Social Networking Success For Local Fire Fighters

Barbadian fire fighters are effectively harnessing the power of social networking sites to share problems, ideas and expertise in an attempt to increase productivity and raise awareness. In a interview with the Barbados Advocate, Fire Officer Glyne Alleyne outlined the need to move with the times and implement popular technology to connect with the Barbadian population.

“The fire department came on the Internet officially around 1998, at that time a website was created for the department that pretty much sought to address what we do and who we were, but unfortunately no provisions were made on that site for the social interaction of fire fighters here in Barbados and with our international counterparts, hence the reasons why I created the social network that we have now, which comprises of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, U Stream and podcasts.

“What I have recently found happening is that the public is so very keen on learning about the inner workings of our departments that we started to receive requests from them to join, as originally it was exclusively for fire officers on the network. We acceded to their requests and since then we have been growing exponentially. As of this morning, there are more than 1 400 people on our Facebook page and the other networks are growing as well.”

Whilst Alleyne noted that traditionally public sector organisations may have been reluctant to let the people see behind the curtain of their organisations, he suggested that this move towards a more transparent and joined-up approach is imperative to building solid relations with the community and fostering trust in their practices.

“I am very pleased and the actual feedback that is coming to us from them shows that they to are very pleased that we have taken this leap to put out information online, because for a long time the civil service was seen to be very secretive and the lack of information online and available to the public used to pose a problem, but now public can now interact one-on-one with fire officers and learn about what we do and can also get other information regarding the profession.

“Recently, we have noticed that some persons who are actually seeking careers also asking questions are interacting and trying to learn as much as possible about what the job entitles before they sign up to become a fire officer.”

Alleyne also highlighted that through embracing technology, bridges have been built with harder-to-reach groups, as more interaction has been fostered between young people and women.

Hoping that the demographics of the fire service will be opened up further and, in turn, become more representative through the continual growth of their social networking sites, he said, “What I have also noticed to that there has been a increase in interest from both young people and women. Given the fact that social networking appeals to younger people, we a have seen a growth of persons requesting to join between the ages of twenty to thirty five and the majority of these are women and to me that is very exciting and will better reflect Barbadian society.” (KA)

Source: www.barbadosadvocate.com