Social media—it’s an emergency manager’s ultimate foe or best friend. Pick a day, and see which way the pendulum swings.

Today, it might sway toward friend, thanks to a recent report from Queensland Police Services. Disaster Management and Social Media—A Case Study details the amazing results the QPS had using Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for mass communication during Queensland’s 2010-2011 flooding.

Many response agencies have made tentative forays into social media, and the QPS was no different. The agency created several social media accounts in May 2010 and let them slowly grow without fanfare, according to the report. By November, about 8,000 people were tracking the agency’s Facebook page and it had about 1,000 Twitter followers.

That all changed when bout of extreme weather began in December 2010 and ran into January 2011. The QPS’s need to continuously communicate about the disaster led it to “instinctively [gravitate] towards the social media channels because they were clearly the fastest and best way to distribute important public safety information,” the report states.

During the emergency, the agency posted information updates to its Facebook and Twitter account, streamed media conferences on YouTube, and posted audio updates via several mediums. They also used the channels to coordinate resources and correct misinformation. These efforts were magnified by the mainstream media’s use of the new information sources.

“Within days, not only were the media relying on the QPS social media accounts as their key source of information but they were actively referring the public to our social media channels. QPS tweets would appear in national TV networks news tickers and would be read out by radio station announcers within moments of the media team publishing them,” the report states. “This almost instant crossover from ’new media’ to ‘old media’ allowed information published by the team to be distributed at a speed and to a sheer number of people not previously possible.”

Then, in just one day following a significant flash flood, the number of QPS Facebook users jumped from 17,000 to 100,000. It was soon clear that social media was the only way some people could access information, according to QPS Superintendent Greg Flint.

“In some areas where phone services were impeded or down … a lot of people were still using Facebook as a means to keep up to date,” Flint told ZDNet. “I suspect if we didn't have that forum … we would have been severely embarrassed in terms of our capacity to react.”

The Queensland floods were the perfect environment for QPS social media to gain momentum, but the QPS’ approach is what spurred things along. Social media streams rely on a consistent flow of useful information to retain their followers. Because the QPS allowed staff to update information streams without an elaborate chain of approval, they created a more sustainable use of the social media platforms.

“The QPS streamlined [established communication] processes during the disaster and the team organically turned to social media as the vehicle to reach the public and the media in the shortest timeframe,” the report states. “Given the majority of the information the QPS released was factual and in the interests of public safety it could be released immediately and without a clearance process.”

Whether government-run social media is vaunted or vilified, a cavalier attitude toward releasing official information is often cited as a concern. And while there are guides for governments on creating social media policy, many focus on the cover-your-assets aspects of implementation, rather than how to craft a successful venture.

Even with the ideal guide, sometimes you need to punt when interacting with the public, QPS Digital Media Officer James Kliemt told Intermedium. “There is no way known to write a policy that is going to be able to deal with all of the issues that come up on our Facebook page,” he said.

Instead of trying, the report recommends building a strong social media presence before disaster strikes, trusting your staff to share information, and becoming involved in your online community. There’s a tendency to devalue social media because it’s free, but an agency should think twice before squandering those resources, said Peter Alexander, a former Australian Government assistant finance secretary.

“The Queensland Police should be thinking, what would have happened if we didn’t have Facebook—if we had to build our own platform or even have people travelling around Queensland to get our information across?” Alexander told Intermedium. “How much would it have cost us?”