In the waves of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, each U.S. state governor has been leading efforts to curb the spread of the virus within his or her state. Twitter has been widely used for crisis communications by governors. Their Twitter usage patterns can largely reflect how state governments responded to the COVID-19 crisis from both geographical and social network perspectives. Through spatial–temporal analysis, network analysis, and text mining, we identified several important usage patterns, such as (1) tweet quantities positively correlated with the pandemic severity; (2) most governors started to mention COVID-19 weeks before the first reported case in their states; (3) COVID-19-related hashtags were commonly used to organize information; (4) feedback was frequently provided by at-mentioning or retweeting other accounts; and (5) governors were networked for crisis communication, driven by demographics, pandemic severities, geographic closeness, cooperation, and party affiliations among states. The current usage patterns are generally consistent with the criteria for effective crisis communications on Twitter (listening, informing, feedback, and connections). Some actionable approaches for governors to improve Twitter crisis communications are also discussed. This exploratory study provides a guide for other agencies and officials to develop future crisis communication plans through leveraging social media for social good.

在持续的 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行浪潮中，美国各州州长一直在努力遏制病毒在其州内的传播。Twitter 已被州长广泛用于危机沟通。他们的 Twitter 使用模式在很大程度上可以从地理和社交网络的角度反映州政府如何应对 COVID-19 危机。通过时空分析、网络分析和文本挖掘，我们确定了几个重要的使用模式，例如（1）推文数量与大流行严重程度呈正相关；(2) 大多数州长在本州首例报告病例前几周就开始提及 COVID-19；(3) 与 COVID-19 相关的主题标签通常用于组织信息；(4) 经常通过提及或转推其他账号提供反馈；(5) 在人口统计、流行病严重程度、地理接近度、合作和各州之间的政党联系的推动下，州长们通过网络进行危机沟通。当前的使用模式大体上符合 Twitter 上有效危机沟通的标准（倾听、通知、反馈和联系）。还讨论了州长改善 Twitter 危机沟通的一些可行方法。这项探索性研究为其他机构和官员通过利用社交媒体为社会公益制定未来的危机沟通计划提供了指导。以及各州之间的政党关系。当前的使用模式大体上符合 Twitter 上有效危机沟通的标准（倾听、通知、反馈和联系）。还讨论了州长改善 Twitter 危机沟通的一些可行方法。这项探索性研究为其他机构和官员通过利用社交媒体为社会公益制定未来的危机沟通计划提供了指导。以及各州之间的政党关系。当前的使用模式大体上符合 Twitter 上有效危机沟通的标准（倾听、通知、反馈和联系）。还讨论了州长改善 Twitter 危机沟通的一些可行方法。这项探索性研究为其他机构和官员通过利用社交媒体为社会公益制定未来的危机沟通计划提供了指导。