Using social media in emergency response: Promoting better communication of federal agency safety and health information

As we progress from the Information to the Attention Age, new and accessible technologies provide end-users with an ever increasing quantity of information. These rapid advances in mass communication technologies, such as social media, have allowed people to receive instant updates on events happening all over the world. In recent years, social media has assisted emergency responders and affected citizens with creating order during emergencies, such as: the shootings at Virginia Tech University, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the Haiti earthquake, the California Wild Fires, Mid-west flood, and Hurricane Gustav evacuation.

When used properly, social media applications can allow federal agencies and non-federal organizations involved in emergency response to improve responder and public communication, increase the efficiency of responder activities, and contribute to the overall responder safety and health at the disaster site. New training tools and protocols must be developed to incorporate social media applications into everyday emergency responder activities to ensure responders are provided with factual on-the-ground hazard information during emergencies. New emergency responder training should also incorporate real-time feeds and proper usage and best practices for using social media applications, like Facebook and Twitter. With these training recommendations, federal agencies, universities and community groups will be able to develop internal social media applications that contribute to the overall safety and health protection of emergency responders during recovery tasks which will result in more efficient and safer management of future emergency scenarios.