May 13-14, 2014 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC A Role for CERT in Social Media Monitoring Steve Peterson, President Montgomery County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Agenda • Share details on CERT’s role in social media monitoring and situation reporting initiatives – Key takeaways – Lessons learned – Future enhancements
CERT Can Help
May 13-14, 2014 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC Initiative #1: Social Media Monitoring
Weather Forecast – March 6, 2013
Pre ‐ Deployment Strategy • Began contacting pre ‐ identified participants • Developed timeframe to monitor social media platforms (contingent upon EOC’s length of activation) • Sought additional CERT members’ participation • Captured contact information of newly identified participants – Developed a communication thread between this small group
Deployment: How It Worked 2 provided verified info for Posts Posts ReTweet ReTweet ReTweet ReTweet Authoritative Authoritative Tweets Tweets Tweets Tweets ReTweet ReTweet Tweet Tweet ReTweet ReTweet Posts Posts 3 ReTweet ReTweet 4 1 GENERAL PUBLIC GENERAL PUBLIC AGENCY GENERAL PUBLIC GENERAL PUBLIC AGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS
How It Worked: Finding Information • Hashtags provided a quick and easy way to follow a discussion: – #mocosnow, #mdwx, #saturn, #mdsnow, #moco, #snowquester, #snow, #dcwx, #vawx, • Search strings provided the ability to look for tweets with certain terms or combination of terms – E.g., snow + hospitals
How It Worked: Verification • Is the information from a reliable source? – Was the report made by a trusted source? – Individuals’ input desired but verified more closely • Is the information confirmed by several sources? – Retweets do not qualify • Does the information fit into the larger picture for the snow storm? – Is this information just “noise” or does it improve your situational awareness?
Trending Topic: D.C. Snow Ball Fight
Assessment of Beneficial Posts Power out? Please do NOT call Need information about Maryland Va state police: I ‐ 81 northbound 911! Use 911 for true roadways and bridges? Follow Exit 235 (Weyers Cave) blocked by emergencies! List of power co's @MDSHA @MDOTNews @TheMDTA disabled tractor trailers. contact info: for the latest. #MDSnow ht.ly/irmTi#mocosnow State Power Outage Map: MT @MontgomeryCoMD: County's 311 Call Center is open today. Call 311 (or http://ow.ly/ir5mV #MDSnow 240 ‐ 777 ‐ 0311 from a cell phone), bit.ly/YBQlLF. #mocosnow 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am Help us filter out the noise of millions of tweets by using #MDSnow to discuss the You can also follow our live winter storm in #Maryland. #smem updates on Winter Storm #Saturn, including photos, MT @AndrewFreiden: Let me be storm reports, and analysis clear. Snow will be extremely heavy here: wxch.nl/14oZhb3 The Baltimore County Emergency through 10 AM Western Hanover, Operations Center will be opening henrico, Chesterfield. Don't drive #rva at 10:00a.m. ^JW
May 13-14, 2014 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC Initiative #2: Situation Reports (SITREPs)
Situation Reports (SITREPs) • CERT members developed 29 SITREPs from home • Provided a comprehensive picture of weather conditions • SITREPs were readily available for decision makers within the EOC
2014 CERT SITREP Participation 140 125 113 120 Number of SITREPs 100 83 80 60 32 40 20 0 Mon, Feb 3 Thurs, Feb 13 Mon, Mar 3 Tues, Jan 21 1 2 3 4
Expanded County Coverage Within one year March 2013 SITREPs February 2014 SITREPs
2013 Honorable Mention Award
Key Takeaways • Social Media Monitoring Initiative – Pre ‐ established understanding (proactive vs reactive) – Non ‐ disruptive EOC physical presence (transparent) • Observed verbal and nonverbal cues within the EOC • Disciplined in providing updates to EOC manager – Overlap in shift times (debrief) – Same computer for each shift (centralized)
Key Takeaways – cont’d • SITREP Initiative – Data available in real ‐ time at the EOC – Complete, consolidated report provided to officials within 24 hours
May 13-14, 2014 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC Future Enhancements
Enhancements: Team Participation • Seek to expand number of CERT members who participate – Solicit participation at general meetings, social media channels, website, and email messages – Assess skillsets before assigning to specific roles and responsibilities • Example: Volunteers who are skilled in producing, analyzing, and organizing information would be an asset to use in the EOC for monitoring social media
Enhancements: Training Offerings • FEMA EMI Training IS ‐ 42a • Red Cross webinars • Social media basic training from a variety of sources
Enhancements: Internal Training • Monitoring strategies – Who and What to Monitor • EOC Standard Operating Procedures – Standardize information flows and formats – Develop standard style of handout and verbal communication – Identify set times to report – Identify instances where immediate communication would be preferred
Enhancements: Mobile App Integration Montgomery County CERT is pursuing the opportunity to utilize the FEMA mobile app
Conclusion: Volunteers • Volunteers are an effective resource for providing both on ‐ site and virtual support to public safety agencies – They are always on standby 24/7 and are available to monitor social media traffic – They are trustworthy, credible, trained, and experienced and flexible to changing assignments
May 13-14, 2014 Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, DC Thank You Steve Peterson Montgomery County CERT president@montgomerycert.org @montcocert
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