Social Media

I was lucky enough to spend the previous three days in the green mountain state of Vermont. While there, I went to McDonald’s for an ice coffee because in Vermont Dunkin’ Donuts closes at 8:00pm. While drinking my ice coffee and perusing Twitter and the web from my Droid these are the things that I pondered:

• Mark Glencourse has retired his blog.

  Prematurely.

  Technically against his will.

  Yet, I can find no fault in his decisions because he is doing it for the right reasons.

  As Mark describes, there are those in his service who are waiting for him to “trip up” in his blogging so that they can negatively impact his ability to provide for his family. Mark cannot, and for that matter should not, continue blogging if it causes him to live in fear.

  I’m not going to sugar coat it… I was (and to a large degree still am) downright pissed that this is still going on, and said so in the comment I left. Bloggers have been persecuted from the get go by the established status quo and it is still going on. There are of course a number of reasons this happens:

  For some it is jealousy because they buy into the myth that if one blogger can live off their blog, then all bloggers can. Now I know that while Mark may have had ads on his blog, I also happen to know that any payments to him would have been in US dollars which has about a 0.66 exchange rate with the GBP… so I highly doubt he was able to make much, if any, money off of it.

  For some it is the dark twisted sense of satisfaction by being able to destroy what someone else has created. Usually jealousy plays a role in this as well but that’s really neither here nor there.

  And for some it is fear that has grown out of ignorance about Social Media as a whole. This is the exact kind of ignorance that Greg Friese and I have attempted to combat at PIOSocialMediaTraining.com. Unfortunately, we obviously haven’t been able to reach those most in need.

  While it has become a recurring theme for administrators and officers to point to the video from the South Carolina Firefighter and the Facebook photos from the NYC EMT, I think it’s important to note that Mark adhered to the Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics, and I have never read anything that in the slightest may have been inappropriate or violated that code.

  A quick glance at the comments shows that Mark has undoubtedly served as an inspiration to those who are EMS providers and those who are not. To those who are in his native England and to those who are not. The ability to inspire, empower, and to affect someone else’s life for the better is the true pure goal of Social Media.

  Mark has definitely achieved that goal.

  I for one will be leaving the light on in the feedreader for him… and I encourage you to do the same.

• McDonald’s ice coffee really is a sad substitute for Dunkin’ Donuts

That’s really all I had time for this week. I hope you enjoy your weekend.

I’m a pretty big proponent of effective education. It’s important that when I say effective, I mean education that will prepare someone to actually perform better at a task and not just a piece of paper saying that they accumulated X number of credits, more than half of which have actually nothing to do with the task. I also think that just by being a citizen you have a responsibility to know some very basic life saving skills and that we should have public education initiatives to make sure that the public is prepared.

One of the biggest public education initiatives that I’m all for is teaching the public Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. This is the universally accepted, administrated by either a professional or a lay person, best first line treatment for sudden cardiac arrest. A challenge public CPR education faces is the ability to teach it effectively, because not everyone is programmed the same and therefore different (and creative) approaches may be necessary. To specifically address the Maxim crowd, Fortnight Lingerie created this video called Super Sexy CPR:

Now while we all know that a sudden cardiac arrest victim is more likely to have purple hair and dentures as opposed to a blonde mane and pearly whites, you have to appreciate their level of ingenuity to spread the know how of this important technique. It’s this kind of creativity, although fueled by potential profit since the models happen to be wearing Fortnight lingerie, that we need to employ in EMS public education efforts.

Source: via John Solomon from A CPR Training Video That Will Definitely Raise Some Heart Rates

It’s pretty hard to believe that this site/blog has “officially” been up for a year. Sure there was two months of development before that, but no real content was created or posted until April 1, 2009 when I injected a little social horror with omage to the great Kevin Smith in 72 Time But Not In A Row.

