The Role of Social Media in Disasters

Dear editor
Disasters are unpredictable events that must be managed on time. During the four phases of disaster management, the information should be provided to managers to make timely decisions and actions. decision Making based on limited health information can have negative consequences on the response phase. Social media that provide the ability to exchange online information through the internet is critical in communicating in disasters and emergencies, because, in such circumstances, other common communication methods may be lost. Social media play an important role in disaster management through five distinct features, including collectivity, connectivity, completeness, clarity, and collaboration (1, 2). During the disaster, social media users provide information about the event (3). One of the main challenges in disaster management is communicating with people. In some cases, people may seek to raise their awareness of the consequences of disasters , while others may be looking for a response. Social media is an opportunity for the rapid distribution of essential information among the people because the rapid response can reduce the consequences of disasters (4). Today a wide range of social media are available to facilitate access to online information. Social media can play a prominent role in reducing the consequences of disasters through the rapid and widespread dissemination of online information. The following are examples of social media use in disasters:

• Using social media for rapid damage assessment (5)
• Social media provide different types of information through different sources in disasters (6)
• Social media can facilitate interaction between disaster management organizations and communities before, during, and after a disaster (7)
• The resiliency of the affected population may be obtained through social media (8)
• Social media can gain psychological benefits to vulnerable populations through engagement with stakeholders (8)

Acknowledgments
The authors express their gratitude to all study participants who contributed to this study
Funding support
There was no funding support for this study.
Conflict of interest
The authors do not have any conflict of interest.
Authors' contribution
Study design: DP, Writing the manuscript: AS.