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Slide Notes

Redland City Council was a finalist for the 2014 Government Technology Review 'Social media innovation for government and public sector' award.

This presentation highlights how we communicated with the public during the North Stradbroke Island bushfires.

Matt Murray Senior Adviser, Digital Communications Redland City Council

Twitter

@mattbrisvegas
@commsgodigital
@redlandcouncil

Photo credit: QFES Facebook page

social media in emergencies

Published on Nov 18, 2015

how we used social media during the north stradbroke island bushfires in January 2014

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

social media in emergencies

How we communicated during the Straddie bushfires
Redland City Council was a finalist for the 2014 Government Technology Review 'Social media innovation for government and public sector' award.

This presentation highlights how we communicated with the public during the North Stradbroke Island bushfires.

Matt Murray Senior Adviser, Digital Communications Redland City Council

Twitter

@mattbrisvegas
@commsgodigital
@redlandcouncil

Photo credit: QFES Facebook page

16,000 hectares

more than 22,000 football fields
During the first two weeks of 2014, bushfires on North Stradbroke Island made headline news around Australia as they ravaged more than 16,000 hectares of land.

Townships and campgrounds were threatened with over 1000 residents and tourists evacuated.

Vital infrastructure was destroyed, leading to power outages and water supply issues.

Smoke from the fires affected residents not only on Straddie, but also residents on neighbouring islands and the mainland.

Photo credit: Dave Wilson

largest qld wildfire

in more than 30 years
A total of 66% of the island was burnt, making it the largest wildfire in Queensland in more than 30 years and the largest ever in South East Queensland.

primary objectives

  • Keep public informed with rolling coverage
  • Monitor / reply to questions, crowdsource intel
  • Act as a single point of info for the public
  • Use video/ sound/ photos to enhance messaging 
  • Promote work of emergency services / volunteers
The fires started during a 10 day council Christmas shutdown period - but our experienced communications team is used to dealing with emergency situations and quickly swung into action.

These were the main campaign objectives for communicating with the public during the fires.

social media

plays a vital role in emergencies
Social media plays a vital role in emergencies: it allows us to get information out to our community quickly and effectively.

Our first messages during the Straddie bushfires were via social media.

rolling coverage

of events as they happened
As new updates were released around the clock, we provided rolling coverage to provide the latest information to the community.

Our coverage brought together live updates, tweets, photos, videos, sound clips and media releases in one location. Here's an example:

http://news.redland.qld.gov.au/2014/01/north-stradbroke-bushfire-updates-li...

We acted as a single source of information for the public, summarising and disseminating information from all other partner agencies.

community sessions

vital mix of online and offline comms
A mix of offline and online communications was vital.

We organised 11 bushfire community information sessions over two weeks to keep residents informed.

These sessions were jointly promoted by Redland City Council, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and Queensland Police Service on their digital channels, with officers from those organisations giving operational updates at each forum and answering questions from the crowd.

The sessions were attended by more than 2000 people and feedback from them was very positive.


live blogging

during community info sessions
Social media was a key component of our sessions:

We live tweeted information from the meetings and provided summaries on our Facebook page.

These real-time social media initiatives gained massive amounts of positive community, media and emergency agency feedback.

This is significant as usually, public information is the first area criticised in a disaster. It was a case of the opposite in this life-threatening wildfire that continued for more than two weeks.

live video streaming

using Bambuser
Immediately after the public information sessions we used free tools such as Bambuser and SoundCloud to live stream and record updates straight from emergency workers and council representatives.

http://bambuser.com/channel/redlandcitycouncil

bambuser interviews

allowed others to tell their story
Bambuser also allowed others to tell their story.

Cameron Costello of QYAC spoke about what the bushfires meant to the traditional owners of North Stradbroke Island.

Our environmental officer, Travis Green, also spoke about how wildlife were coping in the aftermath of the fires.

http://bambuser.com/channel/redlandcitycouncil

teamwork

working in disaster resilience centre
Our team embedded themselves in the disaster headquarters on the island and worked alongside staff from many different government agencies.

This gave us important insights into how operations were being run and allowed us to get approval for updates quickly.

Our relationship with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Public Information Officers was especially important: it allowed us to have access to operational updates which were then disseminated immediately via our news site and social media channels.

soundcloud

Technology played an important role.

