Your local fire department does deadly serious work, putting out blazes and saving lives at the scene. But it turns out that humor and creativity can play a role in their jobs too.
Alexis McLellan has been the Public Information Officer for the San Carlos Park Fire Department for 19 years. Back when she started, of course, there was no social media.
“I was sending press releases by fax machine,” McLellan said.
But when social media was created, she became an ace at it. Last year, San Carlos Park Fire Department’s Instagram was in the top 10 for Best Instagram presence, for the Government Social Media awards. They were up against such Instagram royalty, McLellan says, as the National Park Service.
Now she’s been chosen as a speaker at the Government Social Media Conference next month in Orlando. She’ll share some of her tips about using Instagram successfully.
“I’m going to be speaking about how to connect with your community through Instagram reels, by using humor and creativity,” said McLellan.
One of her challenges, she said is that her audience on Instagram tends to be much younger than she is.
“You constantly have to evolve and learn what is a 16-year-old going to stay and watch for 3 seconds, so I can deliver them a safety message,” she said.
She’s managing it, though.
“A lot of people may not know what we do besides putting out fires,” said McLellan. “They may learn about some of the services that they're ultimately paying for as our taxpayers, as our customer. And if we can highlight those services or just give them confidence that we are going to provide them excellent fire and EMS services, we have accomplished that goal.”
Luckily, she said, the firefighters she works with are open to helping her create reels.
“They’ve only drawn the line when I’ve introduced a wig. I got a no from that one,” she laughed.
View some of San Carlos Park Fire Department’s most popular Instagram reels.
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