I work with a client, a 25-year veteran of law enforcement, who is really gung-ho about social media… except for the personal part. “I don’t want to get personal,” he tells me. “I’m a cop. We don’t get personal.”
Trust me, I get that. I can’t understand it the way career cops do, but I’ve worked with cops for too long—even called some friends—not to understand how critical it is to keep from getting personal. (At least, too personal.)
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that this is one of the major barriers to law enforcement jumping on board with social media, even if individual cops can’t or don’t want to name it. “Social” by its very nature must mean “personal.”
Actually… not so much
“Social” simply means being in a space, interacting with other people. Some officers are really good at this. Others aren’t. Some officers who are great at personal interaction are lost online. Others, who flounder among other humans, are wonderful online.
There’s a place for all of them in a police department. Those to whom online interaction comes naturally—who converse on blogs, forums, and other spaces as if they were hanging out at a backyard barbecue—are the officers who should be encouraged to represent the department online. That’s because they’re the ones who will know how to draw the personal/professional line.
Finding the middle ground
So what’s the happy medium between personal and professional? Take my client. He’s been attending a lot of conferences lately as a vendor. “Tweet the conversations you have with people at the booth,” I advised him.
He did—kind of. “TechnoSecurity was a great conference as always. Saw lots of old friends and even met some new Twitter friends in person” was certainly a start. Generic—and yes, permission is an issue, but contacts who are in social media probably won’t mind, and those who don’t know what it is may not care—but a start nonetheless. Here’s what I envisioned:
- Names. Who’s saying nice things about your agency? Let the rest of us know.
- Details. What did they say? What did you talk about related to the agency or police work in general? Details provide context.
- Problems , too. Get more of the community involved in helping solve them.
And passion
Passion can be a surprisingly effective bridge. My client has a lot of it for his product, and his company’s value proposition. People start to believe in you and your organization when you transmit passion. It’s the thing that makes you the most genuine human being, the place where people can see what makes you tick without needing to know all the details of your life that you may not want them to know (kids, marital status, etc.)
If you’re not comfortable with others seeing how you tick, then perhaps social media is indeed not right for you. But that’s no reason to cut it off from the rest of your department. A lot of people can very effectively transmit passion online without divulging sensitive information, and even if some younger members of your agency—who may be used to baring it all online—need some guidance in appropriateness, it can be well worth teaching them.
If nothing else: humor
I take everything way too seriously. I admit that. But I like a good laugh as much as anyone does, which was why, as a zombie-movie fan, I was absolutely delighted to see this brief bit about the Boston Police Department on Twitter.
Whoever is behind BPD’s Twitter account isn’t named, probably because it’s a team. Also, it’s hard to get into “conversations” with people when you are trying to get important information out to the four and a half million people you serve.
But a few brief, choice moments like that can make all the difference in others’ perspectives of you. People respond to other people. They’re more willing to forgive mistakes and give you the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong, whether it’s a breach of social-media etiquette or a serious problem with your reputation.
At the very least, moments like that can help take the edge off, say, everything that goes along with selling a house and relocating 1100 miles away (in my case, from Maine to South Carolina). What public safety professional wouldn’t want to help someone else de-stress?
Image via clairity on Flickr
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Whenever I hear people worry about mixing personal and professional, I raise the stereotypical holiday party when staff are encouraged–and many commit–to bring their significant others or spouses to the party. Which begs the question: Is the party a gathering among professional colleagues or a social hour with personal friends?
If you take that concept to its social media conclusion, that’s Facebook and anything else you want to use but are concerned about mixing the two.
Hey Ari. I think the real problem is a fundamental lack of perspective when it comes to Internet stuff. Administrators and CEOs who hear “conversation” or “get personal” automatically think back to the news stories about MySpace/Facebook pictures of weekend drunk-fests (with or without Tasers), tweets about kids, spousal fights, and vacation plans, and so forth. Maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s not about “getting personal,” it’s about “having a personality.”