The value of Facebook when all hell breaks loose

In a time of crisis, these days many people turn to social media in an attempt to find out if their loved ones in places of conflict or disaster are safe. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to reach out and contact family or friends in a way that can be easier to manage when phones and other communications are not an option. But are they the best solutions in a situation like this?

Though Facebook is a very strong platform which has fairly broad influence, it doesn’t have the means to be a targeted and emergency-based means of communication. Messages can be easily overlooked in the wall based system of information distribution and the more direct messages are not the most effective ways of sending a group a short simple message to let them know of someone’s safety. There have always been concerns about the security of personal information on Facebook and though widespread, not Everyone uses it.

In the terrible circumstance that someone is caught within a natural disaster, such as the current earthquake and tsunami in Japan, or during the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack or civil uprising, internet access can be limited and difficult to come by – not to mention unreliable. Ideally, you want to be able to contact as many people as possible with the simplest and quickest means of notification to ensure that everyone important to you knows that you are safe.
Though Facebook and Twitter both offer a variety of ways of submitting, you have very little control over who ultimately sees your posts. As much as this sort of communication is about putting friends and family’s worries to rest, it is also about being able to relax knowing that you have managed to tell everyone that you are ok. For this reason, a service which allows you to send out one message (in a variety of ways) but which directs it specifically at all the people that you want to know have received it is extremely useful.
Programs such as ShoutSafe – in the Voyage Manager family– for example, allow you to set up a list of people back home who would want to know your status in the event of an emergency. With one message into the ShoutSafe system, you then trigger a message to each of those people and in a way suitable for them – SMS, email, or on the website. With one message, you have the security of knowing that all your loved ones know you are safe.
So, while advances in social media have made it much easier to spread and share information, in times of crisis, it is still better to have a specifically designed program that you can know you can rely on. Then you can get back to Facebook – you never know, someone may have poked you!