Social media as a preparedness tool
Online gaming is a phenomena that is a bit hard to understand at times. People will spend hours doing repetitive tasks to garner an "achievement" that offers nothing more than bragging rights with other gamers. But there's no denying the attraction. With the advent of social media and smart phones, smartphone gaming has exploded into a $8 billion a year business. Angry Birds has been downloaded something like 140 million times making it the best selling app of to date.
The folks at the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management are seeking to harness this energy with a new app called SF Heroes that makes a game out of emergency preparedness. According to an article in the San Francisco Examiner, the game, just released for the iPhone, rewards players for achieving preparedness milestones and let's them crow about it to their friends via Twitter and Facebook. The app also gives players
access to real-life emergency maps and let's them create emergency contacts and resource lists that are accessible even in the absence of net connectivity.
This is absolutely brilliant. Not only does the app encourage individuals to prepare but it creates a milling effect within the player's social media network that could encourage others to prepare. I don't know if releasing the app on the same day the new iPhone was released was deliberate but it's a bit of shrewd marketing.
Kudos to my colleagues at SFDEM – you really hit one out of the park with this one!
The Android version is due out in the spring and I can't wait to try it!