Using Social Media to Connect With Students During Emergencies

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube — it’s no secret that Social Networking Sites are popular among college students.  In fact, 2009 marked the year that Facebook surpassed email as the top form of communication, according to Nielsen Online.

In response to that, colleges across the United States are stepping up their online presence to try and engage their students.  A majority of colleges have a presence in social media, as 33 percent of colleges maintain a blog, 29 maintain a presence on social networking Web sites, 27 percent maintain message- or bulletin-boards, 19 percent employ video blogging, and 14 percent issue podcasts, according to a study by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling.  Beyond engaging with their students, eighty-eight percent of admission offices believed social media were either “somewhat” or “very” important to their future recruitment efforts.

With these overwhelming stats, it’s time for colleges to link social media technologies to emergency contingency plans so the school can get news out to as many students as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Waterfall’s AlertU emergency notification system already enables colleges to send text messages to students, faculty and staff in the event of a campus emergency.  The system is integrated into current emergency action plans quickly and easily, enabling an additional communication channel that delivers vital information to registered users, students, faculty and staff at colleges across the country.

Our successful emergency notification system already has email covered – the platform can re-distribute alerts to the unlimited distribution lists the school has set up – and we have recently taken the natural step to link up AlertU to social networking sites that the students are frequenting.  For example, when a school closes due to weather or the H1N1 virus, a college administrator can log onto AlertU’s site or send the notification via SMS text.  AlertU then automatically sends the text out to users and to the school’s Twitter account.

We all know almost nobody leaves home without their phone, so combine our attachment to cell phones with our addiction to social media in your emergency preparedness and you will have your students covered.  This means students studying in the library, or surfing the web on their laptop during a lecture, are sure to receive any important campus notifications during times when they may not have access to their mobile phones.

We have a lot of exciting things going on with AlertU right now, so be sure to stay tuned for exciting announcements in the coming months.

Wells Fargo Sponsors Emergency Notification for College Campus

Wells Fargo has signed on to provide Copper Mountain College (CMC) with Waterfall Mobile’s AlertU, an emergency alert notification system, through a sponsorship deal.

With AlertU, CMC school administrators can communicate critical campus community information to students, faculty and staff during an emergency in real-time thanks to the Wells Fargo sponsorship.

Campus administrators will use the system to send quarterly emergency alert test notifications to CMC subscribers. At the end of each test alert notification, subscribers receive a short message from sponsor Wells Fargo that will say, “This is the quarterly test of CMC’s emergency alert system.  Brought to you by Wells Fargo.”

To support Wells Fargo’s sponsorship of CMC quarterly test messages, Waterfall Mobile will assist the college with on-campus marketing to promote CMC’s emergency alert notification system.  The on-campus marketing will help notify students, faculty and parents about the service and drive people to sign up.

AlertU marketing will include posters around campus, campus radio and television spots, articles in the student newspaper and outreach to students during school registration.

Waterfall will also provide the school with training sessions on the system.

For more information on AlertU sponsorships or emergency alert notifications, please contact us.

The Great California Shakeout

On Thursday, October 15, at 10:15 am, 6.9 million Californians participated in the largest earthquake drill in U.S. history.

The purpose of the Great California ShakeOut was for Californians to practice how to protect themselves during earthquakes, and to get prepared at work, school, and home.  Schools, civic centers, and institutions from around the state participated in the drill.

I’m proud to note that more than 40 AlertU client schools were a part of this effort to make us all safer.

AlertU from Waterfall Mobile provides mobile alert messaging for enterprises, institutions and school campus communities, and enables easy and rapid communication with registered users via text messages.

AlertU successfully provided emergency notification mobile messaging to the schools during the earthquake drill, and was crucial in the colleges’ efforts to successfully complete the simulation.

During the drill, AlertU was used to send mobile alerts to registered users with instructions on the “BIG ONE” and to “Drop, cover and hold” within minutes of the simulated earthquake.

