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7. RT Cloud computing vs cloud

commuting; the social
media [r]evolution
Crisis Management & Technologies That Enable You To Save Your Event
by Ruud Janssen, CMM

Introduction

Good news travels fast...bad news even faster

Have you experienced that sometimes cloud computing is getting easier than cloud commuting? In
this chapter you will have the opportunity to explore and be tempted to test new ways of collaborating and communicating with those involved in your event and more specifically when your event is
being disrupted by a crisis.
Technology itself can be disruptive but maybe not to the same extent as a crisis. This chapter will
provide insights and tips for using social media during emergencies and crisis. The content is based
on successful Plan Bs for emergency situations and events when confronted with a crisis.
This chapter will enable you to discover new communication channels and technology tools to manage your unexpected event interruptions.
When your event is troubled by interruptions of any kind (volcano eruptions, power outage, strikes,
etc.) knowing what technology to use to create backup plans and being prepared is key. A crisis is
certainly not the time to stop and start at the beginning of the learning curve.

After reading this chapter you will be able to:

t
Identify the why, what and how of crisis communication
t
Know how social media can keep you informed of the activities and location of your audience
t
Discover how social media has assisted in extreme emergencies and how that applies for events and
meetings.

When worlds collide;

the social media [r]evolution

Event disruptions; not if, but when...

What happens when worlds collide? The least we can conclude is that unparalleled streams of energy
are freed. Giving that energy the right channels and direction is the task at hand for anyone involved
in a crisis situation. Many have experienced disruptions at their events. Be it the volcanic eruptions in

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Iceland, flood or oil spills. Although these events are disruptive in nature, many new creative forms
come to life because of them. In this chapter we will explore how geolocation(13), emergency messaging and rich user generated content can keep you informed of the whereabouts and sentiment of
your audience. A major challenge of social media, however, is a lack of confidentiality and a danger of
non-verified information flashing around the globe at lightning speed. Understanding and navigating the pros and cons is key to knowing how to use these tools during a crisis. Online collaboration
is a must in these unexpected circumstances and getting more experience in this field is essential for
event professionals at any stage in their career. This chapter will conclude with a list of tips for using
social media in crisis situations as well as a checklist for message mapping and deployment.
(13) Geolocation: the identification of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a cell phone or an internet enabled device. Examples of
geolocation systems are Gowalla, Foursquare, Google Latitude, Facebook Places as well as Twitter. Besides checkin functions as in the systems listed here,
there are also systems that indicate where people are travelling (Like Tripit, Dopplr and the like). Subsequently there are geolocation games which use the
geolocation as a digital treasure hunt as in geocaching).

Asynchronous information,
Disjointed Data and Crisis Reporting
We only really wake up to the realities of what we really need and care about when we are confronted
with a burning platform. A crisis reveals the basic needs and functionalities of the bare communications we need to survive and thrive in a desperate situation. Although this book is focused on the use
of social media for events, it is relevant to peak into the real life experiences of recent world events
and see how new media has played a pivotal role in these [r]evolutions.
Research from the Mumbai attacks in 2008, riots in Kampala in September 2009, Election riots in Iran
in 2009 and more recently the social [r]evolution in Egypt and neighboring countries provide live
insights into the needs of those involved in these events.
TED fellow, Jonathan Grossier, CEO of APPAfrica Labs, analysed the situation from his perspective on
the spot in Kampala, Uganda and identified the needs of those stuck in the crisis on the ground (14). His
basic finding is that when in the midst of the crisis, people are starving for information. The mobile
phone and its users are essentially the only reports that can be relied on for timely information.
He also found that citizen journalists risk being arrested and their personal safety compromised by
reporting in near real time from the crisis zone. The location and GPS coordinates of mobile devices
can be detected both by rescue workers and by those creating the crisis.
He also concludes despite the fact that people are more connected than ever through mobile
devices and web services like Twitter, there are still some gaping holes in how information is aggregated and disseminated in times of crisis. His analysis of the findings of the Kampala crisis and the
Mumbai attacks has led him to conclude a number of ways to improve the flow of data during a crisis.
Let me sum up my interpretation on Content, Context, Connectivity and Continuity.
(14) Source: http://appfrica.com/2009/09/13/asynchronous-info-disjointed-data-and-crisis-reporting/

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CONTENT

Real time reporting from verified Sources (the WHATs happening)

