Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Lucky #13 ... you hear the chatter ?

Up to this point, most of my choices of the top 25 social media in emergency management (SMEM) destinations have either been websites, blogs or Twitter accounts ... or a combination of all these.

Today, my choice is not a person or a group. It's actually a conversation that's been going on for more than a year now. The #smemchat held practically every Friday at 12:30 eastern time, is in my opinion, the best way to spend lunch at work at the end of every week.

More importantly, it's the most comprehensive forum for the exchange of views, opinions and emerging practices on social media in emergency management and crisis communications around. PERIOD. Just take a look at the relevant conversations that occurred last Friday, the day after the shootings at Virginia Tech. For a larger sample of conversations, check out SM4EM.org's page on the chat. It's importance in the advancement of SMEM is unequaled. 

The exchanges are often inspiring (as noted in this blog post by Chris Poirier) and the weekly Twitter chats involve some of the true luminaries pushing the envelope in terms of adoption of social media in emergency management programs. They are too numerous to list all, but they include: @kim26stephens, @thefiretracker2. @EmrgncyTraffic, @greerjacob, @mkelly007, @mpLASD, @_JSPhillips, @CherylBle, @firefighterjp, @garytx ... My apologies if you don't see your twitter handle here ...

To me, the #smemchat is a must ... without a doubt the most significant contribution of the greater #smem community in advancing the cause of social media in emergency management programs as tools to promote preparedness, improve response, speed up recovery and enhance organizational and community resilience.

No comments:

Post a Comment