Social Media Monitoring Team in the Emergency Operation Center
Social media is part of everyday life, and emergency management is no exception. However, many agencies do not have the manpower to effectively leverage the social media space during and after a disaster. Virtual Operation Support Teams (VOST), as applied to emergency management and disaster recovery, is an agency assembled team whose effort makes use of new communication technologies and social media tools. These team members are "trusted agents" who can lend support via the internet to those on-site who may otherwise be overwhelmed by the volume of data generated during a disaster. These cadre of digital volunteers assist with several social media missions including: general monitoring, rumor identification and management, situation status visualization and so much more.
