Using Facebook for inclement weather: main page or niche page?

[Sarah McMaster]

Hi All,

I read through the existing threads on crisis communications etc. but I have a more specific question --

With inclement weather closings specifically, what are the best practices around Facebook? Is the main college page better, or is a separate alert or notification page or group better?

Are you using Facebook at all? Are you finding success, challenges?

How does an internal portal factor in? We use the EAICampus iConnect portal for internal current student communications as well as social media and the public website.

Looking for others' experiences (good and bad) and recommendations as we look to expand the communications around inclement weather.

Many thanks in advance!

[Ben Rapin]

Like others, Grand Valley State University spreads the word through many channels. In the event of a crisis or closing the first alert always gets sent via our emergency contact SMS/robo-dialer service (Mir3). Next we place the message on the university homepage and on top of all department CMS pages. Last we post the message on facebook and twitter. Typically all of this happens within a matter of seconds to minutes.

Facebook and Twitter posts tend to generate a lot of comments, especially when it comes to weather related closings. Most commonly we see complaints about not closing for weather more frequently to which we respond with explanation of the official closing policy. We don't include social media as an official form of emergency communication but will likely change that given the expectation that our users have that something is posted there.

[Sarah McMaster]

Thanks Ben!