13 Tips for PIOs and Government Social Media Managers Dealing with COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

The impact that COVID-19 has had is unprecedented. Of course, there is the impact of the disease itself, but it is also forcing organizations to continue to operate while a large portion of its employees work from home.

Back in 2014, the New York Police Department launched a social media initiative that at first glance seemed like a great way to improve community engagement. The law enforcement agency asked members of the public to tweet photos of themselves with NYPD officers using the hashtag #myNYPD.

There are plenty of reasons why government organizations should be on social media. But there’s no denying that this technology is a bit of a double-edged sword; social media success is never guaranteed. At the lower end of the catastrophe scale, information officers spend a lot of time and effort on social media campaigns that end up having little engagement or real ROI. At the top-end of the scale, an agency has a very public pratfall and is forced to manage its reputation in real-time as a slew of angry comments rolls in.

Like Police Departments and other government agencies, Fire Departments should be active on social media. In order to help facilitate this, the Firefighters Support Foundation (FSF) recently released a great new training program titled Social Media for Fire Departments. The training is provided by Ron Morgan (@morganrp), a firefighter and communications professional who has acted as the social media director for a number of public safety organizations.