Social media messaging like Twitter and status updates as well as SMS and MMS are like a new short
wave radio. It is important to conclude that the signal can be hindered and manipulated. It could be
affected due to high traffic over the networks capacity or (as in the recent case in Egypt) subject to
a provider shutdown.
Where one relies on the Internet signal, phone based signals like SMS and MMS can have significant
delays in time of sending and time of receiving. In the midst of the crisis, real time reporting journalists aggregate the citizens messages. The journalists can forward or retweet the messages while
offering their own perspective. The traditional media, however, has problems with the fact that each
and every message is an unverified report of an incident without the context required to make it a
verified story. An additional problem arises when traditional media is blacked out by the authorities who can control them. The silence, however, makes the information hungry users more suspicious of the lack of information.
The need to express what is happening is a very strong drive that anyone has in a crisis situation and
this powers the flow of information even in the most distressed situations. The new reality in near
real time reporting of a crisis is the will power of the people involved and the (battery) power (and
connectivity) of the mobile device used to send out the message. An interesting development in the
Egyptian revolution was the scene in the middle of Cairos square where protesters are scrambling to
recharge their mobile phone. A scene very much like the ones you see at public airports across the
globe with travelers looking to power up their devices.

CONTEXT

Additional Context to identify the WHY and HOW

(verified reports, history and related events)

Based on the example of the Mumbai attacks in 2008 and its coverage by the BBC, using contextual
images with background analysis and eye witness reports from the ground, Grossier believes we are
headed to a wiki-fication of the news. Some information is coverage from professional reporters,
while the rest is user-generated but curated and edited by professionals. A contextual clue that is
missing from most reporting in micro-messaging like Twitter is that of time. Although all messages
are time stamped, the time elements seem to be overlooked. Retweets and the snowball effect of
RTs (Retweets) can end up as cluttering, repetitious information. Delayed reaction due to differences
in time zones of the users can cause even more distraction.
New developments like Friendfeed allow for messages to be automatically grouped in user
streams. Messages that are echoed can thus be filtered out and clustered to avoid confusing or conflicting information being rippled into the community of concerned users.
Other applications now feature a timeline-like display of the messages where the messages are not
shown in a vertical but in a horizontal timeline axis (an example is a social media application called
Plurk.com). The most important consideration in verifying the quality and truth of information is its
context. Video (certainly when streamed live with a geolocation) is most accurate and can be a valu-

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able source of verification of contextual information. Photo (with geolocation) is next, followed by
audioreports, after is geolocated tweets and finally text messaging.

CONNECTIVITY

The WHOM, making yourself heard and connecting

A 2010 American Red Cross survey (15), released at the Emergency Social Data Summit, shows many
web users would turn to social media to seek help for themselves or others during emergencies and
they expect first responders to be listening.
It found that if they needed help and couldnt reach the emergency phone number 9-1-1, one in five
would try to contact responders through a digital means such as e-mail, websites or social media.
If web users knew of someone else who needed help, 44 percent would ask other people in their
social network to contact authorities, 35 percent would post a request for help directly on a response
agencys Facebook page and 28 percent would send a direct Twitter message to responders.
Web users also have clear expectations about how first responders should be answering their
requests. The survey showed that 69 percent said that emergency responders should be monitoring
social media sites in order to quickly send help and nearly half believe a response agency is probably
already responding to any urgent request they might see.
And the survey respondents expected quick response to an online appeal for help: 74 percent
expected help to come less than an hour after their tweet or Facebook post.
Almost half of respondents said they would use social media to tell loved ones they are safe. Of
them, 86 percent would use Facebook, with a smaller portion turning to Twitter and other tools. If
someone else needed help, 44 percent would try to get help by asking others in a social network to
get in touch with authorities.
Those who are savvy about social media expect that method of communication to deliver results
fairly quickly. About three quarters of participants said they would expect help to arrive within an
hour if they posted a request for help on a social media website.
(15) source: www.redcross.org

CONTINUITY

What next? Sorting through the data, seeing relevance and

responding to those in dire need

In recent disasters and crisis of similar nature, the flow of information can reach such large quantities
that it is very difficult to see them in a bigger picture. Here, applications like Ushihadi have become
a way to map, verify and contextualize the numerous streams of reporting from Twitter, the news,
photo/video reports, geolocation and the blogs of the crowd.

