Leveraging Social Media and SEO for Online Disaster Outreach

Transcription

1 Lessons from Sandy Leveraging Social Media and SEO for Online Disaster Outreach Note: Creative Commons License allows others to use and share this information, as long as it is done with attribution credit, without changes, and not for profit

2 About This Toolkit Nearly one million people are affected by natural disasters each year. When thinking about response and recovery, social media has become the go-to tool for those affected by disasters. The goal of this toolkit is to help nonprofits and community groups harness the power of social media and search engine optimization (SEO) in emergency and disaster situations. It builds on the lessons learned from the tremendous effort of hundreds of community groups, government agencies, and ad hoc groups during and after Sandy and proposes best practices, new tips, and tools for cost-effective online disaster outreach. LawHelpNY is a Collaborative Project of: Pro Bono Net Legal Services NYC Empire Justice Center City Bar Justice Center Volunteers of Legal Services New York State Bar Association The Legal Aid Society of New York Legal Services of the Hudson Valley Legal Assistance of Western New York Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York

3 About Us On the evening of October 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy raged through New York State, LawHelpNY staff began compiling a list of emergency resources, hotlines, and programs offering assistance. Building on our existing blogging and social media work, we launched a Disaster Assistance Blog in English and Spanish. What began as a disparate list of resources quickly became a comprehensive online guide to disaster relief at the federal, state, local, and community level. The blog was later featured on NY1 and NBC News, and is listed among the disaster resources on the NY 1 website. In addition to this, we used Facebook and Twitter to announce breaking news and upcoming events. Later, as disaster relief turned into disaster recovery and long-term planning, numerous front line legal aid organizations throughout New York City and Long Island began providing direct services to those most affected. They helped victims file for FEMA and Disaster Unemployment Insurance benefits, answered immigration status questions, assisted with insurance claims and with many other immediate legal needs. This effort is ongoing. To assist, we launched an online calendar of Free Disaster Aid Legal Clinics. Through these coordinated online efforts, our blog visits went from about 50 a day pre-sandy to over 1,000 a day and are now stabilizing at about 600 per day. We experienced first-hand how powerful, dynamic, and yes, chaotic, online tools and social media can be in emergency situations. Over the course of weeks after Sandy, several things stood out about our experience that led us to the development of this toolkit: (1) We were struck by the wide and extensive outpouring of information and assistance online. Some of these efforts were uncoordinated and duplicative, yet carried out by thousands of well-intentioned people and community groups, (2) The abundance of information also led to some confusion, spread of half-truths or false rumors, And, (3) the resource and information needs followed a clear sequence from the beginning of the emergency to the post-recovery period. We realized that there was a method when responding to disasters that could be applied to create online content and disseminate information. Hence, this toolkit. This toolkit was developed with the support from the New York Community Trust and the New York State IOLA Fund. This toolkit describes the steps we took, the strategies we followed, the lessons learned and the experiments still underway. We hope this helps other nonprofits, and especially our sister legal aid organizations whose mission like ours is to increase access to justice, to better serve those who are victims of emergencies and disasters. We welcome any feedback, suggestions, additions, etc. as we will keep updating this resource over time. Please send your comments to info@nylawhelp.org. Who We Are LawHelpNY ( and is the sole Internet portal in New York State that provides low-income and vulnerable people with information about free legal aid offices in every county and every zip code in the state, thousands of Know Your Rights and self-help resources covering 16 areas of civil law, in English, Spanish and 34 other languages information about the court system, and links to other kinds of advocacy and social services. The websites feature LiveHelp, an online chat service in English and Spanish so that people with legal questions or a legal crisis can get one-one real time assistance in finding the information they need. LawHelpNY is managed by collaboration of ten legal aid, pro bono advocacy, and bar associations called the New York LawHelp Consortium. It includes Pro Bono Net, Legal Services-NYC, the Legal Aid Society, City Bar Justice Center, Volunteers of Legal Service, New York State Bar Association, Empire Justice Center, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, Legal Assistance of Western NY and the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern NY.

