I am dealing with one that when you ask for references, they will send you their “vetted” list of references. But when you discuss them with other customers, you get a completely different perspective.

It’s incumbent upon those of us in the decision making process to make sure we are looking out for our agencies. With the advent of social networking, and the ease of discussion, it’s going to be harder and harder for a vendor to represent themselves in a specific “light”. Therefore making it incumbent on them to hold themselves to a higher standard.

I think to reach this space, it will take “early adopter” vendors like my client, who is very jazzed about social media, to show both cops and other vendors how it can be done. For the time being we’ll still have to reach prospects in traditional spaces like magazines and trade shows. But while there, ensure they know how to reach us in social web spaces. Our contact page will have info on our social media presences; so will handout material at tradeshows, and I may even be able to talk the client into live-tweeting his booth conversations at upcoming shows.

I think vendors have a good opportunity here, in any case. TASER’s stance is always defensive; I’d like to see them develop a strong social media presence. Body armor manufacturers, too. Their reputation has suffered horribly in the last few years since the Zylon debacle, and now they are having to return to more rigid, heavier models of armor thanks to the new NIJ standard. It’s already shown that half of cops don’t wear body armor… but what if strong social media helped get them through these tough times until R&D gets back underway for lighter and more flexible materials and design? Well, anyway.