Manatee aims for social media coordination for disasters

Manatee County could have a more coordinated emergency management response 24 months from now if community leaders allow social media to be major part of their future disaster planning, a social media expert said Tuesday.

Leila E. Martini, who received a doctorate in public health from the University of South Florida and whose expertise is in monitoring and use of social media in emergency management in Florida, told about 40 community leaders Tuesday at the Manatee Community Foundation that it is critical now for counties to be social media savvy.

“I think that if Manatee County takes these steps, citizens will be using social media to communicate with emergency management agencies and emergency management agencies would be listening and informing citizens so it would be a two-way communication and get more people involved,” Martini said.

After a cursory analysis of Manatee’s social media competency, Martini said the county is not behind the curve but not at the top of it either.

“I think Manatee is right where it needs to be to launch into this,” said Martini, who offered that all the Florida counties she works with also are struggling with how to keep up with social media’s multiple platforms and flood of incoming data.

The audience included employees from Manatee County government, Bradenton Police Department, Bradenton Fire Department, Manatee County Chamber of Commerce, Manatee County Animal Services, Department of Health, Manatee County, Turning Points, State College of Florida and many others.

The meeting came out of a discussion between Susie Bowie of the Manatee Community Foundation and Manatee County Deputy Administrator Karen Windon about the need for social media coordination in Manatee so the public and agencies can be on the same wavelength in a disaster.

The last time Manatee had a serious disaster threat was 12 years ago, in 2004, when a series of hurricanes affected Florida, Windon told the group.

“It was very different then,” Windon said. “Social media wasn’t part of the landscape that we now enjoy. But now we are in a space where we need to be thinking of how we utilize social media, how we maximize it. What Leila has done in her research is phenomenal for us. I don’t see today as the end of the discussion. It’s just opening it up.”

The first step is to have a social media policy

In her presentation, Martini said that every agency in Manatee County that uses social media should have a clear social media policy so that citizens know what platforms they use and how they use them.

Martini defined social media as mobile and web-based applications that allow people to communicate and share information across multiple platforms.

Some of the main social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, and Pinterest Martini said.

“The use of these has increased dramatically over the past decade,” Martini added.

But as the platforms have increased, coordination between them, the public and government agencies has been slow catching up, Martini said.

“I think Manatee agencies have to decide on what platforms they want people to use,” Martini added. “Pick one. Or pick two so people know. Educate them ahead of time so that the community knows what is being is used.”

Manatee County government predominately relies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for its social media accounts and several divisions within the county have their own Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, said Nick Azzara, Manatee County’s information outreach manager.

“Our libraries are using Pinterest,” Azzara added.

As for a social media policy, Azzara said, “Our policy is simply that if a department wants to launch its own Facebook page they offer up their log-in information to the county administrator’s office and their department director so two or three of us have the log in information and that person is charged with consistently posting information pertinent to their audience. It’s usually used to spread good information and tips that are of general public interest.”

But who would monitor the platforms in a disaster?

“Right now in our drills we have a couple of public information officers and our Citizens Information Center employees who are asked to post to the public in a disaster,” Azzara said. “If it was a true emergency we anticipate being inundated with tweets and posts asking for assistance and we have not drilled that to this point and that will be an important component going forward.”

Audience members told Martini that staffing was always a problem.

At some agencies it’s a young intern who handles the social media. Monitoring social media is usually not the sole job of an employee, they said.

But Martini told the group that social media can’t be an after-thought. If money is tight, find trusted volunteers, she said.

Martini suggested that once Manatee agencies have their social media policy in place and a dedicated social media employee or volunteer, they should begin to have conversations with citizens over social media about disaster preparation.

“If you have conversation in place with citizens before a disaster than citizens know where to check,” Martini said. “So having all of this happen before a disaster makes it feel natural when a disaster comes.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Manatee aims for social media coordination for disasters."