Social Media: Why is the Fire Service and Emergency Management So AFRAID?

A paradigm shift needs to be made in the fire service (law enforcement, disaster management, emergency management, etc.).

That “simple shift” is that PUBLIC INFORMATION is no longer  actually a simple process of providing INFO to the public, but rather a process of communicating with our stakeholders…  It requires two-way communication skills and processes.

The process is pretty simple:

Incident (Forest, District, Fire Department, Unit, etc)<–>PAO/PIO<–>Approver/Vetting<–>Web<–>#SM<–>User/Stakeholder

Here’s an example:

On a “fire” earlier today, SEVERAL users of  ”social media” heard the air attack (ATGS) say the fire was 300 acres. It quickly spread to the media and was reported.

Shortly after,  the “official agency” said that the fire was 50 acres via their version of “social media” —> One way communication.

The info provided by the “official agency” was outdated; not timely; not accurate; and therefore, NOT TRUSTED as reliable.

One thing for sure. You lose public trust in information, if what you are sharing isn’t completely:

1.) Timely,

2.) Relevant

2.) Factual,

3.) Verifiable, and 

4.) Shared to the WIDEST audience.

If the “official agency” had a PIO/Intel person assigned to the incident working on the two-way communication concept rather than the “traditional media” info  flow concept, things WOULD be much better.

IMHO.

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Further Reading:

It’s Not My Emergency

Note: This posting is derived from info received by various current and retired Type 1 and Type 2 Incident Commanders; Incident PIOs and Agency Public Affairs Officers; Senior Emergency Management Officials; and from various Social Media visionaries and practicianers. For more info, please follow the hashtags #SMEM and #SMEMchat on Twitter to keep up to date.