It's no secret that the business world is infiltrating social media, as many companies are finding an effective method of reaching customers in Facebook, Twitter and others. In the electrical industry, it’s helping to spread the word on myriad issues. The greatest benefit is that organizations are able to reach their audience by topic of interest.

Following in this trend, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association’s (NEMA) AFCI Task Force announced the launch of a new Facebook page intended to reach out to homeowners and electrical tradesmen and provide an educational resource on and raise awareness of the benefits of arc-fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs). Dubbed “Support AFCI Safety,” the page houses all the information of a small website in a familiar social networking environment.

“We designed ‘Support AFCI Safety’ as a universal resource for homeowners, builders and electrical contractors to make them aware of the safety benefits that AFCIs provide,” said Gerard Winstanley, NEMA program manager and spokesperson for the AFCI Task Force. “AFCIs are a technological leap forward in home safety, and they have significant potential to save lives and loss of property caused by electrical fires in the home. Our goal is to spread that message to as many people as possible, and we believe the ‘Support AFCI Safety’ page will help do just that.”

According to Winstanley, the Facebook page offers a variety of educational resources on AFCI technology, including comprehensive product information, fact sheets, downloadable brochures and white papers, links to AFCI supporters and manufacturers, and more—on all the topics of electrical fire safety. And the page will continue to evolve, providing additional resources and updates on how to contact state code adoption panels while electrical safety officials review the 2011 National Electrical Code requirement for AFCIs.

“We believe ‘Support AFCI Safety’ will enhance the discussion of AFCIs at the Code-adoption level as the device continues to gain nationwide acceptance,” Winstanley said. “We urge electrical inspectors, code officials, fire and electrical safety officials and other AFCI supporters to join the discussion by visiting ‘Support AFCI Safety’ and ‘like’ our page.”

You don’t need a Facebook account to view the page, but to interact with other users, you will need to sign up and log in. To find the new resource, visit www.facebook.com/Support AFCIsafety.