Social Media in Fire/EMS

The fire service needs to market its service as an insurance company does. The fire service provides services to its community that one never wants to call on, like insurance, but can't afford to be without when needed, also like insurance. This is not marketed enough. How many of people live without several insurance policies, e.g., life, health, auto, etc.? None. Yet fire departments in communities across the country are facing dire straits because of lack of citizen support in the voting booth or at fundraising time.

A Fire Medic Perspective: Delivering Customer Service with Lights and Sirens. Rom Duckworth discusses how a culture of customer service can work in the real-world with retired Battalion Chief (and prolific author) Rob Avsec.

There is a lot more that can be done to use social media in a community emergency, but this should be a good “starter kit”. So what are you waiting for? Your community emergency, either man-made or naturally occurring, is “just around the corner”.

Over the course of the last year, I’ve attempted to provide you—the readers of this blog—with a wide variety of subjects for you consideration and thought. So here are the ten most viewed posts for 2013.

While WBT and social media apps can greatly enhance your community's ability to recruit and mobilize resources in "real time" following an event generator, don't wait until the event happens to put a system in place beforehand. Start now to create a marketing plan to inform and educate the public about how your community will use social media when an EOP/COOP/COG event strikes the community.

Your ability to develop professional networks has increased exponentially with advent of social media, and particularly LinkedIn, the most used professional networking platform on the planet. Check this article out to see how you can start making it work for you.

I’m not speaking of some fictitious character, but rather your “brand”: who you are, what you do, what do you stand for, etc. See, in the digital world you only get one chance to make a good first impression AND you only get to use that 7-10 percent of communication, the non-verbal part.

I can’t remember the first time I heard this phrase, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard it since, but it’s one I never forget. Perhaps you’ve heard it, too? Employees don’t leave the company. They leave their boss. Author Unknown

Your department’s website still needs to be the bedrock for your Internet presence, but with Web 2.0 there is so much more. Let’s take a look at some of the tools in the toolbox, shall we?

By choosing to use social media tools to engage the stakeholders in its community in developing the Community Risk Reduction plan, Cutting Edge County is giving those same stakeholders an opportunity to become skilled and practiced in their use.