Marketing & Communications
Telling the fire service story: marketing, social media and public safety communications.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Photographs and other imagery that predominantly portray female firefighters as sexual objects first, and firefighters second, communicates a very powerful “marketing message” whether men and women in the fire service choose to accept it or not. (Don’t think so? Just ask any marketing professional “worth their salt” what they think).
Let’s Review: The Fire Services Financial Management Model
Not so fast! Are you still telling your stakeholders what YOU need or are you telling them what THEY need? In his best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the late Stephen Covey calls this “seeing the issue from the other person’s frame of reference and crafting your message so that it comes back to them through their frame of reference.”
Customer Service is Alive and Well
So I did, and the CEO of the company picks up my call! Great customer service and I’m not even a “buying customer”! I can only imagine what you folks do for the people who buy your products!
The 3rd “P” of Marketing: Promotion
Growing up most of us have probably been told, “You only get one chance to make a good first impression”! This is also true in the market place for any business, organization or individual.
What’s your department’s funding strategy?
Let’s “cut to the chase”, shall we? We've got many paradigms in the fire service that we need to “break" and one of them is how we seek resources to get the job done.
Let’s Get Serious About Preventing Kitchen Fires, Shall We?
Many photos and videos of firefighters and officers conducting public education sessions, PSAs, and fire apparatus: the usual stuff that we’ve done for many years. But what has been the impact of all that time and effort? Are we really achieving the meaningful outcome we all desire?
Resource Management When the “Big One” Hits
While WBT and social media apps can greatly enhance your community's ability to recruit and mobilize resources in "real time" following an event generator, don't wait until the event happens to put a system in place beforehand. Start now to create a marketing plan to inform and educate the public about how your community will use social media when an EOP/COOP/COG event strikes the community.
What Product Do You Want Your Community to Fund?
By: Michele Nitsch with Robert Avsec In marketing, one the most important aspects is to know your PRODUCT and how it can improve someone’s life. While…
You, LinkedIn, and Building Your Network
Your ability to develop professional networks has increased exponentially with advent of social media, and particularly LinkedIn, the most used professional networking platform on the planet. Check this article out to see how you can start making it work for you.
Networking in the Digital Age: How I Roll
I’m not speaking of some fictitious character, but rather your “brand”: who you are, what you do, what do you stand for, etc. See, in the digital world you only get one chance to make a good first impression AND you only get to use that 7-10 percent of communication, the non-verbal part.
How’s the water in your pool?
I can’t remember the first time I heard this phrase, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard it since, but it’s one I never forget. Perhaps you’ve heard it, too? Employees don’t leave the company. They leave their boss. Author Unknown
Learn to Use All the Tools to Market Your Fire and EMS Department
Your department’s website still needs to be the bedrock for your Internet presence, but with Web 2.0 there is so much more. Let’s take a look at some of the tools in the toolbox, shall we?