4 Table of Contents Ten Trends Regarding Social Media and Online Disaster Outreach... 1 Social Media and Search Engine Optimization during Disaster Relief and Recovery... 2 Making Your Content Easier... 3 Getting the World Out... 8 Top Five Social Media Tips.. 11 Mapping and Other Visualization Tools. 14 Index 1 Sandy-Related Keywords... 13

5 10 Trends Regarding Social Media and Online Disaster Outreach The trends highlighted here provide a snapshot of how social media and other technologies have expanded the reach and impact of organizations and individuals during Hurricane Sandy Social media has become the fastest and most reliable way to provide information in crisis situations. During Hurricane Sandy, independent groups, government agencies, and citizens were empowered by these online tools and platforms. Yet, the process of adopting social media and transforming it to actionable steps which enhance emergency assistance and recovery efforts remains a complicated one. When looking to utilize social media during emergency situations, your organization should consider these ten trends about social media and online disaster outreach: 1 1. Chose a role: active or passive? Due to limited time and resources, your organization should decide whether to take a passive or active role during emergency and disaster situations. During Sandy, most groups took a passive role which included: Broadcasting and dissemination of information. Rumor monitoring and management. However, the expanding use of more active and interactive social media during Sandy included: Responding to the public and attending to assistance requests. Monitoring and data collection. Creating situational awareness (see Using data for visuals and maps. Lessons Learned Mobilizing people and resources. 2. Using data for visuals & maps During Sandy, crowd-sourced data was used to create maps and other visualizations. These visuals provided situational awareness by showing the location of medical assistance, shelters, ice stations, etc. Their usefulness has increased calls for more hyper-local information. If your organization wants to play a more active role in disaster assistance, explore free or low-cost tools you can use to create online maps and other interactive visuals. Innovative Uses of Social Media and Digital Technologies during Hurricane Sandy Occupy Sandy Recovery: used maps and a WordPress site to provide information, connect individuals with resources, collect donations, and more. Crisis Commons: developed databases, crisis maps and other ways to present information, to help track the availability of fuel, hotel spaces, transportation systems and the evacuations of hospital and long-term care facilities. Rockaway Help Facebook Page: started by community members, the page was used to communicate with Rockaway residents and facilitate donations requests. American Red Cross Hurricane App: Provided information to help in individual recovery efforts. 3. Centralized and aggregated Information Due to the abundance of information during and after Sandy, many groups created central hubs of information. These hubs featured volunteer opportunities, information on where to find food assistance, gas stations, pharmacies, hotels, etc. These hubs were often cited and/or cross-linked among different groups and media. Therefore, before developing original content, your organization should make a collecting of existing resources and information and provide that info to the public.

6 4. Personal stories matter The expanding role of citizen journalism through social media allowed residents affected by Sandy to share information and experiences. These online platforms were flooded with photos, stories, and requests for assistance. Personal stories can be used for information gathering and disaster community assessments which you can use to help you create relevant content for affected communities. 5. Social media is powerful, yet fragmented There are many social media platforms and tools. Therefore, the biggest challenges for your organizations is (1) deciding which of these you want to use to distribute your content and (2) how to get your content noticed among the various platforms, and (3) how to keep up with all the information. 6. Managing information overload During Sandy, Red Cross staff monitored 2.5 million Sandyrelated social media postings. That s a lot of content! So, essential to online disaster outreach is creating a social media communication work flow in order to keep up with constant information changes and managing your organization s own content creation. 7. Fact-checking is essential Abundance of information was not the only challenge during Sandy; managing misinformation was also prevalent. Therefore, your organization should always make time for fact-checking and photo verification. These efforts can highlight your organization s expertise and authority. 8. Review social media plans and policies Your social media plans and policies should be reviewed frequently to ensure that your agency s intentions for using social media during disasters match the needs of your community. 9. Collaborate! During Sandy, social media tools were used for collaborative problem solving and decision making. Therefore, identify your key partners and ways that you can collaborate online in the case of an emergency. 10. Anticipate & planahead when possible You never know when the next emergency situation will arise. But there are several things you can do now to ensure you have the systems in place to be able to provide effective online disaster outreach. This toolkit can help you plan ahead. Mapping Data in Action: This Google Crisis Map allowed visitors to search for food pantries, evacuation centers, volunteer opportunities, and more.

