TCIP #017 – Exploring Garden Grove Fire Department’s Social Media and Electronic Communication in Crisis with Thanh Nguyen

Welcome to episode #017 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Thanh Nguyen

My favorite people are those self-educators who soak in knowledge and learn from anything and anyone they can, and that’s one of the things I really like about Thanh Nguyen, Fire Captain with the Garden Grove Fire Department in California.

Two years ago, Thanh was asked to head Garden Grove Fire Department’s social media accounts. At the time, he started with Facebook, and today Garden Grove Fire Department is actively engaging their audiences on Facebook, Twitter and PulsePoint – and these accounts have proven to be invaluable in times of crisis and emergency.

Within this episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, Thanh shares how his Fire Department is using social media for emergency management, as well as the struggles and obstacles he’s had to overcome along the way.

His goal is to be able to reach the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time (which is a vital goal to have), and knowing that not everybody is on Twitter, Thanh discusses how Garden Grove Fire Department is now using every means necessary to communicate with their audiences in an emergency. However, at the same time, in order to monitor and remain engaged, as well as do his full time day job, Thanh has had to make important decisions. Discover what these decisions were and how his strategies could potentially help you further develop your own.

This episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast discusses:

• The challenges Thanh faces when it comes to social media and crisis communication.
• How Garden Grove Fire Department is using PulsePoint to push out communications in an emergency.
• How to deal with the skeptics who don’t agree with your digital initiatives.
• How and when to respond to the media on social.
• The biggest obstacles Garden Grove FD has faced to-date, and how they’ve overcome them.

Enjoy this great listen!

Running time: 45:28

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Learn more about Agnes + Day, The Crisis Intelligence Firm.

Like Garden Grove Fire Department on Facebook
Follow them on Twitter: @GardenGroveFire
Learn more about Thanh and connect with him on LinkedIn
Checkout PulsePoint and download it for your community: www.pulsepoint.org

Thanks to Thanh for taking the time to have this insightful discussion with me!