PIOSocialMediaTraining.com: Charlotte Fire Department voted Social Media Responder of 2009

Contact: Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P

Telephone: 715-204-9874

Email: gfriese@piosocialmediatraining.com

Announcing Social Media Responder of 2009 Contest Winner

PLOVER, WI — PIOSocialMediaTraining.com is pleased to announce that the Charlotte Fire Department was voted the Social Media Responder of the Year contest. The contest recognized the efforts and accomplishments of emergency response agencies and public information officers to use social to achieve their mission and engage with their communities.

Captain Mark Basnight, spokesman for the Charlotte Fire Department Office of Public Affairs said, “On behalf of the Charlotte Fire Department and the City of Charlotte we look forward to exploring what the future will bring by means of social media tools that will assist us in communicating and serving our friends and partners more effectively.”

The Charlotte Fire Department uses a blog as the hub for its social media presence. From the hub visitors can link to spokes that include a regular Twitter presence, YouTube channel, Blog Talk Radio, and a Flickr photo stream. Captain Basnight and his colleagues regularly use blog posts with multimedia embedded to report on incidents, distribute injury prevention and safety messages, and alert the community to developing incidents.

Social Media Responder 2009 was sponsored by Depiction software. Charlotte Fire Department will receive a copy of the Depiction software program that merges images, data, maps, and real-time events into a dynamic view of a local community.

“Nominees and finalists used the contest as an opportunity to widen department and community knowledge and support of their social media efforts,” reported Greg Friese PIOSocialMediaTraining.com co-founder. David Konig, the other co-founder, added “throughout the contest finalists used social media tools to inform and encourage their supporters.”

Charlotte Fire Department was one of 123 nominations for Social Media Responder of 2009. A panel of judges narrowed the nominees to six finalists – Charlotte Fire Department, Eric Neitzel, Bellevue Police Department, Chronicles of EMS, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, and Los Angeles Fire Department. View the finalist profiles. Charlotte Fire Department received 17,570 of the 47,734 votes cast for the six finalists. For more numerical analysis of the contest visit PIOSocialMediaTraining.com .

Visit PIOSocialMediaTraining.com to learn more about an email training boot camp on social media for PIOs, conference presentations, social media policy ebook, and upcoming events. For more information or interview requests contact Greg Friese gfriese@piosocialmediatraining.com or call 715-204-9874.