Social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in some form is likely here to stay, but it is NOT the solution that many think it is for emergency response.  Read about a better Solution here.

Much has been written lately about the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in response to a disaster.  Advocates, including the venerable FEMA Administrator himself, endorse the public's involvement in Social Media for Emergency Management, or in Twitter hashtag parlance: #SMEM.  Of considerable note is the flurry  of messages posted to Twitter from the hellish conditions in Haiti in January 2010 reporting victim locations, etc. 

While emerging technology is generally a good thing, let me add a douse of realism: Social Media in disaster response is both emerging and a technology...and as such, are subject to growth pains and catastrophic failure.  In fairness, so are many tools in our tool bag.

As a responder, I have had the good fortune to be on the delivery end of rescues or recoveries based on reliable data, as well as the frustrating and potentially dangerous misfortune of being on the receiving end of a poor results due to inaccurate data.  This is the rub with the current love affair with social media in emergency response; there is not yet a reliable means to separate the wheat from the chaff, or the information from the intelligence.

Let me add that in any endeavor, there is not a 100% solution, and this is most certainly true of disaster response.  I would much rather have a unsubstantiated piece of information to work with (25% solution) than nothing at all (0% solution).  Just don't expect me to sacrifice a squad of trained rescuers just because an unknown tweet chirps (in less than 140 characters, mind you) that an unknown person is trapped in an unknown building.

Some might see this as a buzz kill by someone clinging to an old way of doing things.  Far from it.  I am impressed and inspired by the works of people like Hal Grieb (@Hal__G) recently with the Plano Texas Department of Emergency Management who has assembled an impressive array of serious social media tools for the emergency responder, Mike Ellis (@EmergCommNetwrk) a provider of emergency communications and highly regarded social media advocate, Dawn Dawson (@northlandfox) a prolific volunteer responder in Kansas City who is more connected and aware than most and of course Craig Fugate (@CraigatFEMA) who has done more to break down the walls between public and private disaster response than most folks.

However, when someone "tweets" that a person is trapped under 4 feet of rubble in a collapsed building at the corner of First and Main, the current wave of enthusiasm suggests that responders should immediately be dispatched to go help them.  What a tremendous feeling of contribution - whereas before we were overcome with helplessness - to now be able to announce that this person has been safely rescued!