Love it or hate it, social media is changing the way we communicate, even in emergencies. And according to a recent Red Cross Poll, emergency responders better start loving it. The poll, which surveyed more than a 1,000 people, found one in five would turn to social media for help if they weren’t able to reach 911—and 74 percent of those would expect a response in less than an hour.

Social media has been both extolled and vilified as an emergency management tool for some time now, but no clear victor has emerged. The Red Cross poll may indicate the public has moved beyond that debate. They simply expect emergency agencies to be down with the latest technology.

“The social web is creating a fundamental shift in disaster response—one that will ask emergency managers, government agencies and aid organizations to mix time-honored expertise with real-time input from the public,” American Red Cross President Gail McGovern stated in a press release. “We need to work together to better respond to that shift.”

So far, much of the conversation around social media and emergency management has focused either on how agencies can leverage the communication capacity of applications such as Facebook and Twitter or how they can use the aggregated information from those sites to better respond to emergencies.

In general, social media—paired with traditional communication channels—are seen as an acceptable way to get the word out. Many agencies have Twitter accounts where they post alerts and there are many campus and citywide systems, such as AlertDC, set up to text users in emergencies. The burgeoning mediums can also be used to receive information. The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Weather Service both have programs where user reports on events such as earthquakes and tornadoes are analyzed by scientists to recreate an “on-the-ground” perspective.

What’s missing—and what the survey indicates is needed—is a direct connection to responders during any emergency. Despite the fact that many emergency social media sites specifically state that visitors should not report emergencies via that medium, the Red Cross poll showed 69 percent of respondents thought agencies should be monitoring their social streams for calls for help.

“The first and best choice for anyone in an emergency situation is to call 9-1-1,” McGovern stated. “But when phone lines are down or the 9-1-1 system is overwhelmed, we know that people will be persistent in their quest for help and use social media for that purpose.”

The Red Cross commissioned the online poll—which includes information about respondents' social media familiarity and use and across age groups—in preparation for its Emergency Social Data Summit on today. The summit will include discussions on the handling of emergency calls made via social media. Those interested can follow up online by a variety of methods.