 12, 2011

11. GUNMAN ENTERS MCNUTT HALL

12.  8:45 a.m. – Phone call from S&T PD
 8:48 a.m. – Second call from S&T PD
 8:51 a.m. – Mass notification alert sent: McNutt Hall
on lockdown
 8:53 a.m.-8:55 a.m. – Similar alerts posted on social
media (Twitter and Facebook)
 8:56 a.m. – Main website (www.mst.edu) redirected
to emergency site (alert.mst.edu)
COMMUNICATION PROCESS: IMMEDIATE
(THE FIRST 11 MINUTES)

13. TWITTER AS NEWS FEED

14. FACEBOOK AND FEEDBACK

15.  Status updates on main website, social media
 Respond to media calls whenever possible
 Monitor social media
 Online becomes predominant source of information
for media, public
 Updates posted to emergency update phone line
(first one @ 9:15 a.m.)
COMMUNICATION PROCESS: ONGOING

16. ALERT.MST.EDU
(FORMERLY ICE.MST.EDU)

17. ICE.MST.EDU
ON MAY 12, 2011

18. MEDIA COVERAGE
http://storify.com/weatherbird/how-a-university-covered-its-own-lockdown

19. KSDK.COM VIDEO:
HTTP://BCOVE.ME/YZQOLC4Q

20. FACEBOOK FEEDBACK

21. SOCIAL MEDIA SELF-POLICING

22. THE SOCIAL MEDIA TRIAGE
SOURCE: ALTIMETER GROUP, BASED ON U.S. AIR FORCE’S RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR BLOGGING

23. WEB TRAFFIC SPIKED
129,455
visits
May 12,
2011
4,171 referrals
From social
media
May 12, 2011
Social media
significant
but still a
very small
driver of total
web traffic

24. FACEBOOK VS. TWITTER
Most effective for… Facebook Twitter
Immediacy X X
Reach X
Website referrals X
Engagement/discussion X
Reaching students X
Reaching parents X
Reaching news media X

25.  Improve departmental communications flow
 Set up centralized areas for call center and computer
center
 Ensure main phone lines can roll over to other lines
 Ensure other staff have access to my email
 Change ice.mst.edu to alert.mst.edu
 Host alert.mst.edu offsite to ensure it works during a
crisis
FOLLOW-UP

26.  Testing, testing, testing
 Monitor social media chatter
 Debrief after every crisis
 Equip your people
LESSONS LEARNED

27. EQUIPPING THE CAMPUS COMMUNITY

28. THE CRISIS
MANAGEMENT TEAM

29.  identify target audiences for the applications, such as
civilians, nongovernmental organizations, volunteers, and
participating governments;
 determine appropriate types of information for dissemination;
 disseminate information the public is interested in (e.g. what
phase the incident is in, etc.)
 identify any negative consequences arising from the
application—such as the potential spread of faulty
information—and work to eliminate or reduce such
consequences.
AND EVOLUTION OF BEST PRACTICES

30. THE CRISIS COMMUNICATION TEAM

31.  Police departments notified of emergency
 From civilians, from local government, from monitoring of social media
 Director of Media Relations is notified
 Crisis communication is activated
 Initial text messages goes out to campus
 Message is repeated in social media (Facebook and Twitter)
 Crisis Communication Team convenes on in a single location
 Emergency level decision is made
 Emergency messages placed in social media and text updates
 Emergency messages placed in iGuide, social media and text updates
 University website is replaced with emergency version, messages placed in iGuide,
social media and text updates
 Team is in constant contact with media relations representative on the scene,
always in direct communication. Updates are written and coordinated between all
medium
 Social media is monitored for additional information, commentary and questions.
Questionable post are reported to the media relations rep on scene.
HOW IT WORKS

32.  8:25 p.m. A report to
University police of
armed robbery on
campus.
 8:26 p.m. Text
message was sent to
campus and reported
on Facebook and
Twitter. Crisis
Communication team
activated
 8:46 p.m. Members
report to meeting
pace. Determined only
text messaging, social
media and the iGuide
would be used to
communicate to
audience.
CASE STUDY: ARMED ROBBERY

33.  Shooting on the borders of campus.
 Text messaging, social media, and University website was utilized to
communicate
 Second armed robbery on campus
 Text messaging, social media, and University website was utilized to
communicate
 Website was utilized due to the fact suspect was spotted entering a
residence hall
 The death of two students within 35 minutes of each other.
 Deaths occurred at between 2—3 a.m. It was determined that social
media would be utilized to monitor for continued conversation
CASE STUDY

34. BRIAN HUONKER
ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSIT Y
NORMAL, ILLINOIS
 BKHUONK@ILLINOISSTATE.EDU
 @BKHUONKER
 FACEBOOK.COM/BKHUONKER
 LINKEDIN.COM/BKHUONKER
ANDREW CAREAGA
MISSOURI UNIVERSIT Y OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
ROLLA, MISSOURI
 ACAREAGA@MST.EDU
 @ANDREWCAREAGA
 FACEBOOK.COM/ANDREWCAREAGA
 LINKEDIN.COM/ANDREWCAREAGA
CONTACT

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