Participating AlertU schools included:

• City College San Francisco
• Golden west College
• Coast Community College District
• Coastline Community College
• Chaffey College
• Rancho Santiago Community College District
• Santiago Canyon College
• Santa Ana College
• Canada College
• Skyline College
• San Mateo City College
• Orange Coast College

This forward-thinking exercise was a great way for these communities to test their emergency preparedness, and I’m proud Waterfall Mobile and AlertU got to be a part of it.  As the Associated Press noted, an exercise of this scale provides invaluable data to hospitals, institutions and first responders.

To all of our client participants – congratulations on a job well done!

(Jason Saroyan is the AlertU business lead at Waterfall, and believes being in the know beats being in the dark…most of the time anyway.)

SWAT Cleared Campus, Text Messaging Kept Community In The Know

Last week’s 10-year anniversary of the Columbine tragedy – and more recent school shootings that have benefitted from lessons learned in hindsight – continue to remind us how critical timely emergency communication can be during a crisis.

Last week Napa Valley College, our very first AlertU client back in 2007, became the latest successful example of how emergency notification services can get urgent news out to an affected community, potentially averting more disastrous consequences. The college was put on lockdown when two armed men ran onto campus after allegedly robbing a West America Bank customer at gunpoint outside the bank in the Riverpark Shopping Center around 1 p.m.  Police and SWAT were immediately brought on campus to search for the suspects.

While officers combed the campus property, college officials communicated with students and faculty in real-time. The school’s emergency communication plan – which included SMS, e-mails and website posts – enabled school officials to relay news immediately, ensuring the safety of students and faculty during a campus scare. Text messages warned subscribers that armed men were on campus and that people were instructed to stayed locked in their classrooms until SWAT team members secured the area.

Several of us at Waterfall Mobile were at a favorite lunch dive in SOMA at the time, and began receiving these alerts as part of our monitoring process (we sign up for every school). We quickly called our engineering team who were back at the office monitoring the SMS message flow through our platform and out via our aggregator. It was a tense yet smooth next few hours as, like the students on campus, we continued to receive the text messages and hoped for a safe outcome.

“During last week’s emergency, AlertU was an integral part of our campus’ emergency communication plan and helped us get urgent news out to our students and faculty,” said Ken Arnold, Chief of Police at Napa Valley College. “AlertU has a simple interface that made it easy for us to post frequent updates. This is a community service that you hope to never have to use, but when you do, it’s great to know that it works just like it’s supposed to, quickly and efficiently getting emergency news out to the community.”

The first text message went out to subscribers at 1:31pm, explaining to faculty and students the situation and warning them to lock themselves in their classrooms. As the search for the suspects continued, officials updated students and faculty via text with a total of 8 messages sent over a 4-hour period. More subscribers joined the service as the day went on, with the last text going out at 5:21pm, notifying the community that the campus was clear and the suspects were in custody.

Talking to Jason (who heads up our AlertU division) after the fact, it became clear that a convergence of multiple technologies helped keep people safe. One text alert could reach 1000 people who could alert 1000 more through a tweet, an email or blog post. That’s the viral world we live in.

Through the hard work of all the security personnel involved it was a successful end to an anxious day for Napa Valley College, and we here at Waterfall Mobile and AlertU were proud to be a small part of it.

2009 Waterfall Mobile Industry Event Calendar

Billboard Digital Music Live! at CES
January 7, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
Website

Digital Hollywood at CES
January 7-10, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
Website

CES
January 8-10, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
Website

Tech Crunch Cruchies 2008 Awards
January 9, 2009 – San Francisco, CA
Website

OMMA Social
January 26, 2009 – San Francisco, CA
Website

NATPE
January 26-29, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
Website

IAB Networking
January 28, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC
February 2-4, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

iMedia Connection – Brand Summit
February 8-11, 2009 – Coconut Point, FL
Website

Ad Age Marketing 50 Awards
February 11, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

Association of California Community College Administrators
February 18-20, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

American of Association School Administrators
February 19-21, 2009 -San Francisco, CA
Website

Gartner Wireless and Mobile Summit
February 23-25, 2009 – Chicago, IL
Website

Billboard 8th Annual Music and Money Symposium
March 5, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

