Series introduction (October 12, 2011)

Part 1: startting from scratch (October 23, 2011)

Part 2: Setting objectives and measurement (October 23, 2011)

 Those of us who believe that social media (SM) now provide absolutely necessary emergency management tools, must realize that we have to demonstrate the validity of this belief in a concrete fashion. But before we get to the best way to maximize your organization's return on investment using social network, we need to look at the "real costs" of those free platforms. A good post from Dave Fleet here on that subject.

These costs need to be analyzed prudently when jumping on the social media bandwagon. To be effective, your social media use, particularly as a communications or emergency information tool, must be constant, consistent and be a two-way street. Here are a few steps to effective "free" social media:

1. Content is king. If you set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter. Youtube and als, and you don't populate them with fresh and relevant information, NO ONE will visit them. To be relevant and have a voice when a crisis or disaster impacting your organization occurs, you need to be seen as being relevant = providing valuable content ...

2. this principle closely follows the first one ... to be relevant ... you need to be present ... use social networks that offer your resiliency during disasters so you can use them to reach your audiences ... most importantly, so you can use them to OCCUPY the public space at the very onset of an incident.

3. Decide who will produce all that content, either on a routine basis or during a crisis. I personally suggest to avoid "ghost writing" and corporate babblespeak ... your audience is intelligent and they will likely relate more to you and what you have to say if it comes from the top ... from a human ... how do you meet their expectations?

4. Now the question is how to add to the workload of the person without interfering with their other duties ... do you have to modify their job description (in an unionized environment that could be problematic ...)

5. Another key question... do you have the organic resources to do this on your own or must you call in an "expert" ? Do you need someone from the outside to manage your "community"?

6. Tech support for your "free" social network accounts? Will they always be available to you? Is your IT department the best place to house your SM activities? Your corporate communications unit? Or your CEO/CAO's shop?

7. Who will monitor the social media platforms you decide to have a presence on? And all others? How can you engage in real dialogue if you don't know what's being said about you? Who does it for you? More to cone in a following post on social media monitoring.

These are just some of the questions that will arise. How you resolve them will be based on what goals you have established for your organization as you embark on a social media policy. Here's a brief chart that outlines how you get to that. Resolving the questions above can be difficult but in no way should they represent insurmountable obstacles, especially if you come armed with strong arguments that will demonstrate a good return on investment for your foray into social media. So how do you go about doing that?

To help ensure you're on your way to reaching your objectives, the first thing you need is measurement and that's the buzz word in the social media sphere. There are many ways to go about it but a good starting point is the basic set of tools provided by Google Analytics.

Most articles on social media and return on investment (ROI) deal with the marketing side of things but here's a good article on how non-profits can make the best of social networks.

For government organizations, first responder and emergency management agencies and for the non-profit sector, the one true maxim of social media remains the same as for the private sector: social networks are about relationship. The SM ROI for non-profit can still be measured even if the bottom line is not the ultimate goal.

They are also tools and not a strategy unto themselves. For a brief illustration of some key principles, see this presentation. There is no doubt that social media can give very powerful channels to volunteer organizations involved in emergency management. From preparedness partnerships, to collaboration in the response phase and support during recovery, the use of social media by non-profit involved in disasters can have enormous benefits for communities.