Over the past 365 days here are the most popular posts as rated by the Popularity Contest Plugin:

1. The Assassination of Pittsburgh EMS by the Coward Michael Huss: Surprsingly this very recent post took the top spot pretty quickly
2. The Truth About FDNY’s Removal of NYC Vollies From “The System”: Not so surprising since I got some backlash for it on both Facebook and in person
3. NBC Calls Time Of Death On Trauma – No New Episodes: Here’s a classic example of a post proven false after the fact
4. On HIPAA And Photography: Not surprised since I rarely see things out there that combine the two
5. Brookdale Hospital Hosts Fight Club In Their Emergency Waiting Room: I’m a little surprised this didn’t rank higher because ultimately everyone loves a trainwreck… and it doesn’t get more trainwreckier than that

Looking at that list makes me ponder where I should spend time focusing the next 365 days raising my (trademark pending) eyebrow considering that controversial topics took the top 3 slots, informational topics took the 4th, and a trainwreck took the 5th. While I’m no stranger to controversy, or trainwrecks, it can be a bit disheartening that the informational posts ( such as Becoming An Informational Source In A Crisis and If Gordon Ramsay Was An EMS Chief )don’t garner as much attention. Such is the life of a blogger I suppose.

Out of sheer curiosity, what would you want to see more of?

According to a story in the Huffington Post, the self-proclaimed pitbull with lipstick known more commonly as Sarah Palin has referred to the social networking site Twitter as “that twittering little thing” on Tuesday at a speech in Arkansas. The quote was actually reported towards the end of a story by CBS News about Palin’s speech to Tea Party members:

When she was asked what she believed was the number one threat to America today, several audience members shouted, “Obama!”

Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb, who moderated the Q&A session, responded by adding, “Besides Obama.”

Palin then chimed in as many in the crowd laughed.

“See, they said that, I didn’t,” she said. “Just you watch now, too, because somebody will be here with their little Twittering thing, and it’s going to be on the Internet any minute now.“

The Huffington Post considers the knock as a surprise since the ex-governor is heavily involved in Social Media, including on Twitter @SarahPalinUSA and on Facebook which she has previously used to bypass the media.

Personally, I don’t find it surprising at all. I think she is a fraudulent Twitter user, using a staff member or volunteer to actually update her account. A quick glance at her Twitter updates show some oddities that are indicative of her accounts being handled by others:

• Her TweetStats show December as being her most prolific month with 76 Tweets that month… and then a whopping 18 for the month of January, as I’m sure book sales flatlined
• She is averaging 2.6 Tweets per day across her roughly two month career on that Twitter acount
• The VAST majority of updates are coming “from web” as opposed to one of the large number of third party clients or mobile applications

So while Sarah Palin knocks Twitter, it has exposed her as a fraud in its use… and that puts her right back with the politicians of the establishment who are more interested in lining their own pockets then doing the work of the people for the people.

As with every turn of the year, there are a lot of expectations for 2010 across the board. Some of them are predictions the “experts” have made, some of them are resolutions we make to ourselves, and some of them are just general social expectations. All of these expectations are to a certain level born from an idea, a dream, or a concept. The real challenge isn’t in making them… but in turning them into reality. We need to make our expectations real.

So this year, along with all the vice quitting and dieting resolutions you make, keep in mind that we need to start getting real.

These guys already are…

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Dave Williams recently asked what should be a relevant question in a blog post. Where do you think this social journey will lead us? Of course, I have an answer to that question…

My answer is that where it leads us is dependent on how we define it and therefore how we use it. Since every organization, just like an individual, will have a different vision or goal of what they want Social Media to do for them it is reasonable that we will indeed be lead on a journey of our own design.

Of course, every trip needs some sort of preparation. One of the very basics of that preparation is usually getting directions or a roadmap from which to plan your route. So how would you plan your travels into the realm of Social Media? For EMS Agencies the answer lies in a Social Media Policy.

Now when you are planning a trip, chances are that you’re going to purchase a map. Otherwise, you would need to make a map and that would require knowing and understanding cartography. In order to help plan a trip in Social Media we recently published the Social Media Policy Guide at PIOSocialMediaTraining.com. It’s sort of your cartography 101 course in developing a Social Media Policy for your EMS Agency.

