Social media tools enable anyone at any incident to be a Public Information Officer (PIO). A patient, a bystander, a firefighter, an EMT, or anyone that has a smart phone, Twitter account, and internet connection can quickly snap a photo, shoot a video, or write a blog post and upload that piece of content to their friends and fans.

Since anyone can be a PIO how does that change the role and function of the assigned and trained public information officer for your emergency response organization before, during, and after the incident?

This blog will be an ongoing discussion and exploration of social media tools, social networking sites and concepts, best practices and policies, new technologies, and roles and responsibilities of an officially authorized PIO as well as all the other PIOs that are now present at every incident.

Thanks for joining us for this discussion and please share your ideas, comments, and suggestions.

About the author

Greg Friese wrote 58 articles on this blog.

Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is an author, podcaster, blogger, and advocate for emergency response agencies to use social media before, during, and after any incident. Greg is the Director of Education for CentreLearn Solutions, LLC. He is also the co-host of the EMSEduCast podcast and is a paramedic for a 911 agency in northeast Wisconsin

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