Social Media is Heating Up the CKFD
The Chatham-Kent Fire Department is tapping into new communication tools thanks to a little help from CIK Marketing. Over the past two months, CKFD and CIK have been working together to create a social media management system that would help improve online communications.
The Chatham-Kent Fire Department will be leveraging various social media accounts and their official website to release department information, share fire safety messaging and alert the media to information regarding fire scenes. The public can follow the Chatham-Kent Fire Department on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ckfiredept (@ckfiredept) and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ckfiredept. Plans are also in place to launch a department YouTube channel later this spring.
Embracing a New Approach
The reason for the social media shift? Improved communications. “About two years ago, we started to realize that our old school methods of trying to reach out to the public and the media were starting to fail a little,” remarked Chief Bob Crawford an interview with Blackburn radio this morning. In order to provide faster, more accurate information distribution, the Fire Department worked with CIK Marketing to tether their accounts together. Now, when a message is posted to the official CKFD website (www.ckfire.com), the same information is immediately published to the Department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. When information is posted to the Facebook page, it is automatically tweeted, and vice versa. “This will enable consistent messaging and the ability to use various forms of communicating to reach a wider demographic,” said Fire Chief Robert Crawford. The tethering also provides the department with an efficient distribution channel.
Better Media Relations
The new social media set-up will enable the on-call chief to “tweet” information for structure fires as the information becomes available. Detailed follow-up will be issued to the media via a release when needed. This will assist in providing access to initial information about an incident without interrupting or hampering fire fighting efforts and strategies.
A "tweet" from the new Chatham-Kent Fire Department Twitter account. Followers can trace this tweet back to Assistant Fire Chief Ray Stone thanks to the use of his unique call sign "^CK3"
The public educator will be able to post messages and tips regarding preventing fires, early detection as well as important steps and planning for what to do in case of a fire emergency.
The CKFD social media system is the first fire service social media project that CIK Marketing has worked on. In the past, CIK has provided social media assistance to numerous police services, including the Guelph, Woodstock and Chatham-Kent services. For more information on these projects, please visit our Social Media for Law Enforcement page.
