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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.

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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

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Last week I presented at the Wisconsin Technical College EMS Instructor/Coordinator conference. The focus on my presentation was on how educators can create social media for professional development and/or as a classroom education activity. Below are the slides I presented. I am sharing these slides here for several reasons:

1. Many of the skills that educators should have regarding social media content creation are the same skills that PIOs should have.

2. I was surprised (and not surprised) by the lack of familiarity with social media and even the consumption of social media among the conference attendees. It was an important reminder that a small percentage of emergency responders actively consume and create social media.

3. This is my first Slideshare upload. There are some intriguing capabilities available to Slideshare users that might be of interest to you. Slideshare content could be an additional spoke to add to your agency’s hub.

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We have a new episode of our bi-monthly podcast for your listening enjoyment. This time, Greg flies solo with guest Lauri Stevens (@lawscomm) discussing the dual roles of Law Enforcement in Social Media and helping departments make the experience better for their constituents with The Social Media In Law Enforcement (SMILE) Conference (@SMILEConference) April 7-9 in Washington DC.

In our third audio podcast you can hear us discuss:

• The SMILE Conference is broken down into two distinct themes on three days:
  • Wednesday is a hands-on day covering both the fundamentals of services such as Twitter and Facebook, but also expanding into more advanced third-party applications and other services such as LinkedIn.
  • Thursday covers reputation management, community building, and outreach.
  • Friday is dealing with investigative techniques using Social Media.
• It is important to plan and understand the goals you want to achieve in Social Media so that you have a direction to go.
• More and more individual law enforcement officers are partaking in Social Media as opposed to waiting for the official agency PIO.
• Using novel methods of connecting with the citizenry both utilizing Social Media and in the actual community is essential to success.
• We need to shine the spotlight on the successes of Law Enforcement in Social Media instead of focusing on failures.

You can visit Lauri’s blog at Connected Cops and find out more about The SMILE Conference

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Last week I wrote a guest post on using social media to promote a public access defibrillation program for the Cardiac Science Blog.

You read the post here: Public Access Defibrillation and Social Media: 7 Ideas You Can Use Right Now

David and I welcome inquiries for guest posting on this blog.

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Yesterday morning my Twitter stream lit up with breaking news reports of an explosion at a Power Plant under construction in Connecticut. In this short screen cast I show how a Google Search and Advanced Twitter Search can be used to gather real-time incident intelligence from people at or near the incident.

When initiating my search I made a critical error. See if you can catch it.

This technique could be useful to:

• Hospitals preparing to receive casualties
• Administrators trying to determine how many off-duty personnel to call in
• Emergency management officials making decisions about opening a county or regional IC
• Selecting which shelters to open or close

How else could you use Google search, Google Alerts, and Advanced Twitter Search for social media intelligence gathering?

Recently I made two dreadful discoveries at my primary blog. 1) My Aweber sign-up form was no longer appearing. For weeks my subscriptions had been declining. During this time period that the form was not displaying I had two of my highest ever traffic days. 2) The link to subscribe to the site RSS feed was also not working. I quickly corrected those problems.

I was reminded of the importance of always checking the functioning of links when adding hyperlinked content to a blog page or blog post for my own projects.

Hub and Spokes

Yesterday I searched for the website of a product I would like to purchase – an instruction aid for EMT students. I quickly found the site for the product. The site footer included:

• Mailing address
• Email address
• Twitter icon
• Facebook icon
• YouTube icon

Since I had a question I clicked on the email address. The hyperlinked email address opened an Outlook email message but the address was incomplete (not properly html coded).

The Twitter icon opened a Twitter account with no messages and no followers.

The Facebook icon opened a Facebook page with no content and no fans.

These are my reminders:

1. At your hub make sure the content functions as it should
2. When you initiate  a social media spoke, especially if you link to it from the hub, start participating.

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Mark Basnight of the Charlotte Fire Department joins us for the second episode of the PIOSocialMedaTraining.com podcast which is now available for your listening pleasure!

In our second audio podcast you can hear us discuss:

• The view from the #SMR2009 Winner’s Circle with Charlotte Fire Department
• How the contest gave Charlotte FD a vehicle to spotlight their Social Media efforts
• How stakeholders in the day-to-day success of the Charlotte FD responded
• Building trust and relationships is vital
• For agencies looking to start in Social Media, start slow and experiment with personal accounts
• The Social Media Response in Haiti
• The first interview out of Haiti was via Skype which is the same service we use to record the podcast
• The first video and images out of Haiti were via Twitter and Facebook
• Fundraising efforts spread throughout Social Media in many forms
• Social Media can be the source of unsubstantiated rumors
• Agencies need to engage in Social Media and define themselves as trusted sources of information
• Agencies engaged in Social Media have the power to stop the wheels of the rumor mill if established as trusted sources of information

Connect with Mark and The Charlotte Fire Department on Twitter and Facebook

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The inaugural episode of the PIO Social Media Training Podcast is in the can and available for your listening pleasure!

For our inaugural podcast you can hear us discuss:

• How PIOSocialMediaTraining.com began and a year in review
• The Social Media E-mail Bootcamp
• The Social Media Policy Guide For First Responder Agencies
• An overview of the Social Media Responder 2009 contest
• Twitter Advanced Search
• FourSquare
• Mayor Dave’s coffee spot
• Twitter 2.0: API Rate Change Could Lead to a World of New Apps & Features
• Layar Mobile Augmented Reality Browser
• Schmap.it

Want to listen while you’re on the go?

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Paul Bollinger of Medical Teams International alerted me to this video from Sri Lanka EMS that is available on YouTube. The video will be going live as a Public Service Announcement to educate citizens about calling 110 in case of an emergency.

You could make a video like this for your service with not much more than a handheld camcorder, free video editing software, and a YouTube account. Have you done a video like this for your agency or service? Share the link in the comments. What questions do you have about making your own public service announcement (PSA)?

Learn more about the Sri Lanka EMS system and medical teams international in episode 41 of the EMSEduCast – the podcast by and for EMS Educators.