There are many benefits to using Social Media, but to be successful in it you need to first understand your goals in it and how you are going to use it to achieve those goals, which is what a Social Media Policy will do.

I listened to the latest installment of the EMS Garage podcast, Dr. Wesley Versus The Bloggers: EMS Garage Episode 65. Listening to the podcast, I couldn’t help but think that this is a fantastic illustration of an Eternal September event in action.

Now to be fair, Dr. Wesley stated very clearly that he does not consider the bloggers that joined him as bloggers themselves. A few of them that were joining him included The Happy Medic, Medic999, CKEMTP, Steve Whitehead, and of course the always astute and thorough Rogue Medic.

So I’d like to clarify things regarding some concerns that Dr. Wesley made when it comes to blogging. Below are a few quotes from his appearance on the podcast, and my own explanations regarding his concerns:

We need to come up with a different term other than “blog”…

Now each one of those individuals with Dr. Wesley on the podcast use either the WordPress or Blogger platform and use them to create dynamic content posts in reverse chronological order available on the internet with the ability to comment. These attributes match up with what the definition of a blog is according to Wikipedia. Therefore, call it what it is. Call it a blog.

However there is room to further define the type of blog you are authoring. Just as the Mommy Blogs, the Review Blogs, and the Gossip Blogs have done before them, perhaps it is time for the bloggers to better define what their blogs are to them and the public. Are they EMS Blogs, Paramedic Blogs, Ambulance Blogs, Rescue Blogs, Medical Blogs, Responder Blogs or perhaps Research Blogs?

This actually goes back to the public’s perception of who we are as a profession and what we do. Are we better known as EMS, EMTs, Paramedics, or Ambulances? Insert the result of the constant debate over what we should call ourselves for public perception, follow it by the word Blogs, and there is your answer.

My concern is the unsuspecting public who’s healthcare, privacy, and interactions that we hold dear as part of our profession can Google EMS Blogs and come across EMS blogs of Paramedics and EMTs talking in great detail and a very derogatory manner about the patient’s that they care for. That doesn’t do our profession any good at all.

Actually, I like to think that’s quite the contrary. I think this is a great indicator to Chiefs, Directors, Managers, and Supervisors as to what is actually going on in their EMTs and Paramedics minds. It provides insight into the mentality of the EMS workforce today, and perhaps that is something we need to address as a profession.

How would we address such issues? Perhaps in education. Perhaps through a concept called quality improvement. Perhaps with effective psycho-therapy. Perhaps we do nothing. How we address the issues these anonymous bloggers raise is up to us… but to dismiss them summarily as not doing our profession any good at all is to turn a blind eye to problems that may very well exist and are solvable if only we took the time to look and address them.

I liken this attitude to all those who criticize Bringing Out The Dead as unrealistic and untrue. Those criticizers are almost always the people who did not work in New York City back then. The truth, though it may hurt, is that it was in fact very realistic and representative of the era in the 1990s.

Just because we don’t necessarily like what that movie or anonymous blogger says about us doesn’t necessarily make it untrue.

If you have a blog that you get for free, you’re not an honest blogger.

This is an interesting argument and is actually one that has been argued in blogger circles themselves since as early as 2006, but probably earlier if I looked hard enough. In fact on an interesting sidenote along the same lines, the JEMS.com blog network FireEMSBlogs.com is using WordPress MU… which is free. So does this make all the blogs on that site, and therefore JEMS.com themselves because of it’s use dishonest? Absolutely not.

This concept of not being an “honest” or “true” or “real” blogger if you’re using a free platform or free hosting is elitist gibberish. That is one of the leveling factors of Social Media, its accessibility and empowerment to create without a huge financial investment.

Sure having your own domain is nice, having your own hosting and not at the mercy of the Blooger machine outages is a delight, but that doesn’t change the type of blog you are writing. The hard truth is that the blog platform is not what truly matters, it is the actual content of the blog that matters. In the blogosphere, content is still king.

