Social Media in Crisis Communications Ellen Rossano

							      Social Media in
 Crisis Communications:
Plans, Policies & Platforms
     NorthEast Disaster Recovery
     Information X-Change
     Spring Conference
     June 12, 2012
 Social Media by the Numbers
• 46% of Americans own smartphones, up
  11% since May 2011.
• Nearly 9-in-10 smartphone owners have
  used their phones in the past 30 days to
  perform a real-time query (traffic, sports,
  arrange a meeting.)
• There are more than 500,000 mobile apps
  available in the Apple iPhone store
                   -Pew Research, apple.com
        What is Social Media?
 “Social Media” refers to a set of online tools and
platforms that allow organizations to communicate
           and converse with the public.

Why use Social Media in a crisis?
 To reach the almost 1 in 2 Americans who own a
                  smartphone.
    Plans, Policies & Platforms
• Every successful response begins with a plan.
• Policies guide all employees in day-to-day
  activities; may need additional language and
  training for crisis response.
• Not all platforms are created equal. Not all
  social media platforms are appropriate for use
  during a crisis.
The Speed of Twitter
           “There's a plane in
           the Hudson. I'm on
           the ferry going to pick
           up the people. Crazy.”

           -Janis Krums
           Commuter Ferry
           Passenger
           January 15, 2009
Best Reason to Plan?
“When the plane lands in
the Hudson, it's too late to
figure out Twitter.”
                      Sree Sreenivasan,
                   Columbia University
          Graduate School of Journalism
                 Planning
• Before the crisis
• How is the company using social media every
  day? What platforms are you using?
• What departments need to be consulted?
  Sales, Marketing, IT, Legal, HR
• Practice
                    Policies
•   Get everyone on the same page, literally
•   Overall, day-to-day policy
•   Policy during a crisis
•   Google is your friend – it’s been done
•   Regulated industries
•   NLRB – case law
                Platforms
• There are hundreds of Social Media platforms.
• Not all are great for crisis communications,
  but you must plan to monitor your company’s
  presence across the web.
• Google Alerts, Twitter search
Matthew Humphries, geek.com February 2012
                  Twitter
• More than 165 million users, just over 100
  million users in the U.S.
• 750 million Tweets per second.
• 1 billion tweets per week.
• 50% of the users are engaging via mobile
  devices.
• 1 million new accounts are created every day.
                 Facebook
• 901 million monthly active users around the
  world.
• 300 million photographs uploaded daily.
• 500 million users engaging via mobile devices.
• Available in 70 languages.
                 Foursquare
-   Over 20 million users.
•   50% of the users are from the US.
•   31% of users are engaging via mobile device.
•   There have been over 2 billion checkins since
    launch.
               Instagram
• Founded 2010; in the process of being
  acquired by Facebook for $1 Billion.
• Over 30 million users.
• 58 photographs uploaded every second.
• A new user signs up every second.
                 YouTube
• YouTube was founded to share dinner clips of
  a party due to the files being too large for
  email.
• The average visitor spends 15 minutes per day
  on YouTube.
                LinkedIn
• More than 161 million users.
• 22% of users on LinkedIn are engaging via
  mobile device.
• More than 2 billion page views every month.
• 2 new signups every second.
• More than 2 million company pages.
• There are more than one million LinkedIn
  groups.
                 Pinterest
• Just short of 12 million users.
• 97% of the users are female.
• The average user is between the age of 35 and
  44.
• Pinterest mobile apps are downloaded
  250,000 times a day.
• Top audience niches are fashion, music, art,
  memorabilia, vineyards, wine, tourism.
• Over 4,000,000 page views per day.
                   Google +
•   Founded 2011.
•   Over 90 million users.
•   Fastest growing social network.
•   Circles
•   Google + Hangouts