On Sunday 5 January, we recorded an update with QFES Senior Officer Mark Halverson at the scene using two iPhones.

Uploaded on SoundCloud, it received over 400 listens that afternoon alone. The sound clip was used by Brisbane radio 4BC and was also transcribed by QFES media staff in Brisbane for a new operational bulletin on their website.

https://soundcloud.com/redlandcitycouncil

Our social media was leading the information provided by QFES communications staff in many instances. This did not cause any issues and in fact was regarded as extremely useful to the QFES communications team who could not be on site on the island.

shared updates

from emergency services
Local government plays a key role in disaster management. We shared updates and information from other government agencies.

hero shots

Some of our most popular posts were of the incredibly hard-working emergency services workers and volunteers.

Pictured here is the Redland City Council Fire Management Team who worked 12+ hour days for over two weeks.

community safety

using factsheets from other agencies
In the months leading up to the fires, we had prepared ourselves by researching what information is available from other government agencies.

For example, as smoke affected many of our communities, we often linked to the Queensland Health fact sheet "Staying safe and healthy in smoky conditions".

questions

from the public on a range of topics
Being able to reply to questions from the public (and dispel rumours) is one of the key benefits of using social media in an emergency.

crowdsourcing

intel used for situational awareness
Crowdsourcing intel for situational awareness from your community is another key benefit of using social media. This is especially important when you have remote communities.

During the bushfires, reports of ember strikes from residents on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands were relayed to emergency services. Crews were sent to these locations to ensure fires didn’t spread.

sharing photos

We shared other photos on Twitter from the greater Brisbane region showing the effect the fires were having.

wordpress

news site - mobile friendly
Making sure your communications are mobile and tablet-friendly is not optional, it's essential.
Photo by raindog

10,000 visits in 10 days

During the Straddie bushfires, we had 10 times the usual traffic to our WordPress news website:

http://news.redland.qld.gov.au/

60% of this traffic was mobile: approximately double the usual percentage.

open for business

video produced on iPhone
On the same day that campers and other tourists were invited back to the island after the fires, we produced a video on an iPhone to get the message out that North Stradbroke Island was “open for business” again.

It was picked up by News Limited and placed unchanged on the front page of its popular national tourism webpage, Travel. It also led to positive “open for business” articles in News Limited papers, including The Courier-Mail.

analytics

  • 10,000 visits to WordPress site in 10 days
  • 1 million post impressions on Facebook
  • 1.1 million reach on Twitter
  • 3000 views of Bambuser clips 
  • SoundCloud clip used by QFES and on radio
Here's a snapshot of key analytics during the Straddie bushfires.

• 10,000 visits to our news site (usually 1000 for the same time period)
• 600 new Facebook fans (up 10%)
• 1 million post impressions on Facebook
• 120 new Twitter followers
• 1.1 million reach on Twitter
• Over 3000 views of our Bambuser streaming video views
• Over 700 plays of our SoundCloud sound clips
• More than 2000 people attended our 11 community bushfire information sessions
• Scores of thank you messages for emergency services personnel as well as hundred of likes posted on our Facebook page

10/10

for live tweeting
We received many messages of thanks from the public for our updates during the bushfires.

It was also nice to receive this tweet from Brisbane's best-known radio personality, Spencer Howson, giving us 10/10 for our live tweeting and other updates.

"outstanding"

QFES on our public messaging
A superintendent from the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services described our public messaging as outstanding.

summary of outcomes

  • Large reach in small timeframe
  • Single information source for public
  • Used free / low-cost social tools
  • Crowdsourced intel from remote places
  • Raised the bar for disaster management 
Here's a summary of the main outcomes from our communications during the bushfires.

thank you

here's some more stuff you might like
52 tips for social media disaster management #comms #smem http://commsr.us/10LY437

I wrote an article for The Guardian about our bushfire comms, you can read it here: http://commsr.us/1h6NMBF

MY OTHER HAIKU DECKS

Setting up social media: 10 things your organisation needs to consider
http://commsr.us/1kbYWiX

Building an online community in Redland City
http://commsr.us/1tpkwGj

If you work in public sector comms / digital / social media, please check out my digital communications blog:

http://www.commsgodigital.com.au

Also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/commsgodigital sharing 5 links a day about #digital #socialmedia #comms. Please follow us!

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn:

http://au.linkedin.com/in/mattbrisvegas/