See all posts in the network tagged with
Meg Whitman former eBay head honcho is running for Governor of California. She has held multiple town hall meeting around the state to promote her agenda. Obviously with such open forums tough questions arise from the audience.
At a recent town hall in Modesto, Whitman was asked a question, I can’t tell if it was from a reporter or audience member, in which she was asked – “Have you or any members of your family been arrested or run afoul of the law?”
This is a pretty bare bones Power Point presented by the Army titled “Online Etiquette: 5 Things every Solider should know.” When you scroll through the 8 slide presentation just substitute firefighter for soldier and you can see the parallels in online social media interaction etiquette between the two services.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by a free distribution children’s magazine that was doing a story on what kids wanted to be when they grew up. Obviously, as it has been for generations, becoming a firefighter ranked right up towards the top.
The editor did not need the Departments input into the story but instead wanted me to e-mail a series of photo’s that depicted what we do both in the firehouse and at a scene without being too graphic for children to look at.
When we disseminate information resulting from an incident scene print newspapers are still responsive in reporting on the story. Currently though with print newsroom resources stretched to their limits, the human interest, safety information and feel good stories we like to float around are not in abundance as they used to be.
I have tremendous admiration for GEN Stanley McChrystal. I respect his dedication to attain victory, his strategic objectives and his pursuit to get the assets this country needs in the Afghan theater to get the job done.
Through some of my past posts, referring to President Obama’s crisis leadership, you may sense that I am less then enamored of his decision making process. Yet in the McChrystal-Obama dispute I have to lean towards the Presidents side in this one.
The lifeblood of the volunteer fire service is the adherence to the chain of command. If a Captain is badmouthing or second guessing the Chief, the chain is snapped and chaos ensues. Lack of response to direct orders or discrediting the Chief to members of the Department has never resulted in a positive outcome. It can only lead to internal firehouse strife and ineffective operations on the fireground.
Kind of a strange post today that takes us to a world of public relations we never see. Last month I had a meeting with some of my staff to figure out ways to make our press presentation packages look better. We have outstanding brochures and flyers, but were lacking in ways to present customized materials.
Both in the Department, and in my regular job, budgets continue to get crunched so there is not much latitude to be creative if it increases cost. The big brainstorm was to get a machine that allows us to do spiral binding of presentation folders.
When we look at any crisis communications scenario we work hard to anticipate the unanticipated and deal with it using the best knowledge base we have accumulated over the years. Maybe a certain technique we learned at an industry seminar or college class, maybe a case study of another crisis incident that we garnered good intelligence and experience from.
While it’s great to be book smart and learn from others experience, the top element, in my mind, of dealing with any crisis communications incident is to have COMMON SENSE. Yes, PR is allot about COMMON SENSE. There are many out there who make good livings in PR, are book smart and savvy, but totally lack COMMON SENSE.
This lack of COMMON SENSE can be traced to both the doors of the White House and hallowed hall of BP corporate headquarters in the way these two organizations blatantly lacked any tact in three incidents that happened over the weekend.
After my appearance last night on Firefighter Netcast, which I thoroughly enjoyed I sat down to recap exactly what my responsibilities are as a PIO. We touched on a number of the areas last night.
I was at a conference last year that had a session on “social media press releases.” In essence this form of release is intended to provide reporters with an interactive and user-friendly way to get information, audio clips, photos and videos about a story in a one stop shopping format. By providing this type of release, as the theory goes, a reporter would have everything at their fingertips to prepare the story without having to play telephone tag with you to get additional details, photos etc. As usually, when you hear these ideas at a conference they seem to fall just below Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as ground breaking, cutting edge genius.
I’m sitting in the airport setting sail for some business in south Texas. Two areas to cover while I wait for the flight.
First, I’m honored that my Brothers at Firefighter Netcast have asked me to be a guest on their program this Thursday, June 17th. John and Rhett will be interviewing me at 9:00pm EST.
To get the link to the broadcast visit http://www.firefighternetcast.com/ Call in and say hi!
Banned for Life
As PIO’s most of us are expected to facilitate special events. Everyone handles their onsite checklist for a special event differently. I like to do a virtual run through two days before an event to make sure I have not missed anything and that I have a contingency for any possible problem.
