David Murphy of PC Magazine recently published an article that looked at the role of social media in emergency response – this article came out post hurricane Irene. The piece looks at information based on a report out of the Red Cross that looks at how people view social media networks and the role they play in emergency response and crisis situations. According to the Red cross, the org has been told by the public that they want communications by facebook and they seek comfort in updates that come via Twitter.
This from the article… “The Red Cross surveyed around 2,050 individuals in a nearly equal mix of phone and online surveys, finding that people consider the Internet to be the third most popular method for gathering emergency information beyond television and radio announcements. And people also want their own requests for information and assistance processed in a timely manner: 39 percent of online respondents and 35 percent of telephone respondents would expect help within an hour’s time if they asked for it via a social media platform.”
The author has put together an interesting infographic (a portion seen below) about how people use social media in emergencies
