Author: Jim

There are so many good prep videos out there it’s really tough to pick a favorite. But this would absolutely be near the top of the list. Designed by the City of Bellevue EMA, I was asked to help drum up interest and talk it up. I like to think that I helped contribute to the success of the video. But, I couldn’t be completely complimentary (and I think they might be mad at me about that), but the awesome video really exposed the rest of their digital presence as being a typical government website. I’m sure they’ll bring everything up to speed next year and blow the rest of us out of the water. In the meantime, this was the third-most popular post I’ve written.

I’m a huge advocate of getting away from traditional (read: boring) messaging techniques like fact sheets, text-heavy websites, the “general public,” the list goes on and on. And yet, we’re still not great at it. For lots of reasons, not least of which is we don’t really know what to do. We’ve always done things this way.

While I’ve tried to impress that you can change things up pretty easily with video shot in your office on a personal smartphone (and edited with a $5 app) with my video posts, using a new social media app like Instagram or Vine, talked about podcasting and iPhone reporting, sometimes you need to get real, live inspiration from your peers and not some yahoo blogger. You need something colorful, fun, interesting and chock full of good information. Something like this video, Ways to Survive, from the City of Bellevue, Washington.

It’s catchy, visually stimulating, and includes oodles of good information. This isn’t like some hurricane video that goes out of vogue for nine months of the year.

These are the ways to survive, gotta stay alive, have supplies and a master plan.

Full of good recommendations addressing kit development, winter supplies, earthquake response, CO safety, see something say something, among others. And, most importantly, it feeds into an opportunity to learn more, by directing folks to WaysToSurvive.Org.

I spoke to Sophia Le, who told me a bit about the background of the video:

This is in line with our new public education strategy, and took inspiration from Denis Mileti’s eternal comment “You need to sell [preparedness] like Coca-Cola.” This video is part of our new engagement focus–in the past, we’ve been pretty light on social media but think this is a great jump start into engaging content.

Some of the things we really like about this video are that it allows us to use social media to touch more people than a public educator usually could. It’s using song to get a message stuck in a person’s head, and it’s inviting citizens to come learn more about our programs.

I love the idea AND the execution. There’s just one thing, and it’s a problem not specific to this video. Similar to an overarching problem I have with most government campaigns: there’s not connection to reality. The video is awesome, and I’m going to pass it around to friends around the world, but what about the Bellevue, Washington EMA website? It looks, and I mean it exactly like this, like a government website. Text-heavy, small font, jargon-y, uninteresting. It’s the complete opposite of what the video is.

And maybe that’s where the problem with this type of thing comes in. Awesome efforts tend to highlight how poor the rest of our efforts are. And that’s frustrating.

But here’s the thing. Now that Bellevue has this great video, and they’ve established some kind of a brand associated with their efforts, they can remake their website and social media and other presences. They are THAT much ahead of where you are. The Ways to Survive video doesn’t point out how government-y their website looks, it highlights how government-y your efforts look.

We live in a world of super-crafty people who want to do good work. And every time they do something cool, our reliance on the old ways of communicating look more and more out-of-date. Places like Bellevue are leading the charge into real, engaging content that takes the best lessons from the private sector and are bringing it to government. Don’t get left behind!

Things are changing around here, and I wanted to highlight the best of the blog during December, 2013. The first week is devoted to my favorite guest posts and posters. The second week is devoted to my three most engaging posts. The third and fourth weeks count down my top six most trafficked posts, truly, the best of the best. These overview posts will have links to each of the posts for the week.

Stay tuned to all of my posts for the rest of the week as I re-post the creme de la creme. It’s funny to see, as a blogger, which posts really take off and which ones don’t. I literally have no idea which it will be. It’s as much of a surprise to me as it is to my readers. Some posts you’ll research for hours and pour your heart and soul into and, nothing. Other ones you dash off under a deadline and–BAM–it’s the best post you’ve ever written. But that’s not always the case, either. Sometimes you really craft something good and people keep reading it. And sharing it. And visiting it, again and again. And that’s what these three are. Finely researched, wonderful crafted (if I do say so myself), and ultimately the best I’ve published according to you guys.

So, without further delay, the top three:

First up, number three. Viral videos are coup de grace these days. And with some money and creativity, even a local emergency management agency can do it. But, what does that success mean for the rest of our work?
Secondly, number two. Ugh, Bank of America and an automated Twitter account. It’s really amazing how creative protesters can be, and how mortifying it can look from the outside.
Finally, the top banana. Facebook is dying. Well, maybe not dying, but it’s certainly not as useful as it once was. And for agencies who are just now getting into social media, understanding how less useful is a key component of setting their expectations.

I loved this post. I wrote it on my phone. Twenty-five plus links, all pointing to mass media stories about how critical social media was in helping the public survive Post-Tropical Superstorm (nee Hurricane) Sandy. And if you’ve ever written a blog post on a phone, you’ll know how hard it is to link to things. (Suffice it to say I was proud of myself.) But this post is my official announcement to government agencies and responders that social media is HERE. Ignoring it after seeing what came out of lower Manhattan after a devastating storm flew through is tantamount to malfeasance. How dare you say you’ve got the public’s best interests in mind after the tsunami of proof that social media is how people communicate in an emergency–and then ignore it. After Sandy, and this point, there simply is no excuse anymore.

So, yeah, Post-Tropical Superstorm (nee Hurricane) Sandy. That happened. Mostly sucked. Got lots of lessons learned to share. But let’s start with the helicopter/10,000 foot overview.

For those of you who’ve taken communication theory classes (and those of you who have breathlessly read and memorized all of my posts), you’ll be familiar with the idea of diffusion of innovation.

See that point right above the words Take Off? Where the slope of the curve changes (and the artist who made this chart had to change Microsoft Paint curve-y line tools)? In our Diffussion of Innovation theory, that’s called the “inflection point.” It’s the point where growth in adoption starts to slow down, usually because most of the people who would adopt that innovation have already done so. The curve levels off when there is no more adoption (like your grandfather and electronica music, it just ain’t happening).

That inflection point? We’re there in terms of social media adoption by emergency response folks. That’s what Sandy taught me. Everyone that’s ahead of the curve, even just barely, has already accepted that social media is a great and growing part of emergency response and they’ve begun integrating it into their work. The rest of the people who could conceivably start using social media (the emergency managers who just wanted to see some return on investment first, or were just waiting for the go-ahead from the executive) will do so now. Those who refuse out-of-hand will be seen as ineffective and out of touch. And since they all report to some executive (read: person who has to stump for votes and answer to the public), I don’t think they’ll be around much longer.

Why, (I imagine) you say(ing)?

Well, there are a few stories of social media’s impact during and after the storm destroyed wide swaths of North Jersey and New York City.

(Yes, that’s 25 different links, most of them from national media sources, specifically about the social media aspect of the storm–all positive to some extent.)

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a trend.

I think, beyond the obvious implications of actually using social media in emergencies, this event has real consequences for us. You know, the folks that have made a certain number of bones being the social media evangelist in their fields (like me!). No longer can we trot out the same old anecdotes about how one day everyone will be using social media in crises.

We’re there.

We now need to concentrate on teaching how to do it right. How to work with the public, as opposed to just broadcasting to them. How to make #SMEM into an everyday conversation, a key, normal, regular part of what we do before an emergency.