Tag Archives: Crisis Communications

[Room 108] Twitter in Crisis Communications with the Air Force

Posted on 28. Mar, 2009 by lkthrock.

1

Case Study: Witness reports crash of Air Force C-17. Within a minute the story was on CNN. Seventeen minutes later, the Air Force countered that it wasn’t true using Twitter.  Fifty-five minutes later CNN retracted story.

Rumor control was phenomenal and empowering. 

With the C-17 scenario, the Air Force had established a precedent for quick response . A couple days there was an F22 crash (which was true), so they had to balance the expectation/precedent for quick response with the time needed to inform families of those who lost their lives. To balance, the Air Force  issued a statement indicating that they were aware of the situation and were insuring and validating information. As the story began to materialize on Facebook, they continued to communicate and ask for patience as they notified next of kin.

Citizen’s for a Free Tibet uses Twitter as the backbone/back channel of crisis communication.

Case Study: Twitter “Vote Report” - developed series of hashtags, 800 numbers, iPhones, androids, to aggregate  data (full case study on Personal Democracy Forum - www.personaldemocracy.com) - software is from get hub.

Monitoring tools: http://search.twitter.com and www.tweetgrid.com

Discussion of concern over using Twitter as the sole channel for crisis communication. Twitter should be one channel. 

SMS is the most reliable channel in a crisis. Frontline SMS mentioned. 

Q: How do you handle the intentional “bad actors?” 

A: Suggested that your community will drown them out. 

Case Study: State Department - There was a rumor started on Twitter that the U.S. was harboring people in Madagascar last week. State decided that because the rumor was started on Twitter, they were going to combat it on Twitter and were successful.

Opinion: Distinguish between micro blogs in a private, contained, closed network and Twitter. Using a public service like Twitter opens up to to bad actors.

Private options:

Laconica - Open Source Twitter clone

IRC

WordPress

Mission is always first, the tool is what helps you accomplish mission.

Lots of debate on  the use  of Twitter at the RNC (specifically with regards to Activist communications). Thought on public versus private networks - private networks often get shut down by local governments in crisis situations.

A first responder commented that sometime the lack of information is critical to control. Not to be secretive about it, but to protect the scene (like an active  shooter situation at a high school) and in order to deliver accurate information. Many times the real-time communication causes mass hysteria and panic. It’s not always about free and open information, sometimes it’s about accurate information.

Continue the discussion at Barcamp.org/CrisisCamp  - Washington, DC - June 13-14

These are the notes for the session http://www.government20club.org/2009/03/room-108-using-twitter-in-crisis-management/

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[Room 108] Twitter in Crisis Communications

Posted on 28. Mar, 2009 by lkthrock.

0

[Room 108] Twitter in Crisis Communications with the Air Force

Case Study: Witness reports crash of Air Force C-17. Within a minute the story was on CNN. Seventeen minutes later, the Air Force countered that it wasn’t true using Twitter.  Fifty-five minutes later CNN retracted story.

Rumor control was phenomenal and empowering. 

Establish quick response for squashing a rumor. A couple days there was an F22 crash (that was true), so they had to balance the expectation/precedent for quick response with the time needed to info families.

in this case the Air Force  issued a statement indicating that they were aware of the situation and were insuring and validating information. As the story began to materialize on Facebook, they cntinued to communicate and ask for patience as they notified next of kin.

Citizen’s for a Free Tibet uses Twitter as the backbone/back channel of crisis communication.

Continue Reading