7 Social Media & Search Engine Optimization during Disaster Relief and Recovery There are many reasons why you should consider employing social media and search engine optimize strategies when conducting online disaster outreach. Key reasons are: As stated earlier, more and more people are turning to social media in times of crisis. You don t want to miss out on the opportunity to help and engage with your clients and community. For the most part, these strategies are a cheap or low-cost way to do community outreach. Simple social media and SEO strategies can help you manage the information overload and also make it easier for others to find your content and information easier and faster in times of an emergency. These strategies can help you collaborate with key stakeholders more effectively. They highlight and communicate your clients stories and needs to a wider community and help you to mobilize resources and assistance where needed most. But I don t have time to learn both SEO and social media. That s ok, because you don t have to! It s important to point that SEO and social media strategies are not two separate and distinct tactics that you have to try to memorize. Rather effective SEO includes the use of (1) social media along with (2) links and (3) content. These three factors form the basis of effective online disaster outreach. There is a relationship between these three. Useful and great content that is relevant to your clients is often shared extensively via social media. Likewise, if your organization has a reputation for creating consistently good and useful content, key organizations and government agencies will link to your website and online resources. These links from high quality and reputable websites reinforce your organization s online presence as a solid and trustworthy resource. Social Media and SEO

8 Strategy 1: Using Content Step 1 Set up a monitoring and listening system People are increasingly turning to social media for assistance. Is your organization listening? Don t wait till the next emergency to set up your social media monitoring and listening system. Having these systems in place helps you provide timely and lifesaving information to your client community. By monitoring online communities, your staff can also identify emerging trends and potential hotspots that could become flashpoints for crisis. Listening tools which help you manage information are: Topsy RowFeeder Google alerts HootSuite Sprout Social Buffer Step 2 manage and organize your online information: Use hashtags: in Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram to identify trending news that relates to your community. Lookout for special social media channels and accounts: During Sandy, government agencies and nonprofits started Sandy-information accounts or channels on YouTube and Twitter. For example, a Twitter account called, Sandy Aid (@sandyaid) was created after Sandy hit. Also, Instacane.com channeled Sandy-related info from the Instagram feed). Use Twitter Advanced Search: to search for people who are tweeting within a geographic radius. This can provide you with live on the-ground news affecting your target community. Use social bookmarking sites: like Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon to find popular news online. During emergencies, there s usually whole sections devoted to curating relevant social news. For example, during Sandy there was a Hurricane Sandy: During Sandy, there were three phases to disaster-related content: Phase 1: Crisis Preparedness During this phase, information was centered on reducing risks and ensuring safety. The types of information most common where: Location tracking of storm Storm warnings Evacuation information and routes Shelters and recovery centers Storm photos and footage Phase 2: Crisis Response During this phase, information was focused on providing emergency assistance and information about the different types of government and community resources. It included info on: Responding to emergency needs from the community Available emergency resources Housing and shelters Medical and mental health assistance Power and electricity resources Reuniting survivors with their loved ones First aid supplies; Bandages, antiseptic, etc. Water and Food USING CONTENT

9 Step 3 Make time for photo verification and rumor control Phases of disaster-related content (Continued): Phase 3: Disaster Recovery This phase focuses on longer term planning and support. Important information should cover things such as: Fake photo circulated during Sandy In order to reinforce your organizations reputation as a reliable and accurate source of information, make sure not to fall for fake photos or false rumors. During Sandy, FEMA launched a Hurricane Sandy: Rumor Control page, which helped to distinguish the truth from false information about contractors, cash cards, food stamps and shelters. You should be sure to review pages such as this before you send out information or a photo that has not been verified. To verify the authenticity of an image, your organization should practice the use of reverse look-up photo tools to identify the source of an image. The following free tools do this for you: TinEye Google Image Search RevIMG Disaster assistance resources and disaster recovery centers Factsheets on: educationrelated info and contacts, tenant and homeowners rights, insurance, taxes, etc., FEMA and state resources and contacts Job/volunteer opportunities Legal assistance Immigrant resources; Financial assistance and funding resources Hotlines Keep in Mind: When designing your disaster-related content the formats that are most easily shared online are: Tips How-to Quotes Checklists Infographics Using hashtags during disaster response and recovery In New York, a collection of hashtags were used during Sandy as powerful aggregators of information. The most common ones used were: #Sandy, #ZoneA, #Frankenstorm, #NYSandy, #NYCSandy, #sandyaid. When using hashtags during disaster response and recovery, try not to recreate the wheel. Instead, search for existing relevant trending hashtags on Twubs or use these instead. This will make it easier for find and curate information under one hashtag as opposed to having to monitor several. If you have to create your own hashtag provide a standard formula for hashtags such as #CityNameEventDate.

