Facebook to Notify of Disasters

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network met on Tuesday with members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Emergency Management Agency to discuss ways for Facebook to expand on the increasingly important role it has played coordinating response efforts and to explore ways it can be used to notify communities of impending disasters, too.

"Discussions like these help us learn from each other about what is working well and what isn't", said Shayne Adamski, a FEMA senior manager.

Facebook created and manages a page called Global Disaster Relief, which helps notify members of efforts to respond to disasters around the world, but it has only attracted 540,000 members, about less than one percent of the site's total membership. The group, though, has more members than all the Facebook pages combined of the groups present at the meeting.

Facebook officials gave the groups present at the meeting tips and advice on how to better manage their pages to attract more attention and garner more fans.

"We can play a really important role in educating", said Dave Steer, manager of Facebook's trust and safety team. "This is one of the reasons we convened this kind of forum".

Facebook has a lot of experience dealing with emergencies as more and more regular people have turned to social media in times of distress.

Social media also played a large role during last month's tornado that destroyed Joplin, Mo. Residents of the area posted photos to their Facebook profiles showing the disaster and missing loved ones. Several Facebook pages were created to allow community members to post and share any information about the tornado and those who were unaccounted for and still missing.

Social media in general has become a go-to destination for people in crisis. Twitter played a large role during the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The social network allowed people to stay in contact with friends and family, and know if loved ones were safe after landlines and mobile phones were rendered un-usable.

According to Mashable, only an hour after the Japanese earthquake began, more than 1,200 Tweets per minute were being sent from Tokyo. Twitter reported it had broken single day records in both tweets (177 million) and new accounts added (572,000, up from the average of 460,000).

"While the broadcast media gave their global audience an understanding of what was taking place, social media provided the underlying pictures, especially useful for those of us living in Japan, where the top-line details simply weren't enough", said Jesse Green, executive director of the Tokyo office for PR firm Hill & Knowlton.

With Facebook sharpening their crisis response, the site looks to join Twitter as social media plays an increasing role in communication during disaster events.