Posts Categorized: Public Scrutiny
Group Pressure Personified
It seems as PIO’s that we are beginning to look at the dawning of an era where one persons negative observation of our departments can be magnified a thousand fold through the use of social media. The power of the pen has become the power of the keyboard and we have to be prepared.
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TSA Should Screen their own PR and Marketing Efforts
Over the holiday weekend I have had the opportunity to do some reading and investigation to attempt to put together the facts from a PR perspective of how things could go so terribly wrong in terms of the “they against us” attitude most folks now have towards the TSA.
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Responding to unfounded Complaints
We as PIO’s and PAO’s have to grit our teeth and bear it in how we answer members of the community and their perceived grievances. I know it can become tedious and time consuming but our jobs now dictates we cross every T and dot every I or else suffer the consequences of being smeared in the cyber world.
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Public Information Oversaturation
One of the problems we face as disseminators of public information in the social media realm is the question of when is too much information actually detrimental.
A University of Denver study has found that the biggest reason behind Facebook unfriending is a very obvious one: too many unimportant posts or excessive posting. Although the survey related to personal Facebook pages it is still reflective of what the average social media user would also think of us cluttering up their walls.
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Get your Defense ready for Collective Guilt
Nothing beats coming into work and immediately hearing “I just read the paper, it looks like you guys are in trouble again.” When I inquired into who and what was in trouble I was told that a story was in Newsday, our Long Island newspaper about the latest loser who riffled through fire department funds, betraying both his fellow brothers and sisters and the public at large.
The problem with the in your face guy who confronted me with the story before I set a foot in the door is that he assumes all firefighters are the same and all departments are created equal. It didn’t matter to him that the ex firefighter and department in question are about 40 miles from here. For whatever reason, ours is a trade that suffers from collective guilt.
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Apple’s Jobs a real Worm
I remember that last year I received an email from a mother in the community asking if the fire department could help her third grade daughter finish an essay she was writing about fire hydrants. I emailed back to have her daughter call me with her questions. A nervous third grader did indeed call, asked her questions, and ultimately awarded the department with a hand written thank you note on lined paper, stickers and all.
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Hyperlocal News is Growing
A new form of reporting local news is taking root across America. It’s called hyperlocal and is much more nimble and reactive then traditional community news sources.
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Sleazoid PR for Sleazoid Clients
A lot of what we do as PIO’s is based on standard formula and template. If we are sending out releases and working with the press at an incident scene we are pretty much like baseball umpires, calling them as we see them. There is no room for embellishment or spin in our line of work. This is one of the aspects of our job that we should be thankful for when we look at the alternatives, like choosing sleazoid PR as a career specialty.
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Our Fire Departments live in a Virtual TV Reality Show
This got me thinking on my way home from the track how our fire grounds are more and more being turned into virtual TV studios.
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PIOs can learn from others Mistakes
I’m not a big reader of the New York Times; our politics are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. A colleague recently emailed me a link to a Times story about what not to do in case of a crisis communications emergency. I’ll admit it, it’s a great story by Peter Goodman and I encourage you to read it.
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Arizona goes into Preventative Crisis Mode
I always want to see our brothers and sisters in the public relations profession make a buck, but to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars to go into crisis mode in Arizona defending and explaining a bill that in my opinion just reinforces federal law, does not sit particular well with me.
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Sign of the Times
Suppose the department you serve in as PIO wanted to prove to the residents of your district that the bond issue for a new firehouse was justified due to the exemplary service you were providing to the community? And suppose you took money out of your departments taxpayer funded budget to purchase signs to place at the scene of past fires, MVA’s etc to hammer the pointy home and let everyone know about the great work you are accomplishing with their taxes?
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It takes both the old and new to keep the public informed of news from the Gulf
What’s currently the toughest crisis communications job in the world of public relations and public information? It very well could rest in the hands of one Brian Sibley who is the hired gun from his very own Sibley PR who is currently in the uneviable position of serving as spokesman for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Incident Command post, the central information command for everyone involved in the Gulf coast oil spill clean up.
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You can fool some of the people some of the time..