10 About Hashtags Hashtags were developed to create groupings on Twitter. In regards to disaster assistance and emergency management, the hashtag you use with your tweets will either create a group, or include you in an existing group that has already been created around a specific topic or event. Tweets that do not use hashtags are easily lost in the social media noise. For example, tweeting without a hashtag only makes your tweet seen by those that follow you. However, by adding a hashtag to your tweet, you automatically include it into existing discussion about the given topic.

11 . Strategy 2: Making your content easier to find with SEO and Social Media This next section discusses specific ways that your organization can use SEO and social media to make it easier for others to find your disaster-related content. As mentioned, SEO and social media are no longer two distinct strategies. Rather, they are now complementary as one reinforces the other and vice versa. There are many SEO and social media strategies available, some that weeks and months to realize their impact. As a result, due to the need for fast and timely information during a disaster, we will just be highlighting those strategies which will give you the biggest impact quickly. Plan ahead: Lay the Ground Work for Effective Online Disaster Response The strategies in this toolkit work best with the following essential items. Whether you have a website and/or a blog that you administer, make sure to: SEO & SOCIAL MEDIA Check your design: Content should be easy to read and website should be easy to navigate. You should also have a responsive design, meaning that it s also easy to read and use on mobile phones or tablets. Check your speed: Make sure the website and its pages load quickly. Check the quality of your content: You should already be devoting time to producing good original content that is relevant to the needs of your target community. Check your social media presence: You should have an active social media presence and already be devoting time to keeping your supporters engaged. Check your links: You should already have community groups, nonprofits, and government agencies linking to your website.

12 Developing your keywords During the disaster planning and recovery stages, make sure to monitor keyword searches on Google. Below are steps you need to make in order to develop a list of keywords for you and your staff: 1. Identify 20 long tail keywords related to the disaster information you want to circulate: Long tail keywords are longer and more specific keywords. Although, the individual keywords that make up a long tail keyword are less common; together, they account for a large chunk of search-engine driven traffic. To find long tail keywords, use Google Adwords Tool and put in a general keyword phrase that describes what your content is about. For example, if you wrote an article explaining FEMA housing benefits and want to target your search in say, NYC, you can put FEMA Housing in the Keyword Planner section of this tool and NYC as the geographic area that you are targeting. When you hit search, look at the last few pages of the results as this is where long tail keywords can often be found. The blue boxes below highlight the long term keywords for FEMA Housing: (1) help for displaced families, (2) help with emergency housing, (3) how can I get housing assistance, and (4) fema help for flood victims.

13 Another great tool for finding long tail keywords is Ubersuggest. Like Google Ad Words Tool, just plug in a keyword and the tool will produce a list of long tail keywords. For either tool, make sure to always indicate the city, town, or state that you are trying to target. This is especially important for those smaller community groups or nonprofits that may be focused on a specific area. There s no need to show up for keywords all around the country if you only serve your city or state. Finally, make sure to review your keyword searches at least every two weeks. This helps you identify new trends; wants and needs of those involved with the event and keep you up-to-date with the language and therefore, keywords that others are using to search for disasterrelated information. LawHelpNY Infographic: Using Keywords during Disaster Online Outreach

