Monitoring tools become standard, not the exception
In the first quarter of 2012, we conducted an exploratory study into the use of social media in the security domain (PDF). This study shows that the security domain mainly uses social media to provide information about work, the organization and in the event of incidents and calamities. However, everything starts with listening. In order to know what is going on, organizations must learn to listen even better. In a study among alumni of the Master Crisis and Disaster Management and Master Crisis and Public Order Management and among participants in the Information Manager program in the crisis management column, strikingly large differences can be seen in the use of social media. When it comes to the use of social media within the work, they are mainly used as a source of information. A number of users also list to data use it for environmental analysis, for example during incidents.
What is striking is that the vast majority does not listen efficiently on social media. Only a few use tools such as RSS feeds (the ability to automatically retrieve new messages on websites and bundle them into one overview) and dashboards such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite (the ability to read and send messages from social media in one place).
We see that monitoring tools are increasingly meeting the needs, but that organizations do not always connect to these tools. We expect that to change in 2013. Monitoring the environment will become the aorta of the safety domain. The expectation is that the Twitcident tool will play a major role in this, as evidenced by the latest experiences in Enschede at Serious Request with the system .
twit incident
Citizens expect even more contact with the government via social media in 2013. Rene Leijen is certain, 112 reports are sent via Twitter. “You have to be where your customers are,” says René. We think he has a point. In recent months, research has been conducted twice on the use of social media in emergency situations (PDF). It was conducted among two different target groups: once it was distributed nationwide via social media in particular and once among Burgernet participants in the Gelderland-Midden region.
Both studies show that the majority of citizens expect the emergency services to monitor social media 24/7 and to respond immediately to messages for help. Many citizens (the average of both studies is 43.3%) expect that in five years the response of the emergency services to a report via social media will be just as fast as via 1-1-2. We doubt whether 112 reports will already be sent via Twitter and Facebook in 2013. In any case, in 2013 there will be even more contact with the government via social media. An example of this can already be seen in America: there, officers tweet live 112 reports.