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

lisa.janak_newman@gema.ga.gov

Carrie Gann, DPH Communications, cegann@dhr.state.ga.us

@georgiaema, @GaDPH, #TeamGASocial