14 How to use your keywords Step 2: Share copies of this list with your staff: Make sure that you provide any staff involved in the creation and sharing of your disaster-related content either via your website, blog, or social media with a list of these keywords. It will help them remember to use these keywords as much as possible as well as keep them current with the online information needs of your community. Along these lines, in Index A of this toolkit we have put together a list of Sandy disaster-related keywords for you to use in your own work. Step 3: For the fastest impact, incorporate these keywords into key places: Traditional SEO requires careful integration of selected keywords into both the content you produce as well as the architecture of your website. These strategies are often not very timely because they require search engines to crawl your website and content (this process can sometimes take weeks). At the same time, some of these changes requires the time of your IT staff, so they are not something you can quickly implement. Therefore, below are the easiest places to incorporate these keywords that can still give you fast SEO impact: Titles and headlines within your article or post: Text that is formatted prominently (bigger, bolder, higher on the page) is more likely to affect search engine placement than other text, so keywords will hold more weight in headlines. If you do not want to change your article title or headlines, then try putting the keywords as close to the beginning of your article as you can. This helps with how you are found via Google Instant, and when you do show up on page one, users will more easily notice your title as they scan down the results. Note: Try to keep your titles short; such as 60 characters or less. Most search engines will only recognize up to sixty characters. Link text: Optimize the links within your own site and especially any external links you have control over, for example in your blog, signatures, social network profiles, and so on. Encourage others to link to you using your keywords for instance, by providing keyword-heavy titles and descriptions for resources on your site. Page text: Incorporate your keywords as much as you can within the body of your article. However, do not go overboard! Rather keep it relevant and not too distracting. Website page URL: If you are able to, try to make sure the page URL where your article is posted includes some of the long tail keywords. URLs you craft for social sharing: URLs that promote social sharing have the most impact if they are short and catchy. However, if you can also incorporate some of your long tail keywords you will also increase its chances of ranking well in the search engines. In your images: There are two places where you should embed your keywords into any images you will be using. These are (1) Image Alt text and (2) image file name.

15 Getting the Word Out: The Role of Social Media Below is an outline of some of the easiest, timeliest, and most effective social media strategies which you can use to increase the findability of your disaster-related content. Below are the top five tips for getting your content out in social media as quickly as possible: 1) Use images: It s been studied and confirmed extensively that adding images to your post increases engagement by 200%. Even better, encourage your staff and community to take pics of the impact the disaster is having in their neighborhood and share those with your networks. If you are not already using Pinterest or Instagram, you should create an account to keep log your pictures and share them with the public. 2) Ask your readers and social media contacts for help: In an emergency situation, people are eager help distribute essential information for others. Therefore, if you have created content in the end ask your readers to share the content on their own pages. On Twitter, make sure to include a please RT within your tweet. Tweets with this included are four times more likely to get a retweet. 3) Simplify your social sharing buttons on your website or blog: In order to encourage social sharing, make sure to just offer social sharing options for those networks that your community is most likely to use. Sometimes, social sharing buttons with every social network available can be a put off. 4) Don t forget to cross-link: In a disaster emergency situation, government agencies, community groups, and nonprofits, should be working together to get information out to the public as quickly and effectively as possible. As a result, reach out to partners and ask them to link to your content as well as notify them where you will be linking to their own. 5) Don t forget your target community may not be online: Therefore, considerations need to be made to reach vulnerable populations (i.e. the blind community, lower-income groups) as lack of access and knowledge to social media poses a barrier to reach then through social media. Connection with organizations that communicate and work directly with these vulnerable populations will help to alleviate this challenge.

16 FINAL NOTE As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest surprises in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was the extensive and effective use of social media and digital tools to share information and monitor community needs. Whether it was tools to monitor Tweets or images, maps that highlighted community needs, crowdsourcing through text messages, or hackathons, there were several cutting-edge innovations that came together at an astonishing speed. We can only expect that these will continue to grow and diversify when we are faced with another unfortunate event. Therefore, for those organizations or community groups that are interested in using social media and digital tools more interactively, we have included the table which lists the best data visualization tools available. There are many digital tools that you can use to create maps and visualize information in compelling and accurate ways. We have provided information to help you make the best choice based on ease of use, cost, and functionalities available. Please Note: Freemium refers to those programs which offer basic tools for free, but require you to pay in order to access more advance features. Tools highlighted as requires programming skills, require specialized technical and programming knowledge. Visuals

