Archive for April, 2010

Social Media allows us to celebrate a slew of different days that we may not ordinarily recognize. There are completely random blog “Delurking” days where authors call for comments, September 19 (9/19) usually hosts Talk Like A Pirate Day, and March 15 (3/14) is traditionally Pi Day (3.14). This year geo-tagging-check-in service Foursquare has laid claim to April 16 (4/16) and declared it Foursquare Day, the first official Social Media holiday.

Foursquare is a social network that is dependent upon its users using location based applications on their mobile phones to “check-in” at venues around their city. The network awards points for every check-in a user makes and the user with the most check-ins at a specific venue over a running two month period is awarded the title of “Mayor“. This lends a tone of gameplay and creates a level of competition amongst the networks members that is fueled further by users earning badges for completing certain achievements under certain conditions.

One of the more sought after badges for Foursquare users is the Swarm badge. This badge is only earned when 50+ users are checked into the same venue within a limited time period. Business users have used the allure of this badge to increase attendance at their properties, and there is no reason why our agencies can’t do the same to reach out to our community.

Your agency can host an open house, partner with a local business for a fundraiser, or use the opportunity to provide a service such as a blood sugar check or a car seat check for residents. You can also use it as an educational opportunity. As an example, the Tampa Bay Swarm Party will be using #4SQDay to promote Don’t Twive, the “Don’t Tweet And Drive” campaign against distracted driving.

Four Quick Steps To Planning A #4SQDay Event

1. Plan an event with a set time and location that is registered in the Foursquare database
2. Create a flier featuring your agency logo and the Swarm badge to be posted both locally and on your agency hub
3. Use Facebook Events and Twitter to announce and invite your fan base to the event (a lot of businesses have had success using Twitvite, so we recommend you try it out as well )
4. Continue to promote your event before it, during it, and even after it (on Twitter use the official hashtag #4SQDay). Also make sure to submit your event to @4sqday on Twitter or at 4SQDay.com

Using Social Media to organize and promote actual events is just another way to connect with your community and help get your message out there.

Additional Resources: Case Study – How To Use Foursquare To Draw A Crowd, How To Have An Awesome Foursquare Day Swarm

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We have a new episode of our award deserving podcast ready to download and enjoy! This episode Dave and Greg are joined by Emergency Communication Network‘s Customer Relationship Manager Mike Ellis (@EmergCommNetwrk) and Vice President David DiGiacomo to discuss:

• Mass notification systems – what they are and how they are used before, during, and after an event
• The importance of having a toolbox as opposed to relying on one form of communication
• Mass notification systems and how they integrate with Social Media as opposed to using Social Media as a mass notification system
• Just to clarify, it was Dave Konig who was shouting down the use of Twitter as the sole component of an emergency notification system due to its unreliability



• Using Social Media to increase awareness of an emergency notification system
• The value of “push” mass notification systems
• Getting past the notification “blindness”
• Missing children
• Tornado alerts
• Rumor control
• Targeting notification to a geographic area or risk group
• Tips on geo-locating fellow Social Media users

For more information on the CodeRED™ emergency notification system or any of Emergency Communication Network‘s offerings you can visit them on the web, read their blog, or call them at 866-939-0911

Want to listen while you’re on the go?

Thanks for listening!

Twitter has made it fairly easy to monitor using Twitter search features and hashtags.

1. Browse to Search.Twitter.com

2. Enter the word or phrase you want to search, such as your department name.

3. When the search is completed look in the upper right of the page for “Feed for This Query” That is the RSS feed for the search query.

4. Copy the RSS into your RSS reader.

5. Anytime the query appears in a tweet it will update the feed.

I would suggest monitoring for these terms:

• Department name
• Department name acronym
• Chief’s name
• Your name
• City name and key words like fire, police, ambulance, emergency

Use the results of your searches to refine the queries and select new queries.

Also use the Advanced Twitter search features to refine your search to your area. For example, searching NYFD might pull tweets from around the world. Narrowing the search to within 5 miles of zip code 10001 will limit the tweets to those coming from Manhattan and the surrounding Burroughs.