Social media to the rescue

After Tropical Storm Irene came tearing through the Northeast, a friend of mine who lives in New York City sent me an email saying that it really wasn”™t too bad. I strongly differed with his assessment. That my area lost power twice ”“ once for a period of three days ”“ pales in comparison with the utter devastation of a town in upstate New York that I witnessed firsthand. I saw houses listing at strange angles surrounded by a sea of mud, a trailer park literally torn apart, a partially destroyed high-trafficked bridge and many military reserve troops attempting to restore some semblance of order.

“During the record-breaking 2011 spring storm season, people across America alerted the Red Cross to their needs via Facebook,” Wendy Harman, director of social strategy for the organization, said in a statement. “We also used Twitter to connect to thousands of people seeking comfort and safety information to help get them through the darkest hours of storms.”

Furthermore, an Aug. 24 American Red Cross survey found:

Ӣ Following television and radio, the Internet is the third most popular way for people to gather emergency information with 18 percent of both the general and the online population specifically using Facebook for that purpose.

Ӣ Nearly a fourth (24 percent) of the general population and a third (31 percent) of the online population would use social media to let loved ones know they are safe.

Ӣ Four of five (80 percent) of the general and 69 percent of the online populations surveyed believe that national emergency response organizations should regularly monitor social media sites in order to respond promptly.

Ӣ For those who would post a request for help through social media, 39 percent of those polled online and 35 of those polled via telephone said they would expect help to arrive in less than one hour.

The complete survey and results is available at: redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/SocialMediainDisasters.pdf.

There are an increasing number of sites that provide information about upcoming storms. Many municipal governments now provide Twitter and Facebook postings on upcoming weather. An excellent source for storm tracker sites is provided by cnet (http://bit.ly/px3lIq).

One of the more interesting efforts is the development of a Next Generation 911 (NG 911) that will include text, video, phone, accurate location tracking and photo. Its specifications are under development by the FCC.  This will be extremely important since it will be able to provide detailed information prior to the arrival of emergency help. Currently, the number of 911 emergency calls via cell phones has already increased to 50 percent.

A note of caution. Despite all this progress when using social media, it is wise to remember that few social media services verify their postings. One of the most widely viewed images on Twitter was a picture of Hurricane Irene approach the coast of North Carolina. Unfortunately, it wasn”™t Irene and the coastline was of Pensacola, Fla. Fortunately, the Red Cross, among others, is working on a verification system.

So, how do all of these social media communications help the town whose destruction I witnessed? I doubt its townspeople tweeted at the rate of 5,500 tweets per second for the recent earthquake in the Northeast. Did it save any lives? Maybe. Possibly it alerted people to seek shelter prior to the storm or to request emergency help in its aftermath. Images of the widespread destruction might even allow them to remain in the public eye a little longer. After all, social media is rapidly becoming mainstream and images can be very persuasive, possibly even extending to my naïve friend in New York City.

I prefer to view social media as a powerful tool through which people can help save lives before and after an emergency occurs.

What do you think?

Bruce Newman is the vice president at The Productivity Institute L.L.C. in Carmel. He is also a social media strategist and the designer of a new service, wwWebevents.com. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Bruce can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.