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Get your Defense ready for Collective Guilt

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Nothing beats coming into work and immediately hearing “I just read the paper, it looks like you guys are in trouble again.” When I inquired into who and what was in trouble I was told that a story was in Newsday, our Long Island newspaper about the latest loser who riffled through fire department funds, betraying both his fellow brothers and sisters and the public at large.

The problem with the in your face guy who confronted me  with the story before I set a foot in the door, is that he assumes all firefighters are the same and all departments are created equal. It didn’t matter to him that the ex firefighter and department in question are about 40 miles from here. For whatever reason, ours is a trade that suffers from collective guilt.

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Posted by on September 29, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Crisis Communications, Journalists and Reporters, news, Opinion, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny, Uncategorized • Tagged: , , ,

Cowboy Code of Ethics

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I spent part of the weekend in Orchard, Texas, cowboy country if there ever was. I went to see a few yearling bucking bulls I own buck. A few will be ready to compete in futurities this spring.

I always enjoy going to Texas, not only for a sport I love, but to meet “cowboy” folks from across the country who are involved in the sport.

Orchard, Texas can be considered “fly over” country by many elitists who think of those who sweat and toil as backward or not sophisticated. But I’ll match up any of these people against those who have no great moral fiber or don’t know what it means to get dirt under your fingers or to get knocked down, dust yourself off, shake off the pain and continue to hold your head up high.

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Posted by on September 28, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Opinion, Uncategorized • Tagged: , ,

Apple’s Jobs a real Worm

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I remember that last year I received an email from a mother in the community asking if the fire department could help her third grade daughter finish an essay she was writing about fire hydrants. I emailed back to have her daughter call me with her questions. A nervous third grader did indeed call, asked her questions, and ultimately awarded the department with a hand written thank you note on lined paper, stickers and all.

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Posted by on September 27, 2010 • Filed under: Opinion, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny • Tagged: , , ,

My Vacation – Being a Line Officer

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Yesterday evening we trekked out to the Suffolk County Fire Academy for a drill. The “Tower” is a facsimile of a commercial office building. I always liked this drill since in my town we have very few commercial buildings and this is our one opportunity each year to hone our skills and learn new techniques in attacking a fire in this type of structure.

Normally, as PIO, I am tasked with taking pictures and video of the drill to post online and use for internal purposes. It has been a few years since I have had the chance to do an actual hands on evolution of the Tower.

We were a little short handed on the line officer end when we left the firehouse with an Engine and Ladder. I jumped into the officer’s seat on Engine 3 to head out to the Academy.

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Posted by on September 23, 2010 • Filed under: Opinion, training-development • Tagged: , , , , ,

PowerPoint not needed to make the Point

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Last month I was at a conference in Washington for an organization whose board I Chair. I was asked to give a brief presentation. I spoke, it was well received, but when I sat down the person sitting next to me whispered, “Nice job, you must have been under the gun though, you didn’t do a PowerPoint.” This got me to thinking.

Each Sunday morning at the firehouse we hold probationary training school. Due to the nature of the material we cover the advent of PowerPoint has been a boon. We can lecture, show the numerous acronyms we use in the fire service relevant to the lecture in written form on the screen and play video and still shots. All of this helps enhance our training methods. But in my overall estimation, the vast majority of times we all have to sit through tedious PowerPoint presentations can be avoided by not showing them at all.

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Posted by on September 22, 2010 • Filed under: Opinion • Tagged: , ,

Hyperlocal News is Growing

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A new form of reporting local news is taking root across America. It’s called hyperlocal and is much more nimble and reactive then traditional community news sources.

Next month I am inviting the editors of Smithtown Patch to the firehouse for a media open house. I hold these events several times a year in which I invite one media outlet at a time to come and tour our department and get to know a little better about who we are and how we serve the community. This is the first time I am inviting what at this point can be called a non traditional or newly emerging form of media.

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Posted by on September 21, 2010 • Filed under: Journalists and Reporters, Media Outreach, Opinion, Public Scrutiny • Tagged: , , ,

Simply Explained Social Media Policy

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In many of our Departments and agency’s we as PIO’s are asked to assist in the development of social media policy for our members or employees. This can be very easy or very difficult to construct and explain.

Salesforce.com is a major cloud-computing company. With over 72,000 customers involved in many different aspects of the web and social interaction the company is very sensitive to how they are portrayed via social media.

Salesforce recently released, for public consumption, their social media policy via YouTube. Although the policy is most relevant to explain to their own employees the company’s stand regarding social media at a publicly traded company, there are still valuable lessons to be learned by all.

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Posted by on September 20, 2010 • Filed under: Social Media, SOP's and Policy • Tagged: , , ,

PIO Product Review – MediaSync

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When I need to scour lists for media contacts I use Cision. At a cost of $3,000 per year it creates a perennial sweat for me worrying whether the funds will be in the budget to cover this relatively large expenditure the next fiscal year.

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to reach out to the media. A new FREE way to gather information comes from MBlast who this month introduced MediaSync. The website helps users find relevant journalists and outlets, keep current on editorial calendars, and organize media campaigns. Although geared for marketers I have been playing with the service and find it relevant for PR use.

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Posted by on September 16, 2010 • Filed under: PIO Product Reviews • Tagged: , , , , ,

Press Releases are not dead in our neck of the woods

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There is a certain group of trend arbiters around whom I envision being skinny, wearing all black, with black framed glasses who think that when they speak the entire work of public relations will turn on a dime to do their bidding.

Over the last several years I am becoming progressively irritated when PR pundits keep saying that the standard press release is dead. Maybe the body is cold from where they sit, but in our line of work the old tried and true, boring and predictable press release is our lifeline to the media.

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Posted by on September 15, 2010 • Filed under: Media Outreach, News Releases, Public Outreach • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Not all Public Speaking is the Same. What’s your Grade?

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Often we say someone is a good public speaker. But a closer look reveals that someone might be a good public speaker in one discipline while lacking skill in another spoken area.

In my mind public speaking, in our profession as PIO’s, is segmented into a few distinct areas. Throughout the year we address many different audiences in many different venues, each requiring their own specific set of verbal commands and finesse.

I read a quote online recently by Anderson Cooper that puts this discussion into perspective: “Being on camera is easy for me, but speaking in front of several thousands of people, it’s a different skill set. Making speeches gave me a nervous pit in my stomach, so I forced myself to do it.”

I consider myself, due in part to a radio and TV background, to be a pretty good overall public speaker, but when I segment my responsibilities out, the report card indicates that I do need to go to study hall in a few area’s –

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Posted by on September 14, 2010 • Filed under: Media Outreach, Public Outreach • Tagged: , , ,

Is All News Equal?

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I was outraged that 9/11 turned into a three ring circus of media, yes media flamed protests. A day that will never be made into a National Holiday, least the significance be diminished by future generations, who will take it as a shopping day orgy with no understanding of its implication, was tainted by a media that puts every rumor, innuendo and kook generated story on the same plain.

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Posted by on September 13, 2010 • Filed under: Journalists and Reporters, news, Opinion • Tagged: , , , , ,

Sleazoid PR for Sleazoid Clients

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A lot of what we do as PIO’s is based on standard formula and template. If we are sending out releases and working with the press at an incident scene we are pretty much like baseball umpires, calling them as we see them. There is no room for embellishment or spin in our line of work. This is one of the aspects of our job that we should be thankful for when we look at the alternatives, like choosing sleazoid PR as a career specialty.

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Posted by on September 10, 2010 • Filed under: Crisis Communications, Media Outreach, News Releases, Public Scrutiny • Tagged: , , , ,

The Intricacies of “Off the Record”

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As anyone knows who reads my posts on a regular basis, I’m not a big fan of speaking to the media “off the record.” I’ve been burned a number of times over the years trying to be a nice guy, covertly helping a journalist get what I feel is the essence of a story without my direct quotes.

I usually peruse the Atlantic website to see there political take on things, but yesterday came across an interesting article looking into the world of “off the record” comments.

The article was written by Chuck Todd, the White House correspondent for NBC news and Albert Oetgen, the Managing Editor for the NBC News Washington bureau.

I found the most interesting part of the story to be the Pete Williams glossary of terms that unofficially govern the flow of information to the media in Washington.

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Posted by on September 9, 2010 • Filed under: Journalists and Reporters, Media Outreach, news • Tagged: , , , , , ,

PIO Fire Ground Review – Getac Ready to Unveil the New V200 Rugged Notebook

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It’s kind of strange. For all the technology I employ on the fire ground – digital SLR camera, Flip HD video recorder, Blackberry for contacting the media, Tweeting and having the media contact me, the one area I lack in is logging the written word with ease.

Currently I still rely on my old reporter’s notebook (often soggy) a pen (often lost or soggy) or notes scrawled on anything I can find that resembles paper to record what I will need to later address the press or write a release.

I noted a few posts back that I am leery of using advanced technology that can break unexpectedly on the fire ground from heat, water, debris and shock.

One area I have been researching is the possibility of purchasing a rugged convertible notebook to use on the fire ground to both record and send information about the incident I am working.

Getac just announced today that its new V200 rugged convertible notebook computer, the world’s most powerful fully rugged convertible notebook to date, coming in at just 6 pounds, will be released in October. 

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Posted by on September 7, 2010 • Filed under: PIO Product Reviews • Tagged: , , ,

Our Fire Departments live in a Virtual TV Reality Show

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In one of my other lives I am the lead broadcaster for Verizon Fios cable coverage of the NASCAR races at Long Island’s Riverhead Raceway. The weekly production is a “production.” A crew of around 10 toils for a good part of the afternoon to get the cables, cameras, monitors, microphones, headsets and electronic equipment in place to make things hum during the evening boradcast.

This past Saturday a racing fan with a small Flip HD video camera came up to me with a request. This woman asked me if it was permissible to video some of the racing action. She told me her son was a frequent visitor to the track and is now in the Army stationed at Fort Jackson. She felt this would be a taste of home for him. I told her it was fine and she proceeded to take her seat in the grandstand with a bunch of family members.

While we worked our way through the Verizon broadcast I noticed this woman shooting the races, interviewing family members for her son, interviewing drivers who went to sit in the grandstand after they raced.

This woman was virtually able to do with a $150 camera what it took two announcers, a 10 man crew and tend of thousands of dollars in equipment to accomplish.

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Posted by on September 7, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, command-leadership, firefighting-operations, major-incidents, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny, Social Media • Tagged: , , , , ,

PIOs can learn from others Mistakes

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I’m not a big reader of the New York Times; our politics are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. A colleague recently emailed me a link to a Times story about what not to do in case of a crisis communications emergency. I’ll admit it, it’s a great story by Peter Goodman and I encourage you to read it.

The story gives many industry leaders critiques into many of the world’s recent PR disasters including Toyota’s acceleration problems, BP’s oil spill, Goldman Sachs securities fraud and Tiger Woods marital bust-up. Interesting read.

Since we deal with crisis as PIO’s on a regular basis, there is always something to learn from others missteps!

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Posted by on September 3, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Crisis Communications, Media Outreach, news, Public Outreach, Public Scrutiny

Fudging the Crowd Numbers

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One strange phenomenon in public relations where even the most ethical and transparent practitioner is caught fudging the truth on occasion come when it’s time to give a crowd or attendance count. For some reason, when it comes to estimating the size of the crowd, at say our annual fire prevention days, we tend to become world renowned optimists.

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Posted by on September 2, 2010 • Filed under: Best Practices, Journalists and Reporters, Marketing, Opinion • Tagged: , , ,

PIO Help Wanted

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Yesterday afternoon my department was toned out for a mutual aid on a working fire in a neighboring town. We sent a Chief and an Engine. I followed the transmissions on my scanner and it appeared our work was limited. The scene of the fire was right near a notorious, long shuttered psychiatric hospital. A number of plans are on the table of how to eventually utilize the land the facility is standing on. Everything from parks to a planned community is on the table.

Due to the interest in the site, I figured the media would be all over this one. Little did I know that the media would be all over me.

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Posted by on September 1, 2010 • Filed under: administration-leadership, command-leadership, Journalists and Reporters, Media Outreach, Opinion • Tagged: , , , , ,