Community During Crisis: What Governments can learn from the Boulder Community’s usage of Social...

(c) Copyright 2010 Orange Insights

“Community During Crisis”

By Tery SpataroOrange Insights, Chief Strategic Officer

What Governments can learn from the Boulder Community’s usage of Social Media during the Boulder Fire.September 6-11, 2010

Photo Credit: Chris Hough shared this photo on Facebook from Ken Fricklas’s friend


The Situation

The Boulder Fourmile Fire is the worst fire in the history of Colorado.

Roughly 6,385-acres burned.

It took 800 firefighters to get the fire under control.

Over 200 structures were affected by the fire, 169 homes lost

Social Media played an important role in keeping the public informed and the community rational.

The community was amazing and pulled together to help those in need.

What follows demonstrates how the community used social media to mobilize and cope with the Fourmile Fire.

This report based on observed information from #boulderfire

Image Credit: Satellite Image of the fire via NASA/MODIS


#BoulderFire:Social Media Timeline

Source: http://trendistic.com/boulderfire

MondaySeptember 6

TuesdaySeptember 7

WednesdaySeptember 8

ThursdaySeptember 9

SaturdaySeptember 11

FridaySeptember 10


Tuesday 9/7, first reported at 10:07am

11:33 am Andrew Hyde began using #boulderfire

11:34 am Sandra Fish began tweeting the fire dispatch reports


10:07 am

11:33 am #boulderfire by Andrew

11:34 am Sandra


MondaySeptember 6

TuesdaySeptember 7


ThursdaySeptember 9


FridaySeptember 10


1:17pm Amanda Pingel created a collaborative Google mashup map

5:01pm #boulderfire is trending

6:02pm #boulderfire peaks


10:07 am


11:34 am Sandra

5:01 pm #boulderfire is trending

6:02 pm#boulderfire peaks

1:17 pm Amanda Pingel’s map


MondaySeptember 6

TuesdaySeptember 7


ThursdaySeptember 9


FridaySeptember 10


EPIC Colorado synthesized information from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Boulder Office of Emergency Management, Project EPIC, Google collaborative maps

Community banded together the remainder of the week

Tweets were comprised of evacuation efforts, losses, displaced fire victims, and firemen who lost their homes


10:07 am


11:34 am Sandra





MondaySeptember 6

TuesdaySeptember 7


ThursdaySeptember 9


FridaySeptember 10


Total Exposure of Term#boulderfire Until 9/11/10

Reached 985,099 people

2.9 million impressions

Via 688 Twitterers

Source: Visualization of the term #boulderfire until 9/11/10http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/exposure-from-the-term-boulderfire


TweetReach for #boulderfireuntil 9/11/10

1 Tweet; 718,875

2-3 Tweets; 121,400

4-7 Tweets; 78,258

> 7 Tweets; 66,566

Regular Tweets; 594

Retweets; 825

Replies; 81

Tweet Types Exposure: 2,870,780 ImpressionsEach pie slice shows how many people saw how many tweets.


FridaySeptember 10


10:07 am


11:34 am Sandra




1:27 pmAnalyzedSentiment

Social Mentions

#boulderfire

NOTE: The time of this analysis started 9/10/10 1:27pm. Twitter only keeps tweets in search for 5 days.

The fire continued to rage while the community continued to tweet information.

#BoulderFire: Thin Slice of Time

MondaySeptember 6

TuesdaySeptember 7


ThursdaySeptember 9



Sentiment#boulderfire Friday 9/10/10 1:27pm

Sentiment looks to the content to determine if it’s positive, negative, or neutral

This Sentiment analysis for #boulderfire was done on Friday 9/10/10 at 1:27pm only for the first 100 tweets at that time

100 Tweets containing the term: #boulderfire

> positive sentiment rather than negative

35 out of 100 tweets were neutral

The neutral tweets were most likely the result of retweeting straight information such as links and news reports

User profile

Adult

Secondary education

Both male and female

http://orangeinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/boulderfire_senitment_62.5.jpg


Social Mentions#boulderfire, Friday 9/10/10 1:30pm

Social mentions provides the count of number of times #boulderfire was used during 9/10/10 at 1:30pm

421 mentions of #boulderfire

The strength is found in the messages about the Boulder Fire being discussed

#Boulderfire was mentioned every 31 seconds by 198 unique authors

Within this timeframe, 102 topics were retweeted


Social Mentions#boulderfire Friday 9/10/10 1:30pm

Mentions of #boulderfire by tweeterer on Friday 9/10/10 1:30pm

Brett Greene’s post: “Boulder Fire Stokes Community Through Social Media” in Huffington Post was trending high as a news link because it had the most relevance from a popular source and higher number of retweets.