SXSW
March 13-22, 2009 – Austin, TX
Website

Campus Technology Innovator Awards
March 14, 2009
Website

Mobile Content and Marketing Strategies
March 18-19 – New York, NY
Website

Digital Hollywood Media Summit
March 18-19, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

iMedia Breakthrough Summit
March 22-25, 2009 – Florida, FL
Website

OMMA Global Hollywood
March 23-24, 2009 – Hollywood, CA
Website

Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live!
March, 31, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
Website

CTIA Wireless - Las Vegas
April 1-3, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
Website

Ad Age Digital Conference
April 7-8, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

California College University Police Chiefs Association
April 8-10, 2009 -Lake Tahoe, CA
Website

eMarketing Conference
April 21-22, 2009 – San Francisco, CA
Website

ad:tech San Francisco
April 21-23, 2009 – San Francisco, CA
Website

Digital Out of Home
April 23, 2009 – New York, NY
Website

Forrester’s Marketing Forum 2009
April 23-24, 2009 – Orlando, FL
Website

Campus Safety Conference
April 26-28, 2009 – Tampa, FL
Website

iMedia Connection – Driving Interactive
April 27-28, 2009 – Huntington Beach, CA
Website

AlwaysOn – OnHollywood
April 27-29, 2009 – Hollywood, CA
Website

Interactive Media Conference and Tradeshow
May 6-7, 2009 – New Orleans, LA
Website

iMedia Connection – Entertainment Marketing Summit
June – 2009 – Los Angeles, CA
Website

iMedia Connection – Brand Summit
June 10, 2009 – Colorado Springs, CO
Website

The Waterfall Mobile Price Guarantee

Many clients have expressed concern over the uncertainty introduced by recent mobile industry news on Thursday, October 9, when Verizon Wireless announced it would charge an extra $0.03 cent transaction fee for each SMS message sent to Verizon subscribers. On Monday, October 13, Verizon then clarified the charge would not be imposed at this time, citing the announcement was intended to be an internal Verizon discussion only.

We are committed to providing a cost-effective, interactive service for marketers to create and enhance two-way mobile relationships with loyal customers. Waterfall Mobile’s Price Guarantee provides customers fixed platform costs and allow marketers to focus on launching effective mobile campaigns, building brand excitement and increasing marketing ROI in 2009.

Below are details on the industry’s first mobile price guarantee program:

Read more

AlertU Best Practices: Increase Subscriber Adoption

Proactive mobile subscriber list building is an essential component to every college emergency alert notification system. Communicating the availability of AlertU to your college campus community will increase subscriber adoption. The following are recommendations on effectively promoting and marketing emergency alert notification sign up.

Online Sign Up Widgets
Online sign up widgets provide a quick and easy opportunity for students, faculty and staff to subscribe to AlertU. Place an online sign up widget on the school website home page. Also, widgets should be placed on school registration, student services, campus security and the student activity websites.

Here are a few examples of schools effectively integrating online sign up widgets:

Cuesta College
Hancock College
Napa Valley College
Hartnell College
Las Positas College
Orange Coast College
Copper Mountain College

Read more

AlertU Best Practices: Emergency Alert System Testing

Securing a safe learning environment and campus community is a top priority for emergency administrators and safety officials. During an actual emergency, how can emergency administrators ensure everyone will remember their roles? AlertU recommends system administrators send emergency alert notification test messages once a quarter to their college campus subscriber base.

AlertU System Testing
System testing reminds your campus community they are subscribed to the college emergency notification system. During an actual emergency, subscribers will receive the text message and will understand how a campus emergency alert notification is communicated.

Updating School Database
Text alert messages allow subscribers the option to remove their mobile number from the college AlertU database. Text alert messages to subscribers should contain instructions on how to unsubscribe from AlertU, as subscribers may have left the college.

Stay Familiar with Procedure
Proactive and scheduled emergency alert notification system testing allows AlertU administrators and account managers to stay familiar using the AlertU platform. Regular testing allows administrators and account managers to practice accessing and setting up alerts so when the need arises, they are flawless in executing alerts during an emergency. It is important to note: more than 9 out of 10 support calls to AlertU are from administrators requesting username and passwords.