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Taking the power of aggregating and a mapping application to your local community and making
the information contextual and relevant in near real time has proven its relevance in many of the
worlds crisis. This includes mapping of the swine flu outbreak to saving lives in the Haiti earthquakes.
It applies three basic principles that must be at the core of any application deployed in crisis communication:
t
Easy to use (no barriers to entry or user adoption issues provided you have a digital data connection)
t
Accessible to anyone from SMS, MMS or report submitted online (Twitter, blog, geo-location)
t
Deployable worldwide and scalable for many to help out (Ability to take the core application and
deploy it yourself to suit your communities needs)

Figure 7. Ushihadi in action in Haiti crisis

The result is critical and timely information on a platform that almost anyone can use. Another key
element is that it allows the community of volunteers to help by actively contributing to interpreting information and verifying it. In the example of Haiti (16), large scale teams of geographically dispersed volunteers assisted in reading, verifying and allocating message urgency, geolocation and
cross verification, which allowed for large amounts of messages to be digested and mapped with a
higher level of accuracy to inform the rescue forces on the ground in the troubled area. The core of
the system is a visual timeline in which events/incidents/background information/videos (lets call
all of these reports) appear linearly along the timeline at the specific moment they are reported.
Each report is then distributed vertically across reliability layers with sections like false, trusted,
or verified. For example, its very hard to fabricate a genuine riot video during a crisis, so it makes
sense that all videos are at the top.

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Each report is again analyzed for cross-references (tweets, re-tweets, incoming links, Facebook mentions, etc). The more cross-references a report has, the larger the icon size (so you can have a very
prominent false rumor and a poorly linked trusted source).
Also, each of those cross-references is then connected to the source by a line, so for example, a
retweet can be traced back to the original tweet. This would avoid issues of belated retweets across
different time zones. Finally, when clicked, each report icon expands to show either the full report
(for tweets) or a snippet of the report (for websites). A quick glance at this system allows the visitor to
immediately filter by: accuracy, prominence, time, connection, background information and related
material.
Since the crisis in Egypt erupted, Internet access has been difficult to find for protesters and others
in the country. Social networking services like Twitter and Facebook have been the primary tools of
communication.
(16) Source: Independent Evaluation of the Ushahidi Haiti Project, 2011

New functionalities of communication are being developed every day and hybrid versions of existing
applications are created to bypass traditional barriers. Real time search of information has become
the way we want to be informed. Most recent is an example of Twitter (real time but random), Google
(not so real time but extremely searchable) and SayNow, combining forces to create Speak to Tweet
in a response to assist [r]revolutionaries to get their word out when internet connectivity and social
media have been banned. This service allows people to dial a telephone number and leave a voicemail. The voicemail is automatically translated into a message that is sent on Twitter using the identifying hash tag #egypt.

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Anyone can tweet by leaving a voice message on one of three international phone numbers. People can also listen to the messages by calling the listed numbers and by clicking on the Twitter links
posted to @speak2tweet.
Technology seems to challenge the conventions of autocratic leaders looking to contain the voice of
the public. The democratization of information and dialogue is leaving a lasting imprint across the
globe and leading to a new era of communication.

Try it before you have to

Ok so you are up to speed on the application of social media in severe crisis situation and the burning
platform has made it clear that social media has an increasing degree of relevance and potential to
save lives. What does that mean for the application of social media at your next event?
Emergency preparedness will make you more nimble and ready to deploy what you have experienced in non-crisis situations. You know that a crisis is the time when the professionals distinguish
themselves from the amateurs. Being prepared means you need to rehearse, simulate a crisis and test
the boundaries of your new media skills and, more importantly, those of your team.
Learning a new language is always difficult and costs vast amounts of energy and will power. If you
consider social media tools as a new language, you will need to apply yourself and go through the
learning curve on a personal level and with your team members.
If youre pressed for time, heres the good news: a simulation is just as time pressed, allowing for a real
life enactment of a crisis for you and your team.
In any case, the simulation will awaken you to the fact that social media tools are only that; tools.
The real energy, spirit and power of social media is people. We are social media.

In flight? Not connected?

Need a checklist for landing?
Why didnt you think of that at take off?

