In April I mentioned that Miami-Dade County was investigating a fire captain for posts he made privately on Facebook. Well the county has apparently concluded their investigation and demoted the captain based on the following findings:

A screen shot of the Facebook page was sent to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s human resources department on April 12, according to county records released Monday. A day later, it was published on the website theGrio.com, an African-American news website.

The ensuing investigation found that, though Beckmann’s Facebook page was personal, it hurt the public’s trust in the department, the disciplinary action report said. “While the opinion posted may have been personal, as a captain with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, it greatly disrupted the public’s confidence in our entire organization as a result of the reference to ‘my co-workers,’ ” it said.
- Miami-Dade Captain Demoted Over Martin Facebook Post, EMSWorld.com

As I had originally feared, the investigation focused more on the content than the time it was posted. The decision is being appealed, but that will undoubtedly be a long and arduous process. Since his privacy settings were (from all accounts) set correctly to a setting to the share with “friends only” selection, I can at this point only hope that Captain Brian Beckmann is successful in the appeal.

Besides the lesson of actually knowing who your friends are, now is a good time to go through your friend list and “unfriend” any “organization profiles”. Agencies and organizations should be using Facebook Pages, and it’s important to realize that anything you say on a Facebook Page is public as well.

Tomorrow will be the inaugural EMS Web Summit. The official lineup is out and if you haven’t signed up yet there’s still time to do so right here.

I’ll be honest, I once thought being scheduled opposite the State Director of EMS was intimidating. Being sandwiched between Kelly Grayson and Peter Canning brings new meaning to that word. Nevertheless I will persevere, but I want to provide a little prologue to my presentation that I think might be needed….

I am an ardent advocate for EMS agencies to become involved in Social Media. While I consider myself more of an evangelist than an expert (because I really hate the term “Social Media Expert”), it is important that agencies do so responsibly. There are three major things required of an agency to do so:

1. Create a Plan- This first step is that basis behind PIOSocialMediaTraining.com and the E-mail Bootcamp Course offered for free there
2. Create Content In Conjunction With The Plan- This is the second step and is the focus of my presentation on Crafting The Message: Creating Effective Social Media For EMS Agencies On Social Networks during the EMS Web Summit
3. Engage In Conversation According To The Plan- This third step is often one of the hardest, but it is a vital component to realize the true value of a Social Media presence

So it may appear that my presentation is sort of the meat on the topic, which is pretty much how it is intended to be especially since we only have 30 minutes to pack the punch. I didn’t want to rehash a beginner style class because in all likelihood if you’re attending the EMS Web Summit chances are you probably already understand what Facebook and Twitter are. I think it’s an overall good compliment to Kelly’s Blogging 101 and Greg’s Using Social Media To Market Your Agency.

Of course, that’s just my thoughts about it and I will be eagerly awaiting YOUR opinion….

Using Social Media At The Summit

Here’s a video from Jim Hoffman (the organizer of the EMS Web Summit) about how to easily use Social Media sharing tools while in attendance:

Many of you, like myself, are probably fans of the EMT/Paramedic Community Page on Facebook. Well here’s the cautionary story of how I got banned from commenting and liking anything there, or perhaps more importantly, how with great power comes a greater responsibility to more than just those that might agree with you when representing the industry in the eyes of the public.

The Offending Post

So Friday night I caught this post from the EMT/Paramedic Community Page in my stream. I was honestly a bit taken back by it, having not seen this type of attitude from the Page Administrator before. Both the tone and the content of that status update are things that I have advocated against, repeatedly, again, and again, and again. It is important to be professional online especially when in a public forum like Facebook.

Reading the comments I saw some typical misguided comments about the subject of HIPAA, some additional misguided comments about the nature of the Facebook Page, and an expected groundswell of support for the page. Allow me to make something very clear to hopefully correct some of that: a Facebook Page is a PUBLIC PRESENCE that ANYONE on Facebook can see. It is not “owned” by an individual, it is not limited to viewing by a select group, it is NOT an “EMS site”.

Not agreeing with either the tone of the post or the comments, I left my own comment to try and redirect this unnecessary unprofessional vitirol against another users opinion, as misguided as it may have been. It read:

I don’t know what’s worse, someone misunderstanding legal matters, like most in EMS, or a Facebook Page Administrator who calls a user a “moron” instead of using the opportunity to provide some education. Something to ponder…

About two hours later I went back to see how the conversation was progressing. Do you know what I found? Somehow I had mysteriously “unliked” the page, which I promptly re-”liked”. Once I did that I was able to see the wall again and the comments. That was when I discovered what had REALLY happened.

My comment had been deleted.

I could not make a comment.

I had been banned.

BANNED!

In a recent interview with EMS World, the Page Administrator Kenya Nixon had the following to say:

Of course, there is a downside to being the administrator of a popular, public page. “Dealing with spam and trolls is a big negative,” Nixon says. “I like everything to stay civil, but that doesn’t always happen.”

I can understand the need to keep the SPAM and the trolls to a minimum. As a Page Administrator I too have had to remove comments and on occasion ban a user or two for the use of profanity, an uncivil nature, and unprofessional comments.

