I was just cleaning up my favorites sites on Internet Explorer. I have not updated my links section on this blog in awhile. I use these favorites for both my work as a fire department PIO and as a marketing and public relations professional for a national not for profit organization. Over the weekend I will hopefully add some of these new sites to my links page.
I present to you the most often visited PR sites that I rely on for information.
One of the challenges of writing a daily firematic blog and serving as a PIO of a volunteer department is making sure that my opinions do not affect my department negatively. This is what I must do regarding the general public’s perception of my department and this is also what I must do in the blogosphere.
I do report on my own department and how we handle public relations and crisis communications occasionally, but I would, in my own opinion, be a fool to make my department look foolish to the folks from across the country who read this blog.
My “office” at the firehouse is in a corner of the conference room. I have a desk against one of the walls. On the wall in front of my desk is a bulletin board that has all the current 2010 new clippings from press the department has received. It’s just about full, and that’s both good and bad. Good for the press we have received on stories concerning fire prevention, community award ceremonies, parade appearance and member recognition but bad for those clipping that resulted in devastating fires and MVA’s or loss of life.
Suppose we were asked as PIO’s to meet with the media directly after a structural fire where much more went wrong than right. Instead of confronting the situation and transparently addressing where we succeeded, where we failed, and what we should have done to make things run better we took a different tact. We decide to ignore the present, forget about the fire and tell the press that things would have been much worse under the leadership of the past Chief and things are going in the future to get much better. The press would look at us like we were raving lunatics.
My buddy Tiger Schmittendorf who among several things writes the great blog Tiger Schmittendorf.com sent me a note correcting a typo on one of my recent postings. I appreciate Tiger’s observation. No matter how hard we try, proofreading, which is a big part of the work we do, is not a perfect process.
This is pretty cool. Today’s post is just a bunch of useless knowledge. Mark Steiger, a firefighter friend of mine from east Texas saw my Fourth of July post about the founding father of the volunteer fire service, Benjamin Franklin. Mark MC’s a holiday parade each year. Before the festivities get underway he regales the crowd with some Colonial era useless facts. I know it’s not PIO relevant, but it’s allot of fun to read.
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?”
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.
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’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
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.
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 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.
One of the most frustrating aspects of our jobs as PIO’s is being second guessed by many who find our career to be something that the immediate world could step into in a pinch. Unfortunately these seeming to know it alls can rattle us by providing suggestions that might make us second guess our own ability. It’s the “no but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express” syndrome.
There has long been a battle over the defining line between marketing and public relations. A goal of many of us in PR for many years was to take command of all communications functions, including advertising and marketing. Well it appears that this is finally coming to fruition.
I just received some PowerPoint slides from a presentation I saw in Las Vegas a few weeks back that tackled this issue. I thank Peter Clarke of Omnex Marketing and Media Solutions for the presentation he sent.
Here are some of his salient points. Some pertain to our work as PIO’s, some are more business and agency related, but still interesting reading -
I end the week with a pretty cool video that hopefully will inspire you as a PIO to try just a little bit harder and go just a little bit further.
We all learned during our Firefighter I that when water converts from liquid to vapor at 212°F, it expands 1,700 times its volume. Water can only be as hot as 212ºF, but steam reaches thousands of degrees in temperature, which can not only be potentially fatal to us but also very uncomfortable and often the cause of serious injury. That one degree difference should always be on our mind when it comes to ventilation tactics and nozzle choice.
That one extra degree to steam can make a world of difference in how we react on the fireground and the potential outcome.
SnapStream Media is hosting a free live webinar on Thursday, June 3 at 12:30 pacific time. The main presenter will be SGT Tim Schmidt the PIO for the Anaheim Police Department.
Schmidt and spokespeople from SnapStream will discuss -
The traditional vs. progressive TV monitoring approach
*Digitally recording and archiving TV coverage of your city
*Allowing cross-departmental access to clips and recordings
*Pinpointing mentions of interest & creating clips
*Being notified of issues/events via automatic e-mail alerts
*Creating daily media reports
Like in the movie Groundhog Day I have a situation that happens over and over again, in the same manner each June. My department hands out a number of scholarships to deserving students at the high school, I take pictures, submit them to the local paper and they never get printed.
Everything I normally send to this newspaper gets printed, I have a great relationship with the paper, its employees and editor but each year for some unknown reason the scholarship story and photos never makes it to print.
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.
When I departed Long Island for Las Vegas a few days ago I noticed that the TSA was profiling blue hair. Oh I understand everyone is on edge with recent breeches, put this was the definitive example of perhaps spending too much time on the wrong person.
I’m in Las Vegas this week attending a conference. Last night I went to dinner with a bunch of guys from Medina, Ohio who are huge Cleveland Cavalier fans. We positioned ourselves near a mega screen monitor so we could see the Cavs ultimately pounded by the Celtics 120-88.
Early on, when the game was relatively close and spirits were higher, the LeBron James rumor mill was the talk of the moment. Facing July 1 free agency everyone at the table had an opinion on whether LeBron will stay or go. With each opinion came a rumor about what someone told someone about LeBron’s status. Also with each rumor and opinion came blame. Who to scapegoat and take to task if LeBron seeks mega millions elsewhere?
As a PR guy this got me thinking. It’s not about just LeBron, it’s about sports in general. Each day is filled with stories in the paper and online, as well as sports radio and television, that are based on heated rumors and bashings about one team, coach, manager or athlete.
If these were stories about our fire departments, chiefs or firefighters we as PIO’s would be apoplectic! We would be in total crisis communications mode!! This would constitute one of the worst days of our careers.
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.
Many PIO’s also serve as their department’s photographer. In my department I take hundreds of photos a year along with another firefighter who also handles camera duties.
We both do pretty good work at a scene and many of our photos are used by the media. I am much more comfortable and talented at snapping the action at a fire then shooting a group photo at an awards ceremony. I always feel that the way I ask a group to pose is the same way it has been done since the camera was invented.
There are something’s good and something’s pretty bad about this story.
The LA Times recently printed a piece entitled “Hot, dangerous work inspired Fireman’s Brew.”
It’s the story of two Los Angeles County firefighters Rob Nowaczyk and Ed Walker whose daydreaming after a hillside fire by a freeway lead to the creation of Fireman’s Brew. They imagined brewing their own beer, just as they liked it, and donating a portion of the sales to benefit a LODD fund.
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