Proper use of social media can make your professionalism shine
Every police administrator knows what damage the wrong YouTube video, tweet, or Facebook status update can do. The public seems drawn to “stupid cop tricks,” and it’s never long before the media find out.
Once that happens, it’s all over. The media grill administrators for answers. Because an internal investigation is probably ongoing, there are none. Media and public alike assume there’s a coverup. The public loses trust in the police, who go on the defensive. Community relations suffers as street cops hide in their cruisers to avoid the criticism.
Or… not
“What were they thinking?” is usually the response to an inappropriate social network posting. Short answer: they weren’t. Why? Because they weren’t thinking the same way an administrator thinks. Why? Because they’re not administrators? That’s a start. But it goes much deeper than that.
They weren’t thinking because they were more focused on the moment: taking a picture that would get them “points,” or venting their frustrations about a fact of a cop’s life.
Because that’s the whole point of social networking: reaching out to others, your “friends,” whenever the mood strikes. Being honest, being transparent, showing you’re human and you suffer the same little trials everyone else does. Showing you’re not above them, showing you’re with them.
That’s worth considering. People show up for PR train wrecks because they like to see authority figures come down. Whether it’s a way of getting some back after a traffic ticket, or just because we all feel a little inadequate, seeing the powerful humbled is, well, validating. We feel a little better about our own shortcomings when we see everyone else has them too.
So the key isn’t to crack down on social media usage, ban it outright and closely monitor employees’ personal accounts. Not by any stretch. The key is to show them how they can be human and still be professional.
Outstanding professionals
Social media use does not lend itself to a laundry list of “don’ts.” That’s because it’s inherently out of organizational control. Certainly, it is a good start to construct social media training around conduct policies, help officers start to think critically about what they post online.
But it’s only a start. Officers are still going to use these sites. They’re still going to want to talk about work; law enforcement isn’t just a job, after all, but part of many cops’ identities.
Some officers will prefer only to hang out in an online “bar,” of sorts, talking in safely restricted forums about their work. For that, I recommend OfficerResource.com, a forum whose moderators personally vet every applicant to its LE-only areas.
But others will see the potential for using social media to build their careers. Some people call it “personal branding.” I don’t like this term; when I hear “brand” I think Pepsi or Ford. Loyalty to a brand might be part of a person’s identity, but human relationships are formed and maintained differently.
I prefer to think in terms of “outstanding” professionals. PoliceOne.com makes reference to “5 percenters,” those officers who are exceptional performers in any situation whether tactical or mundane, who respond the right way because they’ve trained themselves to do so.
Put a 5 percenter online—or show 10-, 15-, or 20-percenters how to act online the same way they should wearing the badge in the real world—and you turn a potential liability into a very powerful tool. Officers who are allowed to tell their stories responsibly and respectfully accomplish a number of things:
- They show community members what it is they’re doing behind the restricted-access areas of the police station.
- They inform and educate about misunderstood or important topics to the community.
- They reinforce the perception that they’re part of a professional team, both the agency and their own unit.
An invitation
Part of the reason I’ve been absent from blogging over the last few weeks is that, among my other work, I’ve been building: a redesigned website that focuses on exactly the services I provide.
My focus is on “content creation and strategy” for the law enforcement and digital forensics communities. In essence, that means helping clients and/or customers to find and tell their stories strategically, through tactics like blogging, podcasting, and so forth.
My new blog, “The Outstanding Investigator,” will cover the kinds of concepts I just wrote about above. I hope you’ll subscribe to it—the content is as free there as it is here—and if you’re interested in what I have to offer, please let me know that too.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to blog here at Cops 2.0, perhaps less frequently, but still with the broader look at social media in law enforcement that I’ve always taken. Happy New Year, and thanks for being part of my world!
Image: soulmuser via Flickr
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Founder Christa M. Miller is a content creator and strategist (i.e. a writer who helps you figure out the best ways to use her writing) who specializes in law enforcement and digital forensics.
Cops 2.0 !!? Funny , Is it some new version of the cops, like Web 2.0, Web 3.0 etc? Are you a cop, actually?
To answer your first question, police using Web 2.0 = Cops 2.0. To answer your second, no I’m not. But I work with many. Please feel free to poke around the site to learn more!
You do not have to be a police officer to offer exceptional training or academic/theoretical concepts/ideas/studies to police agencies. In fact police sciences and studies therein is often from an outside source, like a forensic psychologist or Criminologist, like myself. Being an agency or an officer does not make you a “police expert” but if you are progressive enough to seek information outside your agency you might find value in costing analysis, policy, training and organizational restructuring that assist you to be an exceptional “go to” agency that other agencies view as leaders in the field. Live by example and work hard to be progressive and not closed to change and opportunity. Police are traditionally a closed environment – that’s changing in many ways including a fledgling but hopefully positive online presence. Just my two cents
Christa, you are doing a great job! Keep it up and stay positive
“The key is to show them how they can be human and still be professional”
True and true but if agencies offer SM training are they not invested and perhaps modifying the personal content?
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“Social media use does not lend itself to a laundry list of “don’ts.” That’s because it’s inherently out of organizational control”
I have to disagree here, Christa. There are indeed “don’ts” in my view. The organization should have no control or oversight but that’s ONLY if the officer in question does not tweet or post about “on duty” arrests/events etc..quite sure most agencies have confidentiality policies that prohibit some discussion on sensitive matters in a public forum, which the virtual environment most certainly is. If not they need to develop them (part of the reason i have been monitoring SM is to look at this ever changing landscape) I think that was my earlier point. Agencies must adopt policy around SM first- then perhaps training from within. Within this cash strapped econ. my doubts are high that agencies will pay anyone