Tag Archives: Social Media in the Fire Service

The report does not state whether or not the "impromptu video" took away from a task the firefighter was completing. When I teach/present on social media, I always remind the guys/gals that they are firefighters, not reporters. They should leave the reporting up to others. I am also a huge proponent of taking pictures of your crew when the job is done.

My goal with these classes are to make them as interactive as possible. I enjoy questions and helping others understand social media and what it can do for them and their companies, departments, organizations, and even personal networking!

My children are at my parents house in Nashville. As for me, I am sitting at home thinking about how I am going to use this HALL PASS my wife gave me. Just kidding, I would just be wasting my time. Seriously, where have I been. Well I have good news and bad news.

I just finished teaching two classes in New Jersey on social media for the fire service. My class was similar to the one I taught at FDIC this year but much longer. Both classes ran from 8:30am - 2pm. The class at FDIC was a mere 1 hour and 45 minutes. I couldn't possibly teach everything everyone needs to know about social media in even a week long class.

The class will be a lot more in depth and cover much more information than I was able to cover in an hour and 45 minutes at FDIC. The feedback I recieved from FDIC has helped me focus on what the participants are looking for!

While the video clip is short, and the video doesn't offer any useful training or tactical consideration that might be resourceful for other firefighters, there is still a lesson here. This homeowner has suffered a house fire and no doubt lost belongings...yet still took the time to share it with others. The positive effect of this action shows social media in a positive light.

I went into the class with the thought that if I can learn what the attendees want/need to know I will be better suited for teaching the class in the future. I found that while I spoke about the basics of the utilization of social media, some of the questions were for the more advanced. That is ok....however, in reviewing the evaluations on the class I found that some thought it was too basic and others thought it was not basic enough. Hopefully the majority found it useful!