Yesterday morning my Twitter stream lit up with breaking news reports of an explosion at a Power Plant under construction in Connecticut. In this short screen cast I show how a Google Search and Advanced Twitter Search can be used to gather real-time incident intelligence from people at or near the incident.
When initiating my search I made a critical error. See if you can catch it.
This technique could be useful to:
Hospitals preparing to receive casualties
Administrators trying to determine how many off-duty personnel to call in
Emergency management officials making decisions about opening a county or regional IC
Selecting which shelters to open or close
How else could you use Google search, Google Alerts, and Advanced Twitter Search for social media intelligence gathering?
About the author
Greg Friese wrote 58 articles on this blog.
Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is an author, podcaster, blogger, and advocate for emergency response agencies to use social media before, during, and after any incident. Greg is the Director of Education for CentreLearn Solutions, LLC. He is also the co-host of the EMSEduCast podcast and is a paramedic for a 911 agency in northeast Wisconsin
15555 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fpiosocialmediatraining.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fsocial-media-tools-for-intelligence-gathering-screen%2FSocial+Media+Tools+for+Intelligence+Gathering+%23Screen2010-02-08+17%3A18%3A54Greg+Friesehttp%3A%2F%2Fpiosocialmediatraining.com%2F%3Fp%3D1555 to “Social Media Tools for Intelligence Gathering #Screen”
Besides using both "Middleton" and "Middletown", I don't see a mistake.
I do however find it interesting that if you look at the results at 00:37 of the video, the bottom showing Tweet is from @USABreakingNews that is reiterating a news report from WFSB-TV of "More than 100 injured, 4 critically…" when according to the mayor's press conference there were 5 deaths and 12 injuries. That is a pretty big range difference from my perspective.
I think it is imperative for agencies to be a source of trusted information and not add to the rumor mill and speculation that often accompany these events. Great job illustrating how an Agency can gather geo-located information using the Social Media tools.
Besides using both "Middleton" and "Middletown", I don't see a mistake.
I do however find it interesting that if you look at the results at 00:37 of the video, the bottom showing Tweet is from @USABreakingNews that is reiterating a news report from WFSB-TV of "More than 100 injured, 4 critically…" when according to the mayor's press conference there were 5 deaths and 12 injuries. That is a pretty big range difference from my perspective.
I think it is imperative for agencies to be a source of trusted information and not add to the rumor mill and speculation that often accompany these events. Great job illustrating how an Agency can gather geo-located information using the Social Media tools.