So did my comment fall into the uncivil and unprofessional category? I don’t think so. Perhaps you think differently and, unlike the Page Administrator, I welcome your opinion… as long as it is provided in a professional and respectful manner (as a quick note, I do have comment moderation enabled so it may take a little bit for your comment to be visible).

The problem here, or at least my perception of the problem, is the Page Administrator did not like a dissenting critical opinion of their word choice. They viewed it as an attack instead of what I had intended, something meant to provoke a pause, initiate thought, and hopefully lead the Administrator to the conclusion that what they had indeed posted was unprofessional and something they should correct. In essence, they chose to censor me.

It’s important to understand that I remain a big believer in you own your own words from my WELL days and that yes, mistakes both can and will happen. Recognize the mistake, correct it, and remember it so that you don’t make it again.

Years ago the vast majority of EMS blogs were filled with unprofessional content, rant style, insulting, and some downright obscene things. Over the last few years that’s changed dramatically thanks to the efforts of the true professionals in this field to provide a more positive image of the profession to the point where the rant style has become non-typical of the field. It seems that now we have to worry about the Facebook Page Administrators smearing us as well. Is there education available about it? Absolutely. The very basics that I previously linked to can be applied to ANY social network/social media setting.

In the end it’s not about specific content, it’s about the basic elements of decency, compassion, and trying to effect a positive change in the lives of others. Looking at what that Facebook Page Administrator has done by both their posting and their action of banning me from further comments, I have to wonder what their patient care is like.

If their lack of those three tenets is any indicator, then I hope they choose a new profession soon.

So What Was The Post Directed At?

The post on Facebook that I commented on was in reference to a photo that had appeared on the Facebook Page’s wall. The photo was an EMT or Paramedic kneeling down to remove an object that had impaled a patient through the posterior. There was some mild nudity and the patient’s face was not visible.

To that extent, also from the interview on EMS World came this statement from Page Administrator Kenya Nixon:

Thankfully, Facebook has strict rules regarding what it deems “obscene,” so it’s easier for her to discourage things like pictures of extreme injuries. “I also don’t allow any solicitations without the vendor first contacting me,” she says. “I don’t want the site to turn into one giant ad.”

Due to the graphic nature of the photo I consider it Not Safe For Work or children and therefore, unlike the public Facebook Page, you’ll have to click here to see it and read the rest of the post…

Brandon Oto recently published his Laws of EMS. Not only does he provide some great rules for you to follow during your career (and provides the inspiration for this post), he provides an excellent description of what laws should be:

A good law is simple. It’s always true, or almost always, and the exceptions prove the rule. It’s not specific to a certain region or company, but is something you can keep under your hat and carry with you throughout your career. It’s clear and it say something fundamental about the kind of provider you want to be. But most of all, a good law is not just an empty platitude, but rather an actionable guide-post that can answer real questions in real situations. When times are hard or temptations loom, it’ll tell you what to do.
-Brandon Oto, The Laws of EMS

The Laws of EMS in Social Media

1. Protect the privacy of your patient
2. Be honest
3. Be polite
4. Be constructive
5. Be informative
6. Give credit where credit is owed appropriately with links
7. Be as prolific a listener as a creator
8. Share the good work of others
9. Think before you publish
10. Be engaging, but not condemning

What “law” would you add or take away?

Happy Star Wars Day and “May The Fourth Be With You”!!!

I received an interesting e-mail regarding my post on What We Can Learn From Hibachi Cooking. Here’s the snippet I found most interesting:

…you continue to make these crazy comparisons as if one is related to the other. This not only has nothing to do with social media but nothing to do with EMS. EMS is unique with unique challenges and unique solutions…
-Name withheld for their own protection

It’s absolutely true that I often make comparisons in both Social Media and EMS to things not necessarily correlated either directly or indirectly. While part of this is because I’m not a big fan of reinventing the wheel, the other part is because I think that everything (and everyone) has value. It’s just a matter of observation to determine how that value can be applied to our own challenges. This is usually referred to as discovering “best practices” to meet a need.

Here’s another great example of putting “best practices” to use:

“Pit crews” are a car racing tradition and the answer to a quick response for a problem. By training “pit crew” style we decrease the time between patient contact and the start of effective compressions with early defibrillator application maximizing the potential for a ROSC. So we’ve taken a racing “best practice”, applied the ideology to a challenge in EMS, and from most accounts have achieved a better response time.

While I will readily admit that at times my comparisons may be a stretch, it’s important that we keep both our eyes and our minds open to the possibilities of what can ultimately improve our service as whole. Sure, there are some industry “best practices” that won’t necessarily work for some systems because of other variables, but ultimately we won’t actually know what works best until we try it.

So as far as the Hibachi post goes, when it comes to the distribution of your social media content, give it a try for a week or two and compare the results to what you had done previously. You won’t know if you’ll get a greater reach unless you are willing to try it out. If you do, feel free to let me know what worked and what didn’t work.

My inquiring mind wants to know…

Organ donation just became more of a “social” event in your Facebook timeline. From the Facebook Press Release:

Today, more than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives. Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis. And we believe that by simply telling people that you’re an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role.

