Best Practices for Using Social Media to Engage the ‘Community’ on Preparedness

Community Engagement Guidance and Best Practices

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report outlining ways in which social media can be used to engage the community on preparedness. The report was created by the by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and its Virtual Social Media Working Group (VSMWG). The report is “intended for use by all public safety disciplines and all agencies and organizations seeking to better understand and use social media and other web-based tools without having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ or spend hours searching for examples, policy templates or other use cases.”

From the introduction: “Social media and collaborative technologies have become critical components of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. From the international response efforts after major tsunamis to hurricane recovery in major U.S. cities, officials now turn to social media technologies to share information and connect with citizens during all phases of a crisis. Implementing these new technologies, however, requires that responding agencies adopt new communication strategies and engagement methods.”

The purpose of the document is to: