Customer Stories
Powering through the storm
How Gilpin County unified emergency communications on social media to ensure resident safety.
In Gilpin County, Colorado, keeping around 6,000 residents informed and prepared is a necessity, particularly during volatile weather and fire seasons. However, the county’s digital presence was previously fragmented, which made comms difficult. While the Sheriff’s Office and the County shared a common mission, their social media accounts operated separately.
The manual approach to sharing information was reactive rather than proactive and inefficient. The County’s Social Media Manager had to monitor the Sheriff’s Office posts to manually reshare them on the general county accounts. While this worked for Facebook, it often left residents using Instagram in the dark. When seconds count during critical incidents, these silos create a dangerous lag in information delivery and double the workload of a small team.
The solution
The breaking point came during a massive December windstorm that knocked out power for the majority of the county for days. Due to the community’s reliance on well and septic systems, the loss of electricity resulted in a total loss of water as well. When power began to be restored by the power companies, it unfortunately led to fires in some places due to downed trees on power lines. The team needed to share key messaging with residents during this period – where to access the warming station, updates on power outages and fires, locations of places where people could get gas, etc.
To manage the crisis, the team at Gilpin County activated its Joint Information Center (JIC) to alleviate the pressure on its Dispatch Center and turned to Orlo to enable them to coordinate messaging across all departments. Using the Orlo platform to facilitate their social media messaging allowed for a unified approach, which allowed the team to divide and conquer. One team member monitored incoming intel from Fire, Public Works, and the Sheriff to craft accurate responses. Another posted information to all of their social media channels simultaneously, and tracked incoming comments to their Orlo Inbox. PIOs could post on each other’s accounts without the hurdle of individual logins or logging in natively to multiple social platforms. Additionally, the team utilized Orlo’s built-in emergency controls, pausing all previously scheduled social posts in Orlo’s Content Calendar with one click, in order to maintain all communications centred around the crisis at hand.
The results
This data-driven approach has turned digital engagement into a powerful tool for improving public health in their area. The “Invincible feeling, invisible danger” campaign successfully encouraged more people to take high blood pressure seriously, while the “Let’s talk about suicide” initiative during Pride month provided life-saving skills to higher-risk groups. By building trust in community-based care like pharmacies and physiotherapists, the ICB has helped residents get the care they need faster while reducing pressure on traditional GP appointments. And their content is now more inclusive than ever, using multi-language videos and accessible formats to ensure no community is left behind.
By adopting a unified approach to their social media communications using the Orlo platform, Gilpin County was able to successfully bridge the trust gap, turning a potential public relations nightmare into a demonstration of government transparency and consistent messaging across organizations.
Trust during the crisis was enhanced, with the team responding to over 130 inbound social media messages in an efficient and timely manner using Orlo. This allowed the team to provide real-time updates on available resources and safety messaging.
The Orlo platform has fundamentally changed daily life for staff at Gilpin County. Previously, both the Sheriff and County PIOs had to be on-call for every event. Now, they are able to rotate coverage as each team member has authorized access to post across every department’s social accounts from one dashboard, resulting in a 50% reduction in on-call staffing requirements.
Outside of times of crisis, using Orlo for a more unified approach to social media, the team has been able to support the Clerk & Recorder’s Office when it experienced an increased workload due to upcoming elections. Posts can be created and published on county-level accounts, relieving pressure when time and resources are scarce.
Posts
126
across 6 social media accounts
Resident enquiries
130
messages received and resolved
Followers
+128
in 8 days
Outcome
50%
reduction in on-call staffing
”
With Orlo, we can pause all scheduled content in one click and share life-saving updates across all accounts at once… It isn’t just a tool, it’s our partner in public safety.”
Melanie Bleyler, Community Engagement Officer at Gilpin County