Suppose we were asked as PIO’s to meet with the media directly after a structural fire where much more went wrong than right.
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Another Black Eye for the Volunteer Fire Service
Back in 2005 Newsday, Long Island’s major daily paper, spent eight days lambasting the volunteer fire service. Long Island, where I live, is one of the most concentrated areas in the country for volunteer departments. Close to 180 departments and districts span Nassau and Suffolk counties. In the eight part series titled “Fire Alarm” (the word alarm referred to their perception of a serious problem and not the tones we wake up in the middle of the night to answer) Newsday found fault with virtually everything the fire service does and stands for.
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A Photo can Speak a Thousand Slanted Words
A couple of years ago one of the guys at the firehouse was showing me how to use Photoshop. I needed to learn some simple skills - specifically how to erase license plates from MVA photos I wanted to send to the press. As a result of boredom over the lesson the famed “sock on fire” trick photo shot was created.
It’s pretty funny when you look at some of the altered images people create with programs like Photoshop, but it is no laughing matter when the press or a news source uses these tools to create something that isn’t really there.
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Don’t Embelish the Negative
When we brief a Chief or department official on what to expect if a media interview appears that it will have negative connotations two of the simplest techniques I offer are:
1. never repeat a reporter's negative language in your response, and
2. try to frame all your answers using positive language.
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While Nero Fiddled, Obama Practiced his Short Game
Suppose there was a on-going crisis in your community. Could your chief still go out of town to that fire service convention?
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PIO Responsibilities
After my appearance last night on Firefighter Netcast, which I thoroughly enjoyed I sat down to recap exactly what my responsibilities are as a PIO. We touched on a number of the areas last night.
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Public Relations Society of America honors the U.S. Air Force
The Air Force won top honors at last weeks PRSA Silver Anvil Awards for their "Dignified Transfers" program. When Defense Secretary Robert Gates reversed the media ban on the solemn ceremony that takes place when service personnel remains return to the U.S., an approach was needed to balance both requests by the media for coverage, and the individual wishes of the families of the fallen.
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The TSA needs a Smiley Face
When I departed Long Island for Las Vegas a few days ago I noticed that the TSA was profiling blue hair. Oh I understand everyone is on edge with recent breeches, put this was the definitive example of perhaps spending too much time on the wrong person.
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They Fuel the Fires, we put them out
Early on, when the game was relatively close and spirits were higher, the LeBron James rumor mill was the talk of the moment. Facing July 1 free agency everyone at the table had an opinion on whether LeBron will stay or go. With each opinion came a rumor about what someone told someone about LeBron’s status. Also with each rumor and opinion came blame. Who to scapegoat and take to task if LeBron seeks mega millions elsewhere.
As a PR guy this got me thinking. It’s not about just LeBron, it’s about sports in general. Each day is filled with stories in the paper and online, as well as sports radio and television, that are based on heated rumors and bashings about one team, coach, manager or athlete.
If these were stories about our fire departments, chiefs or firefighters we as PIO’s would be apoplectic! We would be in total crisis communications mode!! This would constitute one of the worst days of our careers.
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Admiral Mullen’s Unique Understanding of Social Media
I can think of no other military or public official that has such a keen understanding of the value of social media and citizen outreach. It is a lesson in openness and transparency that we as PIO’s should take note of.
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From my Seat this Beer is a Little Flat
There are something’s good and something’s pretty bad about this story.
The LA Times recently printed a piece entitled “Hot, dangerous work inspired Fireman's Brew.”
It’s the story of two Los Angeles County firefighters Rob Nowaczyk and Ed Walker whose daydreaming after a hillside fire by a freeway lead to the creation of Fireman’s Brew. They imagined brewing their own beer, just as they liked it, and donating a portion of the sales to benefit a LODD fund.
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Poor NBC Reporting in Philadelphia
There is an old adage in baseball that an umpire explaining his job once said “I calls em as I sees em.” Well it appears to me that if Justin Pizzi, a reporter at WCAU, the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, was calling balls and strikes his career as an umpire would be over before it began.
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