None of anyone’s blogs, who’s online, came in under Google when I typed in EMS Blog, EMT Blog, Paramedic Blog…

The answer to this was actually answered in the podcast, which is better SEO. However it is more than just better SEO because you have to realize that, as I predicted as a con, all of those who moved over to FireEMSBlogs.com lost the power of authority from their links to their other blogs when changing their domain format.

How do we resolve that issue? Some better SEO with keywords, regular content, and linking from other blogs of authority. Of course, what gets links? Good content.

In Conclusion

This huge concern about anonymous bloggers and the effect they have on the perception of the public is truly misplaced. A blogger, whether anonymous or not, will be judged on the quality of their content and whether or not their reader is able to connect with them. The huge majority of those connections are based on a shared commonality, just as the groups of bloggers who connect share a commonality amongst themselves as well. To ignore the ranting anonymous blogs is doing the profession a great injustice and disallowing us to take an honest look at ourselves clearly in the mirror. Doing so may actually lead to making improvements that will matter on both the Responder and Patient Care sides of the fence.

The fear and loathing that Dr. Wesley is demonstrating is nearly identical to that of EMS Agencies who do not understand Social Media. Instead of fearing that which you don’t know, it would serve you better to become educated in Social Media and its uses. Then, if you still feel it is so “evil”, feel free to evangelize against it as passionately as I evangelize for it.

At the end of the day, the public’s perception of EMS will be defined more by the headlines found in a Google News Search than an anonymous blogger who has perhaps 3 or 4 regular readers. The EMS themed blogosphere is in fact a relative infant when compared to the Tech Blogs and the Personal Blogs. How we develop ultimately is in our hands.

With great power…

As always, if you disagree or even more unlikely agree, feel free to leave a comment…

A few weeks ago Missouri EMS Division Captain Mike Wallace spoke at EMS Expo 2009 about the need for agencies to create “public value”. While Wallace’s speech was aimed directly at EMS Agencies, his points are something that every type of public safety agency should keep in mind.

Social Media presents a unique opportunity for agencies to communicate that very sense of value to the public. The hardest part of getting agencies to utilize Social Media seems to be getting them started because they do not understand the true value that Social Media offers them.

PIOSocialMediaTraining.com has a free webinar tomorrow discussing 5 Reasons and Methods For PIOs To Develop and Distribute Social Media. If you have ever doubted either the value or the accessibility of Social Media for your agency, this is the webinar for you!

Free Webinar: 5 Reasons and Methods For PIOs To Develop and Distribute Social Media Webinar on 11.11.09 at 10:00am EST

Once you’ve sat through the webinar and have become enlightened as to the power and need for your agency to participate in Social Media, make your next step the Social Media BootCamp e-mail course.

Earlier this week I mentioned a video on STATter 911 that showed an EMT swipe a camera from a local activist in the name of the all powerful 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Acountability Act (HIPAA).

Now I’ll be honest, while the video is slightly disturbing I can understand why it happened. The activist was being obnoxious, rude, beligerant, and basically baiting the EMTs and Police Officers. Unfortunately this particular EMT, identified as Captain Ronald Leslie, took the bait and swallowed it whole like a wide mouthed bass. What I find to be more outrageous, and a blaring indicator to the actual problem, were the comments left on the original post.

So it begs to question how could a Captain be so blatantly wrong in his assertion that HIPAA prevents photographers/videographers from taking images on a public street and how can so many providers think that he was actually in the right?

The answer is that we provide an extremely poor education in not only HIPAA but also laws regarding photography. I’ve had my fair share of people tell me the same thing, including supervisors, chiefs and directors. I thought that we had done better in this area of education, but it appears we haven’t.

