Case Study: Morris County, New Jersey achieves rapid emergency response and restored services with Hootsuite

Prepare for Emergency Response with a Social Media Strategy

Morris County, New Jersey (population ~500,000) faced widespread outages, impassable roads, and stranded residents during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Carol A. Spencer, the county’s Digital and Social Media Manager, needed a fast, reliable way to communicate with citizens and coordinate response across multiple municipalities under rapidly changing, high-stress conditions.

Using Hootsuite and a dedicated @MCUrgent Twitter and Facebook presence, Spencer’s team prepped followers before landfall, monitored keywords, assigned incoming messages, and gave 39 municipal partners shared access to a single dashboard to triage requests and dispatch information to first responders. The approach built trust, amplified timely updates, helped prioritize rescues, restore power and clear roads, and served as a centralized hub that reduced confusion and prevented greater devastation.

Morris County, New Jersey

Carol A. Spencer

Digital and Social Media Manager