Using social media as a communication tool during disaster recovery

Stakeholders come in two forms; internal and external. They are the vendors, suppliers, customers, contractors, and employees of your organization. Each stakeholder has a genuine interest in ensuring the success of the organization and, by knowing and understanding that fact, the organization not only has a duty but a responsibility to deliver the necessary information to each stakeholder regardless of the level of interest they may have. in the company.

When it comes to implementing a business continuity / disaster recovery plan, the organization will have to choose one or two places to communicate with its stakeholders. Certainly, the telephone is no longer the “go to” place. The last thing anyone wants to do is answer the phone in the middle of a hurricane or repeat the same information a hundred or more times a day. Having the right tools at your disposal to communicate with everyone will not only help you stay sane during the middle of a hurricane, it will also empower all stakeholders to know what is happening. So, with the growth of social media tools, the ability to communicate and empower your stakeholders has never been better than now.

Deciding which tools to use can be one of the most difficult tasks you or your organization can encounter when creating a disaster recovery / business continuity plan. There are a ton of tools out there and you can find the right one on your first try or you can keep looking for the right one and find it after numerous tries. There is no need to worry as there are many new and old tools to choose from.

By far some of the oldest and perhaps not as convenient ways to communicate with stakeholders before, during or after a natural or man-made disaster are email, text messaging, and updating a website. . Each is effective in its own way, but it can take too long when all an organization has to do is minutes or seconds.

Email gives the user the ability to transmit a lot of information and attachments in a short period of time. However, one concern is that of email limits. Limits such as those imposed by email software or the administrator to avoid spamming others or sending large files that can bog down systems that are ideally designed for small payloads, such as simple emails.

Text messaging gives the user the ability to communicate “on the go” with short, simple messages. Communicating via text messages can be time consuming as the transmission capacity may be limited. In most cases, this means that the user will have to send individual messages to all interested parties to keep everyone informed. However, the user may be too excited to pay the excess fees that an extended disaster recovery process could bring.

Updating a website can be effective and relatively easy when it comes to getting a lot of information out to a lot of people very quickly, once published. However, the issue of having the time available to properly format, connect, load, and verify an updated web page may not be a possible reality once a hurricane or severe weather event occurs.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and blogs, while web-based, are also by far the easiest and most convenient ways to communicate with all stakeholders, as their accessibility from almost any PC makes them a tool. invaluable. Additionally, with any web-based smartphone, information can be updated from almost anywhere, in almost any situation, and at almost any time.

Short for web logs, blogs have been around for quite some time and are now very easy to set up, format (or not format at all), and use. Upon logging in, the user can update the current situation or accompany that status update with a photograph or two, all in a matter of seconds.

Using the MySpace service also allows for a quick and easy update. Interface applications can be found for the most popular web-enabled phones, such as iPhone or Palm Treo phones. Like a blog, the user can update the current situation and even request immediate feedback from those who are following the user. Non-followers will only have access to updates, as long as the account is set to protected.

While Facebook is relatively easy and quick to set up, it comes at a price. Although it is a free service, the price is that interested parties who wish to be notified by the organization must be “friends” with the organization prior to the launch of any disaster recovery / business continuity plan. This is not advisable, especially when the Facebook user is in the middle of a hurricane, as it is not the best time to be “friends” to spread the word. While it is a very effective tool, it is one that requires a lot of work up front and throughout the process.

Twitter is the newest tool in the shed. It offers any user the ability to communicate with the world 140 characters at a time. Like MySpace and Facebook, people can follow you and you can follow them, but you don’t need to share information. With only 140 characters of use, the service offers the possibility of publishing links through which interested parties can view images, download documents or read more detailed information about the situation of the organization. Like the other services, Twitter can be easily accessed via any Internet-connected PC or Internet-enabled smartphone.

Regardless of the tool or tools you or your organization decide to use, the positives will outweigh the negatives. Knowing when your doors will be open for business or when an operator will be waiting is a sure way to keep your customers happy. It will also keep your suppliers happy because they will know when and where they can start delivering product to your location. Above all, employees will know when it is time to report to work. Therefore, when building the Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery plan, keeping the conversation open between you and your stakeholders will certainly go a long way toward getting everyone back to normal as soon as possible.

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