Social media posts are generated both in space and time, and in the context of disaster situations, they can provide minute-by-minute and location-by-location awareness of an event and users’ concerns and feelings about crises. In this forum, we investigate the relationship between natural disasters, social media, user actions and traditional media coverage. We will examine temporal and spatial relationships, and spatiotemporal patterns, and we will focus on the confluence of these patterns. Our results indicate that social media can be used as an indicator of both spatial and temporal patterns of real world events, such as donations to a large not-for-profit. Our models can be used to make recommendations to managers and policymakers about how to target marketing messaging appropriately given the current state of social media.

Bio

Bill Rand is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Poole College of Management at NC State, where he focuses on the applications of computer science and geospatial methods to marketing problems. His research investigates the diffusion of information by examining three broad questions: 1) How do consumers finds things out? 2) What do consumers do with that information once they have it? and 3) How do they pass their product insights on to others through on- and off-line word-of-mouth? Bill uses geospatial analytics, machine learning and agent-based models to understand how geography influences the spread of information, often within the context of climate change and sustainability. He has applied his research to social media analytics, network-based games, app and innovation adoption and not-for-profit donations, working with such businesses and organizations as TeraData, Expedia, National Geographic and the American Red Cross. His interests also include the development of tools, pedagogies and methodologies to help stakeholders make more informed, data-driven decisions. Bill joined the Center for Geospatial Analytics’ Faculty Fellows program in 2019.

How to watch: go.ncsu.edu/geospatial-forum-live