Who HIPAA Actually Applies To

To violate HIPAA it must actually apply to you. Some covered entities are:

• Doctors
• Nurses
• Clinics
• Hospitals
• Dentists
• Chiropractors

and since we bill health insurance for reimbursement…

• EMS Agencies
• EMTs
• Paramedics

Anyone notice something missing? Yes, Firefighters don’t necessarily make the list. However if you are certified as a healthcare provider or belong to a fire based EMS system then you are included as well. For Firefighters who are members of a fire department who does not respond to medical emergencies, are not healthcare providers and therefore do not bill for compensation, HIPAA does not apply.

As for everyone else, such as the media and John Q. Public with a Flip UltraHD Camcorder
or a cellphone camera, since HIPAA does not cover them then the rules governing patient privacy do not apply to them. Therefore they cannot “violate” them.

3 Of The 10 Legal Commandments of Photography

Laws will vary from state to state and city to city, but there are some very basic guidelines that are universal thanks to the US Constitution and its Amendments. An excellent guideline to these rights are The Ten Legal Commandments Of Photography. In the case above there are three specific Commandments that apply:

I. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc. Malls? Yeah. Even though it’s technically private property, being open to the public makes it public space.

So is a courthouse open to the public? I would hope so. Therefore it is indeed legitimate to photograph/videograph inside of that building. Government buildings deal with highly sensitive materials in regards to national security may indeed prohibit photography as per Commandment IV, but I don’t think the Keene Courthouse is harboring anything of that nature.

V. People can be photographed if they are in public (without their consent) unless they have secluded themselves and can expect a reasonable degree of privacy. Kids swimming in a fountain? Okay. Somebody entering their PIN at the ATM? Not okay.

So this dispels the whole argument about the photographer not having consent forms for the people they photographed. If indeed it is in a public place, it can be photographed. Now what those photographs can be used for is a different issue. If for arguments sake someone wanted to use one of those photographs as an advertisement for a product inferring an endorsement, because it is now for commercial use they will probably need consent forms. The chances of that however are highly unlikely.

VI. The following can almost always be photographed from public places, despite popular opinion:

* accident & fire scenes, criminal activities
* bridges & other infrastructure, transportation facilities (i.e. airports)
* industrial facilities, Superfund sites
* public utilities, residential & commercial buildings
* children, celebrities, law enforcement officers
* UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Chuck Norris

Once again, these are things within public view and therefore are legally within the realm of the photographer without the need for any special dispensation.

A few months back I posted the NYPD OPS Order On Photography. If you read the OPS Order it is very specific that the laws and practices the NYPD abides by follows the Ten Commandments very closely.

It is important to realize that these permissions are truly in our best interest as a society. While it may seem not in the best interest of the patient, if the freedom to do so didn’t exist then the video of Paramedic Maurice White getting choked by Trooper Daniel Martin would be illegal as well. Ultimately it is important that Responders understand and respect both their responsibilities to and the rights of their patients and those around them, especially photographers and the media.

This is also a great reason why your agency should be involved in Social Media. If the Keene Fire Department would have had a Social Media presence instead of this webpage, they would have been able to defend themselves in a more direct fashion. If you’re from the Keene Fire Department and reading this, it’s not too late to get started in Social Media.

Video Source:ObscuredTruth.com via STATter911

The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography Source: Photojojo that is now available in book form as Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas

Recently I’ve been involved in a few different discussions about Blog Networks, and both their benefits and the disadvantages. To be honest, I find it a little surprising that people are doing things now that are so… 2006… but whateva. In the interest of full disclosure I have been offered spots in quite a few Blog Networks on different topics, but I have only participated for a very short time on only one. That participation was over 3 years ago, but even with the amount of time that has passed it seems that there has not been much change to how they are run.

What Is A Blog Network?

A Blog Network is really a group of blogs that cover a variety of topics under one banner. A great example of a Blog Network (and where Blog Networks need to go) is B5Media. Another example of a Blog Network from a technical perspective, although they probably wouldn’t consider themselves one, is CNN who puts many blog voices under one banner.

