TCIP #045 - The American Red Cross's Social Media Command Center with Curtis Midkiff

Welcome to episode #045 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Curtis Midkiff.

The American Red Cross is known for their amazing, life saving emergency management and humanitarian work. A big part of their success is due to their evolutionary mindset and corporate culture that empowers them to change and adapt with the times.

What has always fascinated me are their extreme capabilities in the use of social media for real-time emergency management. Today they have three social media command centers, also known as “digidocs”, that serve as their home base for monitoring, listening, responding, communicating, targeting – you name it – both in and out of crises and emergencies.

In this episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down and discuss the details and strategy behind the American Red Cross’s social media emergency management strategy and set-up with Curtis Midkiff, director of social engagement at the American Red Cross.

Throughout this discussion, Curtis and I discuss everything from the importance of having an “always on” mentality when it comes to crisis management, to how the American Red Cross has set up their social media listening tools, what they listen to and for, how they categorize and group their monitoring efforts, how they train their teams of volunteers, and so much more!

Whether you work in the emergency management field or on the crisis management team for a corporate entity, Curtis shares so many great takeaways in this podcast that you will be able to evaluate and hopefully incorporate into your own social media for crisis management strategy.

Interesting is an understatement when referring to this episode of TCIP. Enjoy!

Running time: 52:16

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Learn more about Melissa Agnes
Follow Melissa on Twitter: @melissa_agnes
Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn
Email Melissa directly: melissa@melissaagnes.com

Learn more about Agnes + Day, Melissa’s crisis management firm.

Learn more about Curtis and connect with him on LinkedIn
Follow Curtis on Twitter: @clmidkiff

Follow the Red Cross on Twitter: @redcross
Like them on Facebook
Check out the American Red Cross’s blog: redcrosschat.org

Curtis spoke about the new disaster portal the American Red Cross is in the process of developing. It’s a great initiative and you can check it out here: redcross.org/disaster-action

A big thank you to Curtis for taking the time to have this important and insightful conversation with me!

This post, TCIP #045 - The American Red Cross's Social Media Command Center with Curtis Midkiff, was first published to melissaagnes.com.