Universities battle for social media glory in preparedness challenge

University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University are squaring off in a social media challenge to determine who can generate the most online support for emergency preparedness efforts.

As part of National Preparedness Month and National Campus Safety Month, each school will publish Facebook posts and tweets urging students, faculty and staff to prepare for the effects of natural disasters. The contest will start Sept. 15 and ends Sept. 26.

While the goal is to generate interest in preparedness, each school will count the posts, shared posts, likes, retweets and photo posts submitted by social media users. The winning school will be determined by the percentage increase in social media posts compared to dates prior to the contest.

Most college students use social media for gathering and sharing information and each school wants to capitalize off that communications momentum -- and a well-known sports rivalry in Richmond.

“Unlike some other forms of messaging, we are using a rivalry to spread awareness and get people thinking about what they would do to prepare for a natural disaster or severe weather,” said Adam Crowe, VCU’s emergency management coordinator.  “This is a fun way to get the word out -- and beat the University of Richmond.”  

Brittany Taylor Schaal, the director of emergency management for the University of Richmond, collaborated with Crowe to plan the competition. She, too, is hoping the new spin on a rivalry will help raise awareness about preparedness.

“National Preparedness Month is a great opportunity to remind individuals that it’s important to be alert and ready for disasters,” Schaal said. “We look forward to the friendly challenge, strengthening our public safety presence on social media, and engaging with our community to promote individual preparedness. Of course an added perk would include beating VCU.”   

On social media accounts, VCU will use the hashtag “#ReadyRam” and UR will use the hashtag “#SpiderReady” to identify posts focusing on preparedness. The hashtags help each school with tracking the reach of messages and will be used to measure results during the two-week challenge.

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