Traditionally a Blog Network provides the technical support needed to create a blog, and the blogger provides the content that populates it. With the increasing popularity and stability of WordPress MU, Blog Networks have become another option for the average publisher to expand their presence on the internet with basic technological knowledge.

The Pros Of A Blog Network

• Potentially increased visibility – By joining with other bloggers, there is the potential for you to increase your visibility. Compelling content is what draws readers in. Someone else’s compelling content of today can bring readers to your own compelling content of yesterday, bringing you extra exposure and new readers
• Not bearing the sole burden of content – By not bearing the sole burden of content, a huge weight is lifted from your shoulders to stay fresh and relevant. The lessened demand leaves more time for family, friends, and of course Mafia Wars
• The possibility of earning revenue without the hassle – This always seems to be the biggest pro that bloggers sign up for. Earning money is not as easy as throwing an AdSense block in your sidebar. Today it requires time and effort for effective sales in advertising. With the Blog Network handling the sale of ads on your blog and sharing the revenue with you

The Cons Of A Blog Network

• Potential loss of visibility – If you haven’t already established a blog, this probably won’t matter for you since being at zero visibility means there’s only one way for you to go and that is up. Established bloggers need to realize that by jumping off their own blogs they are essentially starting all over again. Sure you’ll be able to announce to your readers that you’re moving, but the links that you have built up over time that the search engines use are going dead. They don’t automatically follow you to your new endeavor under a new domain. Some bloggers make a bigger mistake by bringing their domain with them, which will result in those backlinks going to an Error 404 page on the network or worse… to irrelevant content



• The burden of higher quality content is higher – Sure you are part of a network, but what will make you stand out? Obviously you’ll need higher quality content than the next blogger in order to continue being the authority as you have been in the past
• The Loss of Copyright – This is the absolute biggest reason to stay completely clear of a Blog Network. You write it and they publish it with their Copyright notice in the footer. This is less of an issue if you are a blogger who is getting paid for both a) content and b) performance. What I mean by that is you are getting paid a set amount per word/post and ontop of that getting performance or “traffic” bonuses. The working MO of Blog Networks is to offer you an ad revenue share based on the number of unique visitors or pageviews that you get. Some Blog Networks will even set a “minimum” performance level (which is usually some ridiculously high number) before they will include you into the ad share. Think about it… if they sell two ad spaces on your blog and collect the revenue but you don’t make their minimum “performance” level they are keeping your percentage… and the rights to the content you created
• The Loss of Being Able to Determine Your Own Advertising – There is a reason that the FTC has made changes regarding blog advertising. An advertiser appearing in your sidebar isn’t just an acknowledgment of payment, but it can be inferred as an endorsement. So for arguments sake let’s say you have a bad service experience at oh… I don’t know… a motorcycle repair shop. You blog your disgust and how unfairly you and your bike Betsy were treated. You move on to other things, and then one day an ad appears in your sidebar for that very same motorcycle repair shop. Like contextual advertising, you have lost your ability to control who is cashing in on your reputation

What Every Blogger Should Know Before Signing Onto A Blog Network

• READ THE FINE PRINT – As with everything you do, be sure to READ THE FINE PRINT, especially with Blog Networks where revenue is dependent on performance. The devil is always in the details…
• Think About The Long Term Effects – I am a big believer in the revenue possibilities along the long tail. Make sure something you create today for them and not being compensated for is something you can use later on for yourself to generate revenue in case they cease to exist
• Effects On Your Personal Brand – If you join a Blog Network you will surrender a bit of your Personal Brand that will be replaced by the Network Brand. In some cases this may good and in others it may be bad

Whether you decide Blog Networks are right for you or they aren’t is ultimately your decision. I think much of it depends on the entire reason you started blogging. Please, just go into it with your eyes wide open and both the benefits and disadvantages to both you and your readers in mind.

There are alot of similarities between writing for a Blog Network and being a Conference Presenter. Read what Darren Rowse from ProBlogger has to say on the subject of presenting at conferences for free

Do you think I’m off base? Feel free to let me know what you agree or disagree with in the comments…