Archive for March, 2010

One of the hot topics for both responders and agencies are their rights when it comes to Social Media. With stories coming out such as the South Carolina firefighter terminated for posting a video and the recent termination of two EMTs from Long Island College Hospital (NYC) for using Chatroulette while in their PPE gear, concern about Social Media is on the rise.

Recently Greg and I were guests on the podcast EMS Garage Episode 79: Fight For Your Right. The episode was hosted by Chris Montera and featured Steve Wirth Esq. of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth, LLC. that is a national law firm devoted to EMS law.

The show topic was the rights of an individual when it comes to Social Media and their employment by an agency. The discussion was lively and jam packed with information that can be applied to all public safety and first responders.

Here are some of the highlights from the episode that you may find very surprising:

• The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects our freedom of speech from the government, not from an employer
• Employees of private agencies have no First Amendment protections
• Employees of government agencies have some protections under very specific conditions
• Agencies should put a Social Media Policy in place because as Steve Wirth said, “You can’t expect people to follow the rules if there are no rules.”
• Due to innovations, policies should look to define behavior as opposed to current technological trends
• The employer has every right to control what you do while on duty

If you are a responder wondering what your rights are to engage in Social Media or if you are an Agency wondering what your responsibilities are when dealing with Social Media amongst your personnel, we highly recommend you take the time to listen to the entire episode.

Interested in subscribing to the EMS Garage in iTunes? Just click here and automatically get new episodes downloaded as they become available

The other participants of this podcast episode were:

• Kyle David Bates
• Tim “Rogue Medic” Noonan
• Justin “Happy Medic” Schorr
• Natalie Quebodeaux

Need a Social Media Policy? Get a copy of our Social Media Poilicy Guide to help you on your way

Having the right analytics tracker is an important element of running an agency hub. Being able to understand what those analytics are actually saying is a necessary skill.

While the vast majority of content creators will look at the top 3 analytics (Visitors, PageViews, and Keywords) I submit to you that there are actually 9 website analytics that truly matter as Key Point Indicators (KPI) and are vital to your success in managing your hub.

Visitors

Why It’s Important: This is the actual number of visits or “hits” your site has received. It is one of the primary indicators of your site’s reach and popularity.

New Visitors vs. Returning Visitors

Why It’s Important: This is an indicator as to how many new people are coming to your site. While every agency would like to see a loyal following, you’ll never be able to spread your message without growing your base.

Pageviews

Why It’s Important: Is your site a one view wonder or is it compelling to your visitors? Chances are that if your pageviews are equal to your visits then you have stale content elsewhere or potential navigational issues.

Time On Site

Why It’s Important: Are you attracting readers or scanners? The lower the Time On Site is, the greater the chances are that your content is not actually being consumed but simply scanned.

Referring Sites

Why It’s Important: It is always good to see who is sending you traffic, and more importantly in what context is that traffic coming over from. The site that is sending you traffic may be someone that you may want to partner with in the future or perhaps even add to a list of links that you develop. Contextually, is the traffic coming from a positive article about your organization or is it coming from a negative rant about service rendered? It’s important to know when there is both the positive and the negative out there about your organization.

Keywords

Why It’s Important: This is how the search engines are categorizing your site. Are the keywords relevant and accurate? If not, then it’s time to comb over your content and polish it up.

Visitor Geolocation

Why It’s Important: Are your visits from the locale you serve, or are they from everywhere but where you would want them to be? This is an important indicator as to whether or not you are reaching your geolocation target audience

Content Overview

Why It’s Important: This gives you an idea as to what is popular and what is not. Repeat the popular types of content more often, while tweaking the less popular content to make it

Average Pageviews Per Visit

Why It’s Important: This is an indicator as to how “sticky” or useful your content is. Unlike a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, the stickier your content is the better off you will be when it comes to being thought of as an authority or a trusted source of information.

This is a commonly posed question: What are the consequences for an employee posting something negative about their employer on a social networking site like My Space, Facebook, or Twitter?

This is how I respond:

Monitor and Catch the Positive

What do you do if you catch employees posting something positive on Twitter or Facebook about being a paramedic, their co-workers, their patients, or their employer? I work with a lot of paramedics that like their job and are very proud of being an EMS professional. Their pride is infectious. They share it with co-workers, patients, other emergency responders, nurses, and physicians. They talk about the challenges and rewards of the job freely and without consequence.

