Using Social Media to keep customers informed in a disaster

Isabelle Johnson, Corporate Communications Manager, Strategic Projects at Ergon Energy will talk on "Social Media - Ergon Energy's experience during Cyclone Yasi" at a RIM Professionals Australasia Queensland Branch Breakfast, 21 June 2011 in Brisbane.

Equally as important as getting the power back on was keeping our customers and stakeholders up to date on our progress.

The social media sites, Twitter and Facebook, were introduced for the first time as a disaster response community communications channel.

This presentation includes an overview of lessons learnt ...

From: "Social Media - Ergon Energy's experience during Cyclone Yasi", RIM Professionals Australasia, 2011

This appears to be an update of the talk "Ergon Energy's social media experience during Cyclone Yasi" given at Queensland State Archives Forum, 29 March 2011. Some excerpts from the slides:

Keeping the public informed during Yasi

• 212,000 calls to contact centre
• news media – wide coverage
• ‘Live read’ safety advertising
• 71,000 website hits
• 10,000 Facebook followers

What led us to use social media

We had in place:

• storm centre website
• social media strategy
• successful trial
• communication process

We wanted to:
• listen and engage
• give our customers
another way to reach us

Social Media – our experience

• Facebook and Twitter hidden but ready
• Observed QPS flood response
• Added value to existing processes
• Command centre – social media room
• Single source of truth
• ‘Lead posters’

Social Media – the risks

• Capturing & reporting safety
issues
• Access to complete, timely info
• Influence, not control

Social Media – the benefits

• Kept customers updated in real time
• Provided a forum to talk & share info
• Built better & stronger relationships
...

From: "Ergon Energy's social media experience during Cyclone Yasi", Isabelle Johnson, Ergon Energy, for Queensland State Archives Forum, 29 March 2011.

Other presentations from the Records and Information Management Forum, Brisbane, 29 March 2011, Queensland State Archives:

1. QUT agency experiences Tania Meggitt, Queensland University of Technology
2. Records implications for social media, Troy Pullen, Queensland State Archives
3. Social media - Ergon Energy's experience during Cyclone Yasi, Isabelle Johnson, Ergon Energy
4. Disaster Occupational Health and Safety, Peter Twigg, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland
5. Prepare, prevent and respond: conservation and preservation, Annette McNicol, Queensland State
6. A guide to working through a disaster, Sharon Muldoon, Department of Communities

Have static background for better image on broadband from Cairns

There was a report from the ABC at the emergency evacuation centre located in the Earlville Shopping Centre in Cairns, "via broadband" on ABC 24. The reporter was standing in front of a window. When the trees outside waved in the wind, the picture broke up. I suggest pointing the camera away from the window. Otherwise the compression algorithm will waste bandwidth encoding the moving trees, instead of the reporter's face.

ps: This is the sort of thing I teach students at ANU on use of the Internet for emergencies.

Use of Telecommuncations and Effect of Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Had a call from Channel 7 asking me to talk to the Sunrise team ("Mel" and "Kochi") at 3pm about the effect Tropical Cyclone Yasi will have on telecommunications and how it will be used to deal with the emergency.

Websites
One topic is how websites can be used to provide information for people to prepare for a cyclone and deal with recovery. Channel 7 itself has a useful list of Cyclone emergency info. One tip is to look at the web address for "qld.gov.au" to see the information is from the Queensland government. Channel 7 lists:

1. Weather Bureau cyclone warnings
2. Queensland Disaster Management
3. Emergency Management Queensland
4. Cairns Regional Council
5. Cassowary Coast Council
6. Townsville Council
7. Storm surge info

A list of Evacuation Centres is also provided, but there does not appear to be a government web site for these.