On Fire

There are no crazy animal tricks, no talking babies, not even a wedding party dancing down the aisle. And yet more than 14,000 people have watched Charlotte Fire Department’s YouTube videos (think: the CFD battling massive house fires) since last March. Add to that 5,100 fans on Facebook and more than 1,800 Twitter followers and you’ve got yourself a national social media award. Before nabbing the title of Social Media Responder awarded by PIOSocialMediaTraining.com, CFD needed to beat out five other finalists (including the Los Angeles Fire Department). So City Council members (and fellow tweeters) Andy Dulin and Warren Cooksey put out the word December 2009 to the Charlotte social media community to become fans or followers of CFD, and it spread like, well, fire.