You likely have some feedback mechanisms in place to listen to your employees that are saying good things about their employer. Your medical director or a triage nurse might mention it during a committee meeting. An on-coming crew might say something like “that last crew sure does a great job cleaning the rig at the end of their shift.” Before looking and listening for the negative conversations make sure you are hearing, encouraging, and applauding the positive employee use of social media.

Most conversations about employee use of social networks, social media content sites, and the web generally imply that employee use is negative and nefarious. From my anecdotal observation most of my co-workers spend their at work down time pursuing their own interests – playing games, learning more about a favorite hobby, or – gasp – working on becoming a better EMS professional. It is my suspicion that most social networking use on or off duty ignores or is simply indifferent to work. If you are skeptical start monitoring and measuring what and why employees are saying on social networks. On Facebook the ration of Farmville posting to work related posting is probably 99 to 1 based on my informal observation.

Working Hard or Hardly Working

Complaining about work is as old as work itself. Have you previously had rules or consequences for saying something negative about work or a co-worker while in a bar, bowling alley, or grocery store? People openly, with or without social networks, complain about work and all things work related on and off duty. I have endured hours listening to complaining workers. How I wish I could simply remove their rants from my Facebook news feed instead of being trapped to listen in the front of the ambulance.

Creating a policy means training on the policy and then enforcement of the policy. Training and monitoring the actual work of paramedics (driving, assessing patients, treating patients, writing documentation) is a pretty substantial task. Are you sure you want to add Facebook and Twitter monitoring?

Social Media Policy

A policy should cover the do’s and don’ts of social networking use with concrete examples that, at best, lead to positive and professional use and, at worst, lead to neutral indifference. David and I have recorded these poscasts about social media policies:

1. Create and Click Responsibly
2. Social Media Policies Interview with HR Professional Roberta Jackson

We also have an ebook on crafting a social media policy.

Neil McDevitt, program director for the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network, has written an article about how emergency managers can use social media tools, like Twitter and Facebook, to increase accessibility to safety and preparedness information.

• Read Neil’s Article
• Learn more about CEPINTDI.org

When engaging your community with social media consider different methods to transmit messages including text, captioned video, and audio with transcripts available. As an emergency manager or PIO you might need to ask for requirements and opportunities to provide information in a variety of formats to ensure accessibility.

The hottest social media trend in 2010 appears to be having a policy for social media. Two of the biggest organizations in the world announced social media policies last week.

Department of Defense Official Policy on New/Social Media

California Social Media Standard

In 2009 many emergency response agencies and individuals established a social media presence. Clearly having a policy the defines the purpose of organization social media efforts, do’s and don’ts of social media usage, and assigning responsibility is important. A policy should also be adaptable to changes in technology. Twitter, Blogging, and Facebook are hot now. They may not be hot a year from now.

Does your organization have a social media policy?

What do you believe are essential elements of a social media policy?

It’s your turn. Join the conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We have a new episode of our bi-monthly podcast for your listening enjoyment! In our fifth lucky audio podcast you can hear us discuss:

• A Paramedic was terminated for creating an online animated video and sharing it on Facebook.
  • Agencies, no matter the size, need to have a policy in place.
  • Policies need to focus upon behaviors and not services. The fact Xtranormal was used for this video is a prime example of why policies need to be written that focus on behaviors.
  • Education on the policy is critical and can easily be intertwined with customer service training.
  • Responders need to create responsibly, “own your own words”, and understand your actions may have unforeseen repercussions.
• Phishing attacks across social networks are a common occurrence that users can help curb.
  • Phishing messages are usually generic and random.
  • Phishing messages include a URL shortened link that when clicked will send you to a malicious site that will steal your user name and passwords for your accounts from your browser cookies.
  • Click responsibly to avoid losing control of your account and potentially damaging your reputation.

Dave will be attending the EMS Today Conference on Friday March 5 in Baltimore, Maryland. If you’re attending the conference you can connect with him in person by sending him a message via Twitter @DavidKonig and you can monitor the activity of other attendees through the hashtag #EMSToday

Want to listen while you’re on the go?

Thanks for listening!