I’m not one to be a big guy on quotes when I speak. Some people can quote great philosophers, writers and poets whenever they are engaged in conversation. Over the years though I have accumulated a few quotes on the art of communications to try to make a sometimes difficult subject more simplified in my own mind. Here are some of the Fire Pio’s quotable golden rules of communications –
A PR lesson for all of us PIO’s to learn today comes from none other then General Motors. When we write a release we have to look to all of our collateral (website, brochures etc.) to make sure they are all up to date and in sync with what we have written. This is just one of the problems that is plaguing GM for what I consider to be a gut reaction to a marketing scheme that has not taken into consideration all of the ramifications of what they are looking to accomplish.
The PR team at General Motors is spinning their wheels today in an attempt to clarify an internal memo that said employees should only use the word “Chevrolet” when referring to the brand, not Chevy.
Used with permission of Susan Tiffen - www.susantiffenphotography.com
My department, the Smithtown Fire Department has part of our district run next to the picturesque Nissequogue River. The river is a haven for naturalists, canoe enthusiasts and kayakers. Each year we get a call or two to the river for rescues, mostly folks who have found themselves in the middle of the river during low tide and cannot get their boat out of the cement like mud.
There was a time when a good crisis communication plan addressed the situation at hand in a timely transparent manner. The plan owned up to admitting and confronting the bad, showing a solid plan for rectifying the situation and giving folks confidence that the best and brightest were working to develop the best resolution.
In the BP debacle the crisis communications plan of both the oil giant and the federal government seems to be constructed around a template of protecting our image to protect our stock and assets on BP’s front and blaming the other guy and passing the buck on the federal end to protect political assets. Neither plan as it stands is giving much solace or sorely needed answers to the American public.
The Air Force won top honors at last weeks PRSA Silver Anvil Awards for their “Dignified Transfers” program. When Defense Secretary Robert Gates reversed the media ban on the solemn ceremony that takes place when service personnel remains return to the U.S., an approach was needed to balance both requests by the media for coverage, and the individual wishes of the families of the fallen.
Last night I attended a scholarship program for our two high schools. Each year the Smithtown Fire Department presents four scholarships to seniors who will pursue engineering degrees in college. The scholarships are in memory of two of our past members who died in the line of duty. Both were engineers by profession.
Our Chief presented the scholarships and I took several pictures of the presentation. Once the contingent left the stage one of the recipients came up to me to ask when the photos and story will be in the papers. He was excited that he was getting press and that his family and friends would see the story and his image in print. He told me that this is the first time he would have a picture and story in a newspaper.
The military loves to use plenty of jargon for everything it does. I just got off a conference call with a number of folks from the Army and heard the usual assortment of ‘swag” “alibi” “do out’s”“straw man”“10,000 ft screwdrivers” etc., etc. This is a military way of life and I enjoy listening to the code words.
As many of you know though, from a number of my posts, I am not big on current “civilian” clichés. To me clichés are words and phrases that have been overused to the point that they have become almost meaningless.
The video that accompanies this story has been making the rounds and is real. It was not intended to be viral and it’s not a training film. The event actually did occur a few weeks back as surrealistic as it is!
Our job as Public Information Officers is to be both the go to guy and the bridge builder; we are supposed to protect our Departments from any fallout and make sure that the right message gets out. At the same time, we are supposed to help the media, and the public get information and get access to our Chiefs if needed. But the main thing is that PIO’s are conduits of information.
From a crisis communications point of view the Obama administration has failed miserably in providing any sort of semblance of order in providing crucial information, known expertise or a strong face and voice for the overwhelming oil spill in the Gulf.
 This blog is part of the Emergency Services Ad Network. For marketing opportunities, please click here |
Is a size-up necessary or is it unnecessary radio traffic? Why?… (more)
Do you think that the full-time, paid, professional fire service will continue to be as much as a… (more)
It was only when I reached my destination and got to a television set that I knew what we all know… (more)
FIRES ARE STILL BURNING OUT OF CONTROL TUESDAY EVENING in Detroit, Michigan, following a massive… (more)