If you have questions or would like additional information on text emergency alert notification systems, please visit AlertU or contact sales.

John Matra Joins Waterfall Leadership Team

Waterfall Mobile Expands Leadership Team with Former Motricity Executive

Company Names Mobile Industry Veteran John Matra as Vice President of Business Development

San Francisco, Calif. – July 14, 2008 – Waterfall Mobile, an innovative mobile marketing technology company, announced today the appointment of former Motricity executive John Matra as Vice President of Business Development. In his new role, Matra will oversee the company’s strategic business development and sales agenda with advertising agencies, national brands and major media companies across film, music, television, radio and print. His responsibilities also include developing key partner relationships and will lead Waterfall Mobile’s East Coast operations as general manager of the company’s New York office.

Read more

AlertU Media Coverage: Crisis Alert System Added

Students and employees at Allan Hancock College will now be able to receive a warning by text message in the case of an emergency on campus.

With AlertU, a new system the college recently obtained, those who opt in to the system will be alerted by a text message on their cell phones as soon as an emergency unfolds.

The free system can be used to alert the Hancock community about any catastrophe, from severe flooding to a campus shooting.

In a time of crisis, an administrator can log on to the college’s AlertU system, write a text message or use a pre-written message, and hit “send.” At the push of a button, the text message will be sent out to everyone who signed up to receive the alerts.

“Campus security and finding new ways to help keep our students and employees safe is always a top priority,” said Hancock President José Ortiz in a prepared statement.

The alert system, college officials said, came about in response to the recent outbreak in shootings on college campuses.

In April, Seung-Hui Cho opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus, where he was a student, and killed 32 people before committing suicide.

The Virginia Tech tragedy brought to light numerous gaps in communication between the university and its campus community, and raised questions about reliable, efficient notification of students and staff during emergencies. It also grabbed the attention of the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office, the governing body of the state’s community colleges.

“The chancellor’s office, following the Virginia Tech incident, really accelerated its efforts to help the colleges have as many ways as possible to plan for emergencies and disseminate important information,” said Hancock spokeswoman Rebecca Alarcio.

Thus, the agency paired up with Waterfall Mobile – the providers of AlertU – and, with money from a Homeland Security Grant, set out to bring the notification system to California’s community colleges free of charge.

Raising the issue of campus violence again just a week ago, graduate student Steven Kazmierczak fatally shot five other people and killed himself on the Northern Illinois University campus. Hancock officials said Hancock is one of the first community colleges to take up the chancellor’s office on its offer.

“Over the last year or so we’ve been trying to find ways on campus to improve our communications,” said Hancock Police Chief Ken George. The chancellor’s office “told us (AlertU) was available, and we jumped on it.”

The system will be reserved solely for emergencies, so it does not turn into the equivalent of “crying wolf,” George said.

By Wednesday, about 100 people had signed up for the alerts, according to a Waterfall Mobile representative. Because the college has just signed up for the system, the exact number isn’t certain.

Several students said Wednesday that AlertU was a good idea.

“It’s a good start to address an issue (campus violence) that has been plaguing colleges across the nation,” said student Julie Mascorro, who was sitting in a campus eatery and chatting with a table of friends.

Though this was a step in the right direction, administrators need to take even more actions to keep students safe, she added.

Abi Vera was passing by the student store on her way to class.

As she was walking, she had her phone out, and was text-messaging some friends. Though she hadn’t heard of the new alert system, Vera said she would sign up for it. She also compared it to a non-emergency phone notification system already in place, in which students receive an automated voicemail notifying them of campus events.

AlertU “is communication, that’s what it is,” said Vera.

To sign up for alerts, students and staff can text “AHC” to 253788 (ALERTU), and reply “Y.”

Sign-ups are also available on the Internet at www.alertu.org/ahc. While the service is free, standard text-messaging rates apply.

For more information call Ken George at 922-6966.

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santa

mariatimes.com.

February 21, 2008