17 Requires Easy to Programming Open Offers Multiple Tool Use Skills Freemium Source Visualization Tools Infographics Visual.ly X X Piktochart X X Ease.ly X Infogr.am X X Mapping StatPlanet X X Worldmapper X X VIDI X X X OpenHeatMap X X Timelines Timeflow X X Xtimeline X X TimelineJS X X Timeline Setter X X TimePlot X X X Data Visualization Gap Minder X X X Many Eyes X X X Hohli X X X Tableau (Public) X X X D3.js X X X Circos X X X Juice Labs X X X Gephi X X x Prefuse X X x Pentaho X X X Saiku X X X VisIt X X X Paraview X X X Datawrapper X X X Diagrams/Charts Creately X X X Google Chart Tools X X X Dia X X X SmartDraw X X X Text Visuals Tagcrowd X X X Wordle X X X Network Analysis Networkx X X NetDraw X X X

18 In general many of the Sandy and disaster relief keywords had a low volume, as a result, the best combination are those which have a low and high volume. Index A High volume Sandy hurricane relief Hurricane sandy relief programs Disaster relief organizations Disaster relief organizations list Disaster recovery services Emergency Management Disaster relief assistance Emergency disaster preparedness Disaster and recovery Disaster recovery Disaster recovery support NY state disaster relief FEMA disaster recovery National flood insurance FEMA flood insurance Disaster insurance Government flood insurance Flood insurance claims Federal flood insurance FEMA disaster recovery center Disaster recovery assistance FEMA insurance coverage Disaster recovery article Disaster housing assistance Disaster recovery small businesses Disaster recovery website Disaster recovery information Disaster recovery organizations Emergency financial help Housing financial assistance Disaster recovery program Probono legal help Legal help Fema small business loans Free clinics Restoration contractors House floods Hurricane sandy temporary housing Help after hurricane sandy NY sandy help Sandy-Related Keywords Flood contractors How do I find a contractor Dealing with depression Depression help Mold removal Water damage restoration Mold in house Irs forms Tax relief Irs help Free tax advice Tax relief help Irs debt relief Food damage Storm damage repair sandy disaster relief sandy grants help for small business owners grants for hurricane Sandy sba loans Sandy small business loans nyc Medium Volume NY disaster relief NYC disaster relief Help for hurricane sandy victims Sandy relief nyc Hurricane sandy disaster relief FEMA hurricane sandy Hurricane sandy relief Hurricane sandy relief new York Hurricane relief Hurricane sandy grants Refer to our section on digital NY Emergency management media storytelling for other Disaster food assistance tips and suggestions on how to Hurricane sandy assistance ny use your videos and Hurricane sandy assistance photographs to share your research.

19 Hurricane Sandy housing Insurance hurricane sandy Federal disaster assistance Apply for fema disaster assistance Fema emergency assistance Fema disaster assistance Hurricane sandy victims Hurricane sandy aid Nys sandy NYS hurricane sandy NYS hurricane sandy relief Sandy hurricane aid Hurricane sandy claims FEMA housing What does flood insurance cover Sandy insurance claims Hurricane sandy claims FEMA claims for hurricane sandy FEMA disaster relief What does flood insurance cover Fema disaster assistance number Fema housing assistance program Fema disaster assistance sandy FEMA gov assistance Fema financial assistance Disaster repair Disaster relief agency Denial appeal letter Template for an appeal letter Free clinic Disaster contractors Depression How to clean mold Hurricane sandy long island New York Hurricane sandy grants Hurricane sandy financial assistance Hurricane sandy loans Low-volume Disaster relief New York New York Sandy recovery NYC Sandy recovery new york Sandy new york fema hurricane sandy effects in new York city New York City Emergency Management Disaster assistance Sandy disaster assistance Hurricane Sandy disaster assistance Disaster assistance hurricane sandy FEMA disaster assistance sandy Sandy food bank Hurricane sandy rebuilding Help after a disaster National grid nyc Stress symptoms Filing tax extension Staten island sandy damage storm restoration staten island hurricane relief long island new york hurricane sandy insurance hurricane Sandy recovery from hurricane Sandy hurricane sandy restoration hurricane sandy recovery update hurricane sandy floods sandy disaster areas Sandy-Related Keywords

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