Being connected wherever you go is a burden for one, a luxury for another. At the start of 2011, seven
major airlines gave away Facebook access on their Wi-Fi networks on their airplanes. Free social
media service will be available on North American flights for Virgin Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, AirTran, US Airways and Alaska Airlines. Anyone looking to access sites other than
Facebook will have to pay a fee depending on the length of the flight.
As a major newspaper reports, Facebook is the most-visited site onboard some 3,800 flights a day
and 5,000 private planes. However, research estimates that only 7% to 10% of passengers on Wi-Fi-

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equipped planes use the service. Providing free access to the social networking site is an attempt to
spread the word of relatively unused Wi-Fi service onboard in hopes to get people interested and
pay for the access later.
Being able to get in touch with your events stakeholders at any time may be a critical success factor
in managing your events crisis. Having a plan B is necessary, managing and mitigating risk is a proficiency that true professionals have in their knowledge set or event team. Why not start today and
make it part of yours, before you have to.
Below are a set of 11 practical tips for using social media for emergency communications as well as a
stepped approach to developing messages in 7 steps using a Message Map technique to allow for a
better preparedness of unforeseen situations. We finish this chapter with a suggested blueprint of 8
Things to do when things go wrong in the Social Mediasphere.

11 Tips for using social media

for emergency communications (17)

1. Make social media efforts message driven, not channel driven. Embrace every possible teaching
moment so that your social media networks can grow and are deployed before you have a crisis.
2. Tap into all available resources. Do you have a large cadre of volunteers? Consider training them
as social media connectors and ambassadors.
3. Keep messages brief and pertinent. People are not really reading; they are scanning.
4. Make sure you can receive public input. Remember that social media is not just about you talking
to the public; it also is about them talking to you and to each other.
5. Use social media to support a unified message. Instead of creating a new message for social
media, use social media to support your existing message in a larger communications model.
6. Have a Plan B. Suppose phone lines are jammed and/or computers are down?
7. Forge partnerships for sharing methods and messages. Think of your audience and how you can
reach them through complementary communities. Also think about how authorities, associations and the private sector can work together to inform and synchronize the message.
8. Focus on people when formulating your communication plan. Networks of people will get work
done, even when there is no electricity.
9. Avoid elitism or the belief that people in charge know more. Be transparent and verify communications before acknowledging or retweeting. Remember you cannot control near real time communication. Keeping information behind will make for a hostile audience that is prone to counter
you and nontransparent (mis)behavior.
10. New technologies are not simply new types of media with which to do the same old things. These
new media signal a shift in thinking about how we communicate with our audiences and how
helpful they are to help you in times of crisis.
11. Avoid the shiny new object syndrome. Being quick to adopt every new social media as soon as it
emerges without knowing its full implications and dynamics in your plan B.
(17) Source: Special Report - Expert Round Table on Social Media and Risk Communication During Times of Crisis (Donya Currie, eds. Timothy Tinker, Booz
Allen Hamilton & David Fouse, APHA)

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7 steps to Developing Message Maps

Message Mapping Steps (18)

Definition
A message map provides an organized, prioritized repository of the information available to convey
and support the messages the public needs to hear, understand and remember. Message maps also
structure information essential for responding to public concerns.
Developing Message Maps
Developing the messages that will be released to the public is very important. Here are seven steps
to follow when developing your crisis message maps:
Step 1 Identify stakeholders: stakeholders are interested, affected or influential parties that would be
or are currently affected by the situation.
Step 2 Identify concerns: develop a complete list of specific concerns for each important stakeholder
group.
Step 3 Identify underlying general concerns: analyze all concerns to identify common sets of underlying general concerns. Most high concern issues are associated with no more than 15 to 25 primary
underlying general concerns. Note: this should be done as time allows initial messages or holding
statements may need to be made before this step can take place.
Step 4 Develop key messages: messages should be in response to each stakeholder question, concern or perception. Initial messages should address top of mind concerns, i.e., employees safety/
wellbeing, what is being done at the mine site, etc.
Step 5 Develop supporting facts and proofs for each key message: supporting facts provide the
continuity and details needed to support the key message. Key messages should have no more than
three supporting facts.
Step 6 Conduct systematic message testing: message testing should be done by subject matter
experts not directly involved in the original message mapping process to validate the accuracy of
technical information. In a crisis, this will need to be done very quickly. Sharing and testing messages
with partners ensures message consistency and coordination.
Step 7 Plan for delivery: prepare for the message maps delivery by a trained spokesperson or
through the appropriate communication channels.
(18) Source: Template crisis communications plan NMA (National Mining Association)

