Listening to Your
CommunityGeorgia Emergency Management
AgencyGeorgia Department of Public Health
Hurricane Twitter Chat with GEMA Director Charley English
Inaugural chat
Objective: To give Georgians the opportunity to ask Director English questions about what GEMA is doing to prepare for hurricane season and how households can get ready
Used #AskGEMA
Promoted via traditional press release, “The Hurricane Watch” e-newsletter, notices sent to local, state and federal partners, and social media.
Started following influencers and sent direct messages to CERTs
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
It Takes a Village!
Thanks to partners who helped promote the chat. Local emergency management
agencies Meteorologists State agencies such as georgia.gov,
Georgia Dept. of Public Health, etc. FEMA Claire Simms with GPB
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
#AskGEMA Monitored Using GEMA’s Twitter Account
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
Results/Best Practices
Received positive feedback from the public Example: @GeorgiaEMA Thank you for the
answers! Always gotta think ahead of the game! Have a great day! #AskGEMA
Direct responses from Charley inspired deep faith in our audience and in the reliability of content
@GeorgiaEMA acquired 104 followers between May 31 and June 4 Average is 150/month
Reach = 292,124 followers, 440,000 timeline deliveries (Hashtracking.com)
Created recap on “Get Ready” blog using Storify.com, a platform were users can aggregate tweets, photos. GPB also posted a recap.
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
Lessons Learned
Use a tool such as tweetchat.com to facilitate the chat
Use only one hashtag and reply to questions with the hashtag included – some people just monitor the hashtag, not your feed The Twitterverse will let you know
when mistakes are made
Have a SME to verify or research information needed for responses
Keep a list of handles for partner organizations that can be referenced quickly for tagging
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
DPH Emergency Preparedness Twitter Chat
One hour on June 11, 2013; #DPHchat
Featured tweeters from DPH, GEMA, health districts, Emory CEPAR, Home Depot
Purpose: to promote emergency preparedness, educate about the roles of government agencies and individual citizens before/during/after disasters
Format: panel discussion, including questions from followers
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
Putting It All Together
Coordinated two weeks in advance with organizations/individuals planning to join
Promotion: DPH social media, partner organizations’ social media, news release, news stories
During the chat: used Tweetchat to keep track of the hashtag; fielded questions from people experiencing technical difficulties
After the chat: Storify, promotion via news stories and our website, hashtracking.com
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
DPH Preparedness Twitter Chat: Results
Reach = 177,122 followers, 1.26 million timeline deliveries (Hashtracking.com)
Tweets, Facebook posts about the chat (before and after) were some of most popular/shared in the past 6 months
Positive response from followers
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
What helped? What hurt?
Hooray! Collaboration with partner agencies
(thanks GEMA, georgia.gov!) Invitation to a national partner with a
large Twitter following (Home Depot) Wealth of SMEs, both at state and
local levels Twitter chat preparedness!
Stumbling block: Tweets soliciting business
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial
Thank you!
Questions? Comments?
Feel free to get in touch! Lisa Janak Newman, GEMA
Carrie Gann, DPH Communications, [email protected]
@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial