I am a firm believer in reading and absorbing research and surveys done nationally for how old and new media interact. There are lessons to be learned from this national research on how we should interact in our own communities.
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In the first responder world there are two types of press releases, those that must be published and those that need a compelling reason to get print.
In our business if we operate at a significant fire or MVA we stand a 99.9% chance that our information will be picked up by the press. We are talking about hard news .
If we are pitching fire prevention day, our installation dinner or other similar story the chances of getting placement are greatly diminished.
I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
What would the holiday be without a good old PIO, PR, social media take on what if the first Christmas happened in the era of Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Wikipedia, Farmville and Google?
It seems as PIO’s that we are beginning to look at the dawning of an era where one persons negative observation of our departments can be magnified a thousand fold through the use of social media. The power of the pen has become the power of the keyboard and we have to be prepared.
I lucked out a few weeks ago. I was in a hotel in DC setting up for an evening event when I heard a session starting in the adjoining room from a daylong conference. The topic was managing your time to perform social media duties. I heard the whole session through the wall and was actually able to glom the handout from the session afterwards when a kind participant gave me an extra copy.
As a PR and marketing guy I have over the year been confronted, when a consumer or customer thinks that an injustice has been done to them, spew the old line “I’m going to the papers with this.”
I used to love to hear this sentence spoken when I knew someone with no case, truth or validation to their complaint assumed the “papers” would hold the presses so the masses could hear that we were out of blue logo tees or a donation receipt was not mailed to a donor within moments of the envelope being opened. The chance a journalist or reporter had in receiving a Pulitzer Prize for the irate information usually tended to have them pass on the story.
Over the last year or so I have been closely watching how various corporations, emergency service arms and organizations utilize social media to report on a serious incident or crisis. I am not totally convienced that reporting details rapidly on Twitter or Facebook is the most advantageous way to let the public know about an emergency. With things moving so quickly and so much at stake in giving details, social media can trap you into churning out information before we can actually put the unfolding events into perspective. A case in point took place in Singapore last week.
One of the problems we face as disseminators of public information in the social media realm is the question of when is too much information actually detrimental.
A University of Denver study has found that the biggest reason behind Facebook unfriending is a very obvious one: too many unimportant posts or excessive posting. Although the survey related to personal Facebook pages it is still reflective of what the average social media user would also think of us cluttering up their walls.
At one time in public relations, scissors and glue where two mainstays of the job. You would get press, either cut the article out of the publication yourself or get it pre cut from a clipping service, glue it and place it in a scrap book with all the PR for the year. At the end of the year you would file the book with others from years gone by and have another volume of archival material. Electronic media would be obtained from a broadcasting monitoring service and also be archived in neat rows of VCR tapes. Times have obviously changed though.
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.
At one time in the realm of social media it was all about numbers. In a PR and marketing environment the powers that be leaned on the PIO, or PR Director or Marketing head to collect names by the thousands to justify the use of Facebook, MySpace etc. I was sucked into this vortex at the start but always wondered exactly who these “friends” were. The more I looked at these friends the more I realized that many of these folks were not even casual acquaintances. They can actually be unwanted friends who make true relationships more difficult to attain.
There’s been a lot of talk recently at conferences I have attended about whether websites have outlived their usefulness and are merely dinosaurs left over from 1990s.
I think in our line of work where fact and not hype are the foundations of our websites, a no frills approach is warranted and the website model fits quite well thank you. Whereas a consumer product or service might look to gain interest through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube first, most folks who want fire and EMS information will visit our websites as the main source of information. With that said though our websites should still serve as portals to assist in integrating our traditional website and social media marketing efforts.
I use Twitter for my Department in a limited form due mainly to the fact that I still cannot get a total handle on its overall effectiveness in getting our message and information across to our neighbors. Every time I think of nixing Twitter when reporting on an incident something new pops up to make me realize how important it is.
While I was at a conference in Las Vegas last week I had the opportunity to speak to some SONY execs. I always like to hear top corporate marketing people talk about the trends and new techniques they are examining.
The talk turned to social media. As this form of communications continues to evolve the stark reality is if you are waiting at the station the train has already passed you by. If you are not actively engaged in social media or even on the most basic level, frequent updates on the content of your website, you are letting the fastest growing form of communication with you community slip away.
I had the opportunity last August at the American Legion Convention in Louisville to hear Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speak. During his talk one thing kept on ringing clear to me, Mullen wanted the public to have as much knowledge of the current conflicts as possible so they could make an informed decision on where they personally stood. This was refreshing in that Mullen wanted the public to have access to all the information at hand, both good and bad.
Now Mullen has blueprinted a new social media strategy for himself that is stunning in its scope and outreach. I can think of no other military or public official that has such a keen understanding of the value of social media and citizen outreach. It is a lesson in openness and transparency that we as PIO’s should take note of.
For the Fire Pio blog as well as for my own department’s dissemination of information via social media I always cross post. This means I use the same facsimile of information I am sending out to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Some recent articles I have read make me think now that this might not be the best strategy.
I just read an article in the Public Relations Strategist about how social media is reshaping PR. The story reviewed the incident a few months back between Southwest Airlines and portly film director Kevin Smith who was bounced off a flight because of his weight. Some say the Smith problem was sincere others say he instigated the scene to draw media attention to a new film. Nevertheless Southwest was confronted with Smith’s powerful Twitter presence where he was able to inform his 1.5 million followers about his grip with the airline.
I want to thank Doug Walton for passing along this piece which originally came from the definitive social media website Mashable. Many of the tips in the piece can be directly correlated to the types of social media we use as fire department PIO’s.
From felons on Facebook to tips through Twitter, social media is being used more and more by law enforcement agencies, and not just to fight Internet-related crimes. We’re talking about solving crimes that are happening on the street and in your community.
When I teach Probies in my departments internal fire school, I always tell them that they already know more than many veteran members. Because of the most up to date tactics that they are learning, they already have one up on the older guys who become complacent and are hesitant to constantly upgrade their skills to be on the cusp of today’s standards.
The same is true for PIO’s. If we do not constantly stay up to day on the latest trends and tools we are always taking a step backward.
A few months ago a fire took place in Smithtown, NY where I serve as the fire departments PIO. It was as routine as a small working fire could be. A heavy rainstorm caused a neon sign in the window of a nail salon to catch fire after water leaked through the plate glass seal. The fire was quickly knocked down and we headed for home.
Late Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense released its official policy covering new media and social media. With some three million employees, the DoD is one of the largest organizations in the world, so this is major news.
The Salt Lake Tribune just posted an interesting story about SGT Craig Martinez, the new Public Information Officer for the Orem Department of Public Safety. Martinez has scored a triple play with his use of social media via blog, Twitter and Facebook to help keep the residents of Orem safe and informed.
With all the snow in the northeast during this bitter winter a good old “Adopt a Hydrant” program was in order. I am happy to report that it was a big success, due in no small part to the new strength of the word “public” in public relations.
I have recently read a number of articles about whether hard copy print materials should be distributed as freely as in the past. The volume of printed materials distributed by public service organizations is massive. Just think about how many department newsletters, brochures, and flyers go out to your community.
The question is if all this paper is really necessary? I think an assessment of your outreach materials is a good start. A summary of some of the tips I have culled are as follows -
When we signed on the dotted line to become firefighters we quickly became the guys on the other side of the yellow caution tape. While we go about our business of fire suppression or extrication or EMS emergencies the public is watching us at the scene with critical eyes. In essence we are characters in a drama being played out before them.
