Social Media in Emergency Operations Blog Series: 3 Barriers to Integrating Social Media into Operations

Note: This is the second post in a series of what was initially intended to be two or three, discussing the challenges, practices and perceptions surrounding the holistic use of social media in response operations – from its more obvious application in public information to it’s potential for informing plans and decision making across the […]

Social Media in Emergency Operations Blog Series: Introduction

Full disclosure: I didn’t initially buy the social media hype as it gained more and more mainstream popularity years ago. I didn’t envision the role it might someday play in more practical matters, such as marketing, branding and stakeholder engagement. I figured it wouldn’t be much more than a novelty or a fad for its […]

Steer Toward Right: After Action Reports and Lessons from the Field

Note: A brief introduction, since this is the first  guest post (of many, we hope) from our friend and colleague Thomas McKenzie. Mac isn’t just a PIO, who spends a LOT of time in the field, but is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard’s elite Public Information Assist Team, which is a component of […]

Disaster Response; the Public Info Officer’s Perspective (Part 1)

Crude oil train accidents in North America have been making headlines the last few years and early this year I “debriefed” my public information officer friend, Thomas, after he returned from a deployment to one of these incidents. He and his crisis communication team had some challenges, to say the least. This piece comes in […]

Putting the “I see!” in ICS for Communicators

Wow. 2015 sure happened, didn’t it? In the spirit of this season of giving, Paul and I are counting down (and re-sharing, re-posting, re-tweeting, re-facebooking, etc., etc.) our Top 10 Most Read Pieces (look at all those caps!) from this year of the Crisis Communicator blog. We’re continuously blown away by how many people visit […]

Putting the “I see!” in ICS for Communicators

It’s 4th and goal, you’ve got the ball, there’s 5 seconds left in the game and your team is down by three. The coach sends you in from the sidelines with the final play of the game, confident that it’ll be a success and lead to victory. You get to the huddle, but decide you […]