Tweet content was shifting to information such as housing, storage, meals, for evacuees, and fire containment news.

Larry Oliver, Deb Kolaras, Gaiam, Tuckertown, Kendra Kellogg

Throughout the community members continually tweeted: Sandra Fish, Suzan Bond, Aimee Giese, Kate Starbird, Laura Levy, Andrew Hyde, Deb Kolaras, Kia Ruiz and Jo White.


Amanda’s Community Map

1,826,905 views — 218 comments

85 ratings of 5 stars

Map used different icons to illustrate fire areas, evacuation areas, emergency response, photos

Comments provide help with sourcing the map information


EPIC Colorado Map

Mapped from tweet reports

The spreadsheet is extensive, providing data on time, fire information, tweet handle, offers and needs, shelters, road conditions, photos


Vision Link Map

Displays information on the fire, real time tweets, flickr photos, traffic


What Can Government Emergency ManagementLearn From Social Media?


Insights & OpportunitiesInsights

Boulder Community coped with #boulderfire from a rational, proactive perspective

Mobilized using different forms social media

Twitter, Google Collaborative Maps, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Mobile

Established a #hashtag and helpful parameters for tweeting information

When a failure in communication arose, community quickly tweeted information about evacuation

Maps provided information on fire, evacuations, support and resources

Now that the fire is extinguished, the community is still providing information, comfort and support

Opportunities

Federal, state and city governments need to create a Social Media Crisis plan and should identify key community influencers

Establish leader[s] in the community to help with social media communication

Have ready & be using a Twitter account, Map, FB, and include mobile communication

Find key influencers through their social media reach within the community

Assign a social media community leader to establish relationships with key community influencers: universities, churches, local meeting places

Create community-based parameters for tweeting emergency information

Provide a system of notification using maps

Use the system for natural disaster, crisis situations, food recalls, health warnings and epidemics

Empower the community to be proactive and helpful in an emergency situation


Helpful Information:How to Help

All Hazards blog has a larger list of Colorado Wildfire Resources in one place.

The Boulder Daily Camera has a good list of How To Get Help and a page with the latest wildfire information.

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management launched a comprehensive response page at http://boulderoem.com.

Donations for Four Mile Canyon fire victims are being taken by calling either 211 or 866-760-6489.

Goods, money and food are also being collected by Volunteer Connection: [email protected] 303-413-7737.

Source: Brett Greene

Steve Lowtwait donated his great art skills to create a poster to raise money for the firefighters who lost their homes. Please buy one at:

http://shop.campsteve.com/boulder/fire/

http://allhazards.blogspot.com/2010/09/colorado-wild-fire-resources.html

http://www.dailycamera.com/fourmile-canyon-fire/ci_16009614?source=rss

http://www.dailycamera.com/fourmile-canyon-fire/

http://boulderoem.com/

http://boulderoem.com/

mailto:[email protected]




Tery Spataro @teryScientist in mind creative in heart

Recognized industry leader for understanding digital behavior

Over 15 years of digital research and strategy

MBA in marketing, BFA in communication design

My cat uses twitter @blakethecat

Digital data is chaotic. I love making sense of the messiness!


“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”

~ Henrik Ibsen

Thank you!

Orange Insights is a digital research and strategy firm co-founded by Amy Lieberman and Tery Spataro.

@orange_viewshttp://www.orangeinsights.com

[email protected]

http://www.orangeinsights.com/

Community During Crisis: What Governments can learn from the Boulder Community’s usage of Social...

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