Author Archive

In the emergency response field, due to our access to patient’s protected health information and concerns about confidentiality, there is a lot of worry from employers about employees blogging about patient encounters that are true or loosely based on the truth. One of the best bloggers in EMS, Medic999, has decided to step away from blogging. While he emphasizes that he has not been asked to stop blogging he senses the pressure building in his organization against social media expression by employees.

Episode 94 of the EMS Garage podcast, the Day Social Media Stood Still, discusses Medic999’s departure from blogging, the implication to others, and the need for employers to clearly state social media policies for on-duty time and off-duty social media conversation. The conversation included some of the top voices in Fire and EMS social media like, Jamie Davis the PodMedic, Tim Noonan the Rogue Medic blogger, Chris Montera host of the EMS Garage and EMS Leadership podcasts, Kyle David Bates host of the First Few Moments podcast, Ted Setla the filmmaker of Level Zero and Chronicles of EMS, Natalie Quebodeaux co-host of the GenMed podcast and blogger, and Justin Schoor the Happy Medic blogger and co-start of the Chronicles of EMS. Hear what these industry leaders have to say about the importance of organizational support for social media and the potential positive impact on our communities.

Near the end of the EMS Garage episode 94 I shared a special discount code to receive a free copy of the PIOSocialMediaTraining.com ebook – Social Media Policies for First Responder Agencies.

Does your organization have a social media policy?

Does your blog put your job at risk?

This is a guest post by Michelle Mangen.

HootSuite is one of the many great third-party applications you can use to schedule tweets for future dates and times. It also allows you to connect multiple Twitter accounts, including co-workers and agencies who want to give you access to their accounts.

Perfecting Scheduled Tweets

One of the first times I scheduled Tweets in HootSuite I utilized their “drafts” feature and had originally intended that in the following weeks I would only have to change the bit.ly link as well as the specific info for that particular week. Brilliant plan, right?

About 30 minutes into Week Two of scheduling tweets I found multiple flaws in my previously “brilliant plan.” The pre-saved drafts didn’t go as well as I had intended due to the fact that HootSuite saves drafts alphabetically – which isn’t the most efficient when you have updates you want to send to Twitter on a specific day and time.  Additionally if you have drafts for multiple accounts it is not easy to determine which tweets are for which account. It quickly became apparent to me that a Plan B had to be devised when I realized that I would have probably been just as fast by typing entirely new updates from scratch vs. using the drafts.

Plan B: Scheduled Tweets in 10 minutes

A better option than using the drafts feature is to type the tweets into a Word document. Now I can schedule a total of 14 tweets (7 for two different accounts) in 10 minutes by utilizing the following tactics to publicize two different podcasts:

• Change specific info for the upcoming week’s tweets (guest names, episodes, etc.)
• Create a new bit.ly link and then using the Find & Replace option I can update all instances of the previous week’s bit.ly link to the upcoming week’s bit.ly link in a mere matter of seconds.
• Copy and paste the tweets into HootSuite; Select the desired date and time; Select appropriate Twitter accounts; Save and Done!

By simply adjusting the method in which the drafts were saved (using a Word document instead of HootSuite’s option) the invested time was reduced from over 30 minutes to just under 10 minutes per week.

My philosophy for both myself and for the clients I serve is that a minute saved is a minute that can be “used” elsewhere so I am continually hyper-vigilant in “tweaking” my procedures and utilizing other programs to achieve the same end result in the least amount of time possible.

What are some of your favorite shortcuts to get more social media done in less time?

Connect with Michelle on Twitter (@MMangen) or at her website Your Virtual Assistant.

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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.

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.

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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

Want to listen while you’re on the go?

Thanks for listening!

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

Want to listen while you’re on the go?

Thanks for listening!