Starting today, you can add that you’re an organ donor to your timeline, and share your story about when, where or why you decided to become a donor. If you’re not already registered with your state or national registry and want to be, you’ll find a link to the official donor registry there as well.

The exposure and increased public awareness Facebook‘s feature will bring to organ donation addresses only a small part of the actual issue. Until we are able to have a database of donors integrated with 911 call center information fed to an agency OTHER than EMS for harvest potential, programs such as FDNY’s Organ Harvest Unit will be ineffective at best.

Two weekends ago I was at the Sakura Japanese Steak and Seafood House with a group of friends. If you’ve ever been to a similar styled restaurant then you know that the cooking of your dinner is as much about the entertainment value as it is in the actual meal, but the true art of hibachi isn’t in the twirling knives and the cheap culinary humor. The true skill is in timing.

Timing is an important element in social media. This is often overlooked or underrated by the burning to desire to disseminate the information NOW NOW NOW. While some information is definitely timely, other information would be better served for a specific time and/or day.

Here are a few suggested times/days to publish content directed at North America:

• Monday through Thursday has the most traffic internet wide
• 9:00am Eastern begins the US traffic rise that doesn’t begin to decrease until 11:00pm Eastern
• 11:00am Eastern is the best time for Twitter links
• 2:00pm Eastern on a Wednesday is the best time for Facebook sharing
• Twitter refers more traffic during weekends while Facebook refers more traffic during the week

Taking all that information into consideration, including lag time for sharing from automatic services, Monday-Thursday from 10:00am-2:00pm EST are optimal posting times for content directed towards North America.

Do you plan your content? If not, why not?

You may have heard of a one of a kind conference being held on May 17 called the EMS Web Summit. Sure you’ve probably gotten e-mails about those one topic/single speaker webinars that the old media types like to push as progressive and new. This isn’t your chief’s webinar featuring the alphabet soup presenter talking about things three slides ahead while the intern tries to figure out how they screwed up the interface.

Seeing what Greg Friese had to say should further explain what all the excitement is about:

Speakers will give thirty minute presentations on topics such as Geriatrics, Trauma, Cardiology, Social Media, Career Development, NREMT, Flight Paramedic, ECG and more. Although this is the very first EMS Web Summit it brings leading EMS speakers like Bob Page, Greg Friese, Even Feuer, Dan Limmer, Troy Shaffer, Jamie Todd and Rommie Duckworth. In addition popular EMS personalities such as Tim Noonan, Sean Kivlehan, Steve Whitehead, Peter Canning and Dave Konig will also bring their passion and expertise to the event.
- 2012 EMS Web Summit, EverydayEMSTips

It’s like the TED Talks, but for EMS.

If I learned anything from watching countless TED Talks, being an “EMS Personality” (and more importantly officially recognized as one) isn’t going to be enough. So for my thirty minutes of personality, I chose the topic of Crafting The Message: Creating Effective Social Media For EMS Agencies On Social Networks.

At PIOSocialMediaTraining.com we’ve always advocated for planning an agency’s social media presence. Unfortunately many agencies think that a Social Media Policy is the end all be all of their planning, and they fail to make a Social Media Communication Plan and incorporate it into their overall Communication Plan (if they even have one). So in my thirty minutes, I’m going to provide the blueprint to create effective content for the social networks, and how to tie them together to craft the overall message. All of this should find its way into your Social Media Communication Plan. If you don’t have one, there’s no better time to start!

Of course, it’s not all about me. Rogue Medic has the presentation schedule for the day. There’s alot of great presentations going on, registration is FREE so you can attend one session or ALL the sessions, and if you haven’t registered yet then what are you waiting for? Register today!

There is an interesting story over at EMS World about Miami-Dade County investigating a Facebook posting made by one of their captains regarding the Treyvon Martin shooting. The article is originally from The Miami Herald and reads in part with my own added emphasis:

Capt. Brian Beckmann’s post, published for the public Friday by the website theGrio.com, lambasts the prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case and suggests “urban youth” are the products of “failed, sh*tbag, ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents.”

Someone with access to Beckmann’s Facebook page sent a screen shot of his posting to the website which is geared toward African-American issues.
-Miami-Dade firefighter under investigation for Trayvon Martin Facebook rant, The Miami Herald 4/15/12

The article states the post was published for the public Friday by the website theGrio.com, indicating that Captain Beckmann’s post was NOT a public posting. This is not the same as the old “could you say it in a restaurant” sniff test that Happy is fond of, this is more of a “could you say it in your living room with friends” type of situation.

The article further states that someone with access to Beckmann’s Facebook page sent a screen shot of his posting to the website, indicating that no one from the website was able to see the posting themselves. In all likelihood, his privacy settings were set to share only with his “Friends“.

I am interested to learn the findings of this investigation. It may very well be that they are looking to see when he posted it, because if he was on duty when he did so he may have very well violated a policy. If the investigation is more about the content than the time, well then that is treading a very fine line in violating his privacy, especially since it was not something he made public himself.

Although there’s no proof, it is yet another great reason why you should NOT accept requests from Facebook Profiles of agencies or organizations. Agencies and organizations should have a Facebook Page.