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Start your blueprint today

8 Things to do when things go wrong in the Social Mediasphere

When communicating the planned messages in the Message Map I encourage you to read the following 10 pieces of advice formulated in a blogpost by Aliza Sherman (19).
Dont wait for that communications crisis to take place before planning for how you will handle the
fallout when something bad (inevitably) happens. Here is a blueprint you can use for your own plan:
1. Pay attention. Whether you are using Google Alerts or Twilert or any other monitoring service to
see when your name or brand name is mentioned, setting up digital listening posts is essential
to help learning about not just the good things people are saying about you, but the bad things as
well. Getting an early heads up can make all the difference in the world between crisis and total
disaster.
2. Review context. Before you panic and jump the gun to respond to what might appear to be a crisis,
dig a little deeper to make sure you understand what is being said and why. You dont want to
enter the conversation until you have a firm grasp on the issues being raised.
3. Address promptly. Timeliness is everything when dealing with and defusing the crisis. Every day,
every hour, every minute you need to think over what to do or ignore the situation altogether
is time wasted.
4. Acknowledge first. Once you figure out what has happened and what some of the emotions are
behind it, make sure to address these issues or emotions in your responses. Like any good interpersonal communications, start with statements like I understand youre frustrated or We realize
this is a confusing situation. Acknowledge the other partys feelings and perceptions. They may
not be correct, but they are valid in that theyre what they believe and feel.
5. Dont over think. Running through committees, endless drafts and approval processes to get a
response out there can cause far more damage than good. As long as you have taken the time to
assess the situation and can take a rational, respectful tone in your response, even an awkward
response is OK to start with, and buys you time to continue to respond to the problem.
6. Be open. If youre upset, nervous, worried, shocked dont be afraid to express that as well. People
want to see a human response to a crisis, not an overproduced, formulaic or canned reply. When
there is a crisis, there are people involved. Pretending there are no emotions mixed in the mess is
a surefire way to lose credibility with others. Dominos CEO responded pretty quickly and openly.
However, check out his response to the crisis. The CEO never once looks at the camera. If you are
going to be open and forthcoming in your response, at least look straight at the camera at some
point. Even when reading from a teleprompter, you can set it up so your eyes are directed at the
camera. Otherwise, youll look shifty and untrustworthy.
7. Fix the problem. If the crisis is bringing a problem to your attention, admit it, address it and fix it. If
something is wrong and you can make it right, do it. If something is not really wrong but someone
perceives that it is wrong, do not dismiss his concerns. Take every exchange seriously, and do your
best. That is all anyone can really expect. If you make sincere efforts and consistently take the high
road, you stand to gain some goodwill, even if the problem is not entirely resolved.

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8. Tell your story. Telling your own story throughout the fixing process is another good way of helping defuse the issue. Giving updates such as Were still looking into that bug that caused your data
loss, and Please contact us privately so we can make amends to this situation lets anyone paying
attention to the situation see something is being done, even if some of it has to happen behindthe-scenes.
(19) Source: Blogpost Gigaom: Crisis communications for the Social Media Age, June 1, 2009 by Aliza Sherman

Share your thoughts, join the dialogue

We encourage you to share your thoughts, opinions and comments when it comes to crisis communications using social media for (planned and unplanned) events. What other things should we think
about when it comes to crisis communications in a social media-powered world? Connect and share
your thoughts with the author on @ruudwjanssen or by commenting on the authors blog at http://
www.tnoc.posterous.com

Ruud Janssen, CMM (b.1970) is a bespoke new media and online collaboration
specialist, co-founder of Event Camp Europe and curator of TEDx events in Basel,
Switzerland. He is a veteran Global Conference Organiser, Marketing Coach and
a social media digital nomad. As an association volunteer he has been an active
Board member on the International Board of Directors of MPI - Meeting Professionals International, and on the board for the Meeting Support Institute and Project Meeting Architecture. Besides his role as a jury member for the World Wide
Technology Watch, he is an emerging technologies speaker, MPI Global Accredited Trainer and serial entrepreneur at TNOC | The New Objective Collective
www.tnoc.ch
Reference list:
1. Emergency Social Data Summit, American Red Cross, August 9, 2010, http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/other/SocialMediaSlideDeck.pdf
2. NMA Template Crisis Communications, National Mining Association, October 31, 2007
3. In a crisis, social media are popular options Dr. S. Gupta - CNN.com Blogs August 12, 2010
4. International Association of Emergency Managers, http://www.iaem.com/events/annual/intro.htm
5. http://www.boozallen.com/media/file/Risk_Communications_Times_of_Crisis.pdf
6. Safety and Security at Healthcare Congresses, A Crucial Area of Risk Management, IAPCO, IPCAA, HCEA April 2004

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