Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Join Us -- Virtual Ride-a-Long This Thursday

On Thursday, March 26, at approximately 7:00 AM personnel at Fire Station #1 in Silver Spring will be participating in a “Virtual Ride-a-Long“ that will be broadcast via Montgomery County Fire and Rescue (MCFRS)  @MCFRSchat Twitter Page as well as occasional posts to the MCFRS Facebook Page. The hashtag for this event will be #mcfrs so that all of you can follow along, and engage us, without having to 'follow' or be 'followed' on the particular social platforms. 

Acting Fire Chief Scott Goldstein indicates the purpose behind this pilot initiative is to engage YOU, the residents we serve, in an innovative way and provide you an almost real time view as to what occurs during a “typical” 24-hour shift, in this case at a busy Paramedic Engine Company. Social media allows us an unique opportunity to bring you, in a “virtual” manner, into “our world.” and allows us to interact with the community.  You will “visit” a fire and rescue station and, where appropriate, be able to observe various 911 responses which highlight the outstanding work Montgomery County firefighters provide on a daily basis. 

Lieutenant Robert Furst, with some support from our Office of Public Information and Outreach, will be the lead “tweeter” on this initiative. He will be sending “tweets from the street.”  

It must be emphasized that Lieutenant Furst’s primary responsibility will be to his operational obligations and he will not be engaging in tweets/social media of any kind that would distract from the response too, and mitigation of, any emergency situations. Lieutenant Furst anticipates providing public updates until approximately 9:00 P.M. and will only provide social interaction after that if he feels appropriate.

We look forward to providing you 'A day in the life.......'

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service Live Streams Press Events via iPhone


I wanted to share a recent new addition to the Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) Social Media tool kit that was tested out on December 14, 2011.  The good news is it is free and provides another layer of value added service for our county residents.

Using a hand held iPhone, MCFRS live streamed two press events that were held at one of our fire and rescue stations.  The event was live streamed through our new UStream Site.

Twitter and Facebook were used to announce what was going on and where folks could go to watch it.  Of interest is the fact that one of the local web news outlets, Germantown Patch, embedded the streaming video onto their site as well thus providing a whole other platform, and audience, where people could view it.  It is hoped other news sites will follow suit in the future.

This proved to be a good first run to see how things worked and what could be done in the future.  The quality was not the best but, considering it was through an iPhone, it was not that bad either.  More sophisticated equipment should be used in the future but it is nice to know that the iPhone will work in a pinch or during an emergent situation.  We will also be able to embed any future live stream events on our MCFRS Blog as well.

The possibilities are endless!  

Stay Safe,
Bill

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Stay Home and Stay Warm!

Hopefully everyone is staying at HOME and keeping warm!  One of our Facebook fans posted some good advice about making sure to shovel in moderation and do it every so often so you are not attempting to shovel all 20 plus something inches at once!  The other key is to make sure you HYDRATE properly before going out and physically exerting yourself!

Take a moment to visit us at our Facebook page as we are posting stuff there as well (including some info on who to call for power outages):  MCFRS on Facebook

At the site, we are hosting the Snow, Snow, and then - more SNOW event on our Facebook page. Click here to get there and join in: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=298842242568&ref=mf

A couple of photos have been posted there already!

Stay safe and warm!

Bill

Monday, February 1, 2010

Video Update and Safety Tip

Thanks to our now over 1,900 Fans on Facebook! Please check your smoke alarms today to make sure they are working and go over your home fire escape plan with those you love.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

MCFRS Social Media Continues to Grow!

Recently, our Facebook and Twitter pages have exceeded 1,700 and 600 fans respectively! All good stuff in a relatively short time span.


It has been truly amazing to watch this grow and see how the various fire safety messages spread well beyond our listed fans. I have observed Twitter messages, in particular, being “re-tweeted” (forwarded) and going to look at each persons’ Twitter page and seeing hundreds and thousands of “followers” for them thus meaning that many more are receiving the message.

We also send out this information via “regular” email newsletters that have over 2,000 subscribers who in turn forward the email on to their civic/community groups or other individuals.

I have also learned, and am still learning, to utilize tracking tools that show me that many more people than just our registered friends and fans are clicking in to read up on our various messages. I can also even see where they are tuning in from!

Even more interesting is the fact we have received some fantastic information from these sites. Folks have requested smoke alarm checks for their homes, File of Life requests, fire safety questions, as well as tips on potential code enforcement issues.

Hope all of our friends have had a great start to 2010 and, as always:

Stay Safe!

Bill