The West Virginia Homeland Security State Administrative Agency is offering a FREE course on Social Media for Natural Disaster Response and Recovery. The course will be held Tuesday, Oct. 22, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 128 Industrial Blvd., Kearneysville. This is a great opportunity for all local public information officers and media representatives!

This course will provide participants with the knowledge and skills of social media and its uses, as well as the current tools, methods, and models to properly make use of social media for crisis communication. Participants will take part in facilitator-led activities. Through the use of social media tools, participants will learn and master skills to disseminate information and monitor, track, measure, and analyze social media traffic. Participants will also be able to use social media as a method to identify warning signs that a crisis is developing.

For those who do not already have a FEMA student Identification number, you must FIRST register here: cdp.dhs.gov/femasid/Register.aspx before registering for the actual course.