Kicking off another social media class at the State of South Carolina’s Emergency Operations Center.

Lots of peeps from across the state here with a fine welcome from SCEMD Training Coordinator Perry Bailey.

Not only working with local agencies, but from across the state, but also with other agencies who could support work cross state borders.

Also a fine welcome from the SCEMD Asst PIO Kim to support JIC Operations.

ESF-15 in the hizzouse!!!!!

Proud to have so many of these agencies here today.

Always glad to have more pros here to help every community across South Carolina. And to use social media to increase visibility is totes important.

#NDPTC

@rusnivek

Attention attention! This week again in FEMA Region 4! Just gotta find Derrec and Adam now…

Maybe I should put out an APB for them…

@rusnivek

What are the four phases of Emergency Management? Disasters?

Preparedness – Response – Recovery – Mitigation

Well, you’ve heard of the Waffle House index right? I’m sure you have thanks to Craig Fugate.

But here’s a few other sure signs that your local economy is in the recovery phase of a disaster:

Ships have returned with lots of shipping containers with stuff.

Tourists. Lots of tourists have returned.

And the easiest sign that you have started the recovery phase….T-shirts!

Ahhh yes, the local economy is an easy indicator for disaster phases

@rusnivek

Hurricane Lane update

Hoping for a quicker turn west as Lane continues to de compensate from that northerly windshear.

Me? Still on standby to gooooooooooooooo

@rusnivek

C’mon – stop stalling!

Don’t even think about turning north or east.

Get out of here!

@rusnivek

Keeping a close eye on Hurricane Lane today.

Hoping that it stays on it’s projected path…maybe even more westerly please.

Back here, we are supporting our local services from DuPage County, Will County, and Cook County with a whole set of classes in partnership w/ DHS.

This Train-the-Trainer class will enhance our abilities to share and outreach to others who work tirelessly in an emergency or disaster.

We work hard to bring top tier training for all our emergency services pros.

Glad to be a part of this team at DuPage County.

@rusnivek

And there’s the official FEMA HQ standby call at 1540…

#PIO Mount up!

Dear Hurricane Lane: For the sake of my family in Hawaii, I hope you disappear.

Sincerely

@rusnivek

Kicking off Cheryl Bledsoe’s favorite course Social Media Engagement Strategies!

Glad to see a few old friends here at the State of Mississippi EMA. Hiya Tina!

In this class, we talk a bunch about strategy and how we can focus our efforts for maximum outputs. Yes, writing SMART Objectives are not only for ICS and Incident Commanders, but are also for astute social media pros.

So give me your SMART Objectives please!

Now we continue to build on those SMART social media objectives and then roll them into a strategy that any emergency manager can use for their agency.

Proud of the work done here at the State of Mississippi EMA. Looking forward to seeing their work put into play very soon.

No doubt, Mississippi has had it fair share of disasters. BTW-this is an example of the amount of tornado activity and path they took from 1950-2016.

Whoa is right.

Empowering locals as well as state officials will only better their response capabilities. This will ultimately lead to better cohesion esp through communications during disaster response and recovery.

Proud to serve my fellow Emergency Management Pros and look forward to working with all of you during the next big disaster or emergency.

@rusnivek

And now for my favorite class ever….Social Media Tools and Techniques!!!!!

Time to get your search on and yes, group work is mandatory in this class.

And as the bonus, I brought all the fun PIO toys too.

Yes, that is the famous #PIOStick – deployable and relatively economically feasible for doing all kinds of PIO work out in the field.

Groups discussed preparedness messaging using all kinds of tools including a few to make your messaging more 508 compliant.

We also discussed critical response messaging because time is critical esp to those who have to evacuate immediately.

Our class also formulated rumor control all-hazard messaging specifically designed for crisis management – because rumors are a huge problem during any disaster or emergency. Here’s an example of the FBI pros working closely with local public safety partners to have a joint message push.

Glad to see so many local, county, state, and Federal agencies participating in today’s class. Even more proud to see their willingness to work together now BEFORE a disaster.

And that my friends, is the true magic behind why I teach these classes.

See you on the next big one.

@rusnivek