How to Promote Social Media in Emergency Organizations

Two things happened last week that encouraged me to write this article to share with you how to promote your use of social media tools with all your stakeholders. Even though I am writing mainly for emergency organizations, I think the same principles apply in other industries:

One:

I had a meeting with executives from a national non-profit organization, in which they asked me: how do we promote our social media presence? I shared with them two or three of points mentioned below.

Two:

The other thing is that I attended a search engine optimization (SEO) class in which I learned some new tricks that added to my own bag of tricks that I have been gathering.

I am very happy to share with you some of these tricks. Who knows, this may be useful to you. If it is, please, leave me a word.

Begin with an Off line Buzz

I was delighted that NGO executive asked me that question because the essence of social media is sharing with friends, fans and followers. It is not about you or me. It is about us. Thus, having to share is crucial in social media. 

I recall saying to her we need to begin by creating an offline buzz about social media within the organization to get an online boom. By that, I explained we needed to get as many staff as possible to be interested in using social media. If possible, train some of staff on how to use the tools comfortably, and above all getting to train a large pool of volunteers. I said without a good following and a robust conversation, the essence of social media is baseless. Thus, it was crucial to invite as many people in as possible to get them to buy into the idea.

Create a Viral Video

In the last couple of weeks, I have been talking to my supervisor at Washoe County about the importance of creating a viral video to promote our newly initiated social media program for the county. My supervisor and other collaborators in the county team agreed that it is a cool idea. In the meantime, I am sorting out the details to produce a fine, funny and engaging video that will introduce our presence on youtube, Facebook flickr, blog and so on to the people in our county. The idea is to use our viral video to reach as many people as possible with our message and at the same time getting them to join us on Facebook, twitter etc. Videos are contagious, so we are making an effort to use them to spread the word. You can do the same.

Facebook Events and Pictures

One other way to promote our social media presence is to invite our existing friends via our email or any other means to check you out on Facebook. That is the appetizer. When they get in, serve them the meal. Share with them your upcoming events like birthdays, anniversaries and other interesting things happening in your life. When they get impressed, they may want to join you as a fan, follower or friend. Through that joining, you are widening your following.

Upload Futuristic Photos on Flickr

I am guessing you prefer pictures to reading text, just like me. Most people are that way. That is the way our brain is generally wired. It resonates well with pictures than text, at least for most people. By regularly uploading pictures of you and your surroundings with our friends, you build strong bonds via flickr. In the field of emergencies, we have more than enough photos. Photos of our colleagues doing heroic things, photos of the good, the bad and the funny are relevant to our friends and community.  All these photos can add to normal day photos to engage your friends.

Blog On Cutting Edge Info

In order to get more visibility and authority within your niche, you need to be consistent with what you preach in your online outreach. Part of this outreach is just presenting cutting edge information in things that are happening around on your blog. Each time we do something that some one in our community likes, we are ‘depositing money into their mind ‘s bank emotional bank account’. Over time, they will love you, looking up to you for even more information and that is where they will become a fervent fan or a dependent of yours.

Here is the good news, all of these methods of promotion cost $0. There are other paid methods of getting the word out, but we may talk about that next time.

Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM

Emergency & Crisis Management Facilitator

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7 Tips on How to Be Found Easily on the Internet

Sooner than later, if you can’t be found on the Internet, you will be presumed inexistent. Or perhaps, people will think you are hiding in a tiny spider hole somewhere in my home continent of Africa.

The more I get closer to social media, as a way of life and a way to reach out to my community, the more I learn some tricks of the trade.  Everyone needs these tools today. Emergency managers need these skills even more.

Over the last couple of months, I learned quite a bit about what geeks call “Search Engine Optimization”(SEO).  Based on my spattering of Chinese dialects, I know the word “SEO” sounds like the word “ SIAO”, which means crazy in one of the Chinese dialects I learned in Singapore.  Perhaps it is Hokien. Well, that is not the type of craziness I am talking about here.  SEO is another type of craziness, which drives you far ahead of the crowd; you want to do all possible to be rank at the top of Google and other search engines.  It is a different type.

Here we go with 7 Tips that will push you toward the top of the search engines.

Use Searchable Keywords.

A great part of being searchable is choosing a name, a word or phrase that is often used or talked about, regarding your subject of interest. If you can use right word(s) in your business name, then you are winning part of the battle. Furthermore, you can also use Google analytics and other key word selector tools online to find out which words are “hot” and which ones are “cold”.  You need to go through that trouble because that is what it takes to be findable, these days.

Use viral videos

A viral video is a video that spreads like crazy. It auto spreads itself because it is so engaging and funny to the point most people can’t stop talking about it or sharing it with their friends, fans and followers. Each time someone clicks on it, you are rising to the top. The trick is to upload and share your videos on video sharing sites like youtube, blip.tv, vimeo, viddler and so on. It does not have to be a professionally developed video. If you doubt me, ask the British singing sensation Susan Boyle.

Regularly Update Twitter Account

Based on my personal experience, the more often I update my twitter account or upload photos on Facebook, the more I get followers and friends commenting. It is an indication that I have a following and that is definitely an indication to the crawlers within search engines that I am fairly well known in my community. Thus for the crawlers, they wan tot reward me by making me even more visible to others looking for me. They reward findable people with upper pager rankings.  Page ranking is a sort of currency not to joke with at all and a war worth fighting.

Email Signature

This is easy and straightforward. Set up and email signature that comes with all your social media platforms of presence. This ensures that each time you write to someone or a group, they all have a chance to click and see where you are. In this way, they can reach out. Can you imagine how many people you write to every day and what and opportunity you are missing to put clickable link in front of them that will take them to you blog, Facebook et al.  Each time some one is looking for you, the more the search engines think that you are a big fish in a big pond, hence…

Saturate Your Profiles Across Platforms

The best part of social media is that it is free. It is more about us, not you.  It is about the team, not the stars. The best thing to do is to sign up to as many social media platforms as you possibly can. Saturate the tools with your profiles. Remember that your profile should be consistent. The more you are visible in many places, the more you will be recognized and this serves you well because you will have many inward arrows and eyes checking you out.

SEO is a game of numbers. The more you play, the better for you. In our next update, I will examine some technical elements of tricking the crawlers.

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American Red Cross is Social Media Leader

When it comes to emergency preparedness with social media, I dare to say, the American Red Cross (ARC), is a pacesetting leader. My claim is based on the fact ARC uses social media comprehensively across all the phases of emergency management. With a quick browse around, I found out that ARC is using facebook, flickr, social vibe, youtube, linkedIn, twitter and blogging to get the word out.

First, it is hard to dispute the fact that ARC knows how to mobilize its base using social media. Few organizations in the field of emergency preparedness can boast of having over 1000 fans. ARC has 83, 018 fans as of today July 22, 2009. This is amazing because this is social capital at fingertips. It can be deployed for emergencies at short notice.

I see ARC ’s comprehensive use of social media as prove of the fact that the organization forward-thinking and values the people that work/volunteer for the organization.  The fact that ARC has a youth blog and social vibe is telling of the fact that the organization is not only well-informed, but also well positioned to embrace change while others are stagnating.

Arising Questions:

Is the investment in social media appropriate in multiple areas?

Yes, in my view, it is absolutely important because every single media tool has a particular demographic that uses it as a matter of preference. For example when ARC uses youth blog, I find that very insightful, because they want to reach the youth with a targeted message. This is crucial in public engagement.

Is it not a waste of time that could be put into volunteering?

No. Absolutely not. Social media can strengthen the organization ’s feedback loop through the commets that members provide and the fact that social me strengthen internal and external resiliencies of the team.

By going for multiple tools that focus on different groups, I think that ARC is doing an enviable job that soone or later other crisis management agencies will need their advice.

By Gideo F. For-mukwai,CEM

Emergency Management Trainer and Speaker

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Emergency Managers Slow in Adopting Social Media

I know why emergency managers are slow in adopting social media. It appears to be a battle between those who are moving with the wind of transformation versus those who are victims of the wind of stagnation. It is telling episode of something that I observed several years ago.
When I watch the hesitation and frustration of emergency and public safety authorities in embracing the new wind of change, I am reminded of some fierce battles I once observed growing up in Africa. It was a battle between those who love change versus those who love the choice to stay put.
In the 1970s, everyone in my village fetched water in large rounded gourds, popularly known out there as calabashes. In the 1980s plastic containers arrived. Most villagers resisted changing to the sturdier plastic containers to fetch water. They totally ignored the fact that plastic containers could last longer. In the 1990s, pipe-borne water arrived. More progressive villages started invested in pipe-borne water projects to enable everyone to have water in their homes.

My beleaguered village and couple of others resisted the adoption of pipe-borne water. They said, they did not want to see water pipes running through their homes. They argued that it was not possible for tiny little pipes to carry more water than plastic containers which they had finally adopted.
Today, for me, each time, I see emergency managers opposing the adoption of the social media, I am reminded of those old water battles. I am also reminded that human beings will resist change, no matter if the change is going to make their lives better.
One does not need to be a genius to realize that though the pipes are much smaller than large gourds and plastic containers, they carry way more water.Today, it does not take long to realize that although the social media is seemingly invincible like the water pipes, it brings tremendous power and capacity to shape the future of emergency communication.

Tell me what you think about this unfolding drama.
Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM
Chief Preparedness Officer

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Social Media Keeps Transforming Emergency Management

Social Media in Disasters

From the Asia Tsunami of 2004 to the 2009 controversial Iran election, social media is shaping the business of emergency response in unprecedented ways. I recall writing an article for the International Associational of Emergency Management Managers (IAEM Bulletin) that examined the use of role of online photo sharing that was emerging for victim identification.

In less than five years, social media has gone from barely visible in disasters to a force to reckon with in the dissemination of information during a disaster or crisis. Recently, NY Times reported about what it called a twitter revolution with respect to a single tweet by a student that rallied 10,000 demonstrators in Moldova. Social media is becoming an indispensable tool for social unrest and this inadvertently affect preparedness and public safety.

In this era of web 2.0, we are witnessing a staggering fragmentation and collapse of the mass media. If you doubt me, check out the causes of the death of the Rocky Mountain News. At the same time, we are seeing geometric growth of social media.  In some recent incidents, social media has outpaced the mass media in the collection and dissemination of information. One poignant case was the case of Virginia Tech victim identification. The students who used multiple facebook groups did a faster job than the authorities. 

With these changes, public safety authorities are caught between the winds: the wind of transformation and the wind of stagnation. Those who succumb to the wind transformation are adopting and integrating new media to prepare and respond to emergencies.  On the other hand those who do not want to succumb to the new wind are standing by and refusing to adopt social media in planning.  It reminds me of when blackberries first arrived, lots of my friends said I do not want email in the bed room. Guess what today, it is right there and who knows what role it plays.

Here is the big question: Are you part of the wind of transformation or the wind of stagnation?

Be safe!

Gideon F. For-mukwai, Certified Emergency Manager

Chief Preparedness Officer

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