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Louisiana’s Emergency Agency “Following” Hundreds Of Citizens On Twitter To Gather, Distribute Oil Spill Info; Embrace Of Social Media’s 2-Way Potential Is Model For Govt. – In Case of Emergency

In the weeks since Deepwater Horizon explosion, the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) has found itself in the middle of an evolving and unprecedented crisis. And, the agency has been relying on its new Twitter feed @GOHSEP, which has become a vital communications platform and resource.

Though the @GOHSEP feed has been up for only a month and a half, it has already become a useful model of Twitter’s use by government in emergency management crisis communications. Last month, I wrote about GOHSEP’s extra effort to thank users who were ‘retweeting’ the agency’s announcements on the oil spill — it’s the kind of small (and cost-free) reward/positive reinforcement for the public not normally done by government entities.