On January 7th, a series of devastating and destructive fires broke out in Los Angeles. The Palisades, Eaton, Hughes, and other smaller fires destroyed more than 16,000 homes, displacing hundreds of thousands of Angelenos, changing the very landscape of Los Angeles County.
The goal: to save lives by disseminating critical information on social media, highly targeted at the regions most in need. Our objective with each post was to address the issue of the moment: active fires, red flag warnings, high AQI levels, need for recovery resources, then push out content that addressed those needs.
The LA Fires rapid response campaign was born of the necessity to engage hard to reach communities with preparedness, response, and recovery messaging. Listos California sprang into action to deliver culturally competent, multilingual resources with accurate information through social media.
Listos California quickly identified our target audience: people who may not be plugged into traditional news sources but still needed accurate and current information. Statistically, this group includes people of lower socioeconomic status as well as most Millennials and Gen Z.
Upon receiving approved messaging from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, our team created social media assets and posted them as quickly as possible while maintaining accuracy and making changes on the fly when new information came in. We promoted the posts with ad dollars and added them to social media toolkits for the use of the CA government.
First reports of the Palisades Fire came in the early morning of January 7th. Listos California was posting information and sharable graphics on fire evacuation routes by 9am that morning. We were among the first agencies to begin spreading helpful information and distributing information to affected Angelenos.
We encouraged person-to-person sharing of posts by developing bright visual designs with clear text and translating them into multiple languages, making sure that everyone was reached by our work and was equipped with the tools they needed to stay safe, whether that meant evacuation or protecting themselves from harmful AQI levels.
Listos California moved swiftly to deliver lifesaving and accurate information and resources surrounding the fires. We garnered almost 4.5 million impressions in the first 48 hours of the fires breaking out. Listos California followed best practices around crisis communication: focus on filling knowledge gaps with accurate information, and that hard work was recognized and shared, building on Listos California’s reputation as a reliable resource in both preparedness and disaster. In addition, our team continuously monitored Listos California post analytics as well as community comments and messages to shape the progress of the content.
We took another unique route with this as well - reaching out directly to Los Angeles artists to commission pieces encouraging folks to mask up, to not wait and evacuate, and other safety messages. Working with well-known, award-winning LA-based artists Gary Baseman and Luke McGarry, both award-winning cartoonists from Los Angeles, who worked with us to quickly put together pieces illustrating the importance of “Don’t Wait, Evacuate” when it comes to fires. As members of the community, their work resonated, and through a collaboration post between each of them and the official Listos California account, we were able to reach folks that would not have seen our messaging without this collaboration and increased exposure. Importantly, because we chose to work with artists and influencers from the Los Angeles area, our work doubly supported the community while infusing the space with reliable, local voices that amplified within their own social media networks.
During any disaster, social media often becomes a place where misinformation runs rampant and can be seriously dangerous. Listos California’s work to fight misinformation and deliver timely, culturally competent disaster readiness and recovery resources was instrumental to helping folks during an unprecedented time.
From January 7 - 31, Listos California content was viewed 24,206,862 million times across 506 individual posts. We used both in-platform analytics and the external software Sprout Social to continuously adjust our messaging and target audiences to make sure we were getting the most critical information out to the highest number of viewers.
Furthermore, our work did not stop when the fires were extinguished. We continued working to inform Californians of ongoing dangers like debris and mudslides, as well as connecting impacted folks with available recovery resources. As important deadlines grew closer, like signing waivers to have the city clear burned lots or small business grants for affected regions, Listos California mobilized our platform to keep people informed with practical advice about how to meet deadlines and where to find resources, connecting people with the services they need as efficiently as possible. As recovery continues in the Los Angeles region, so will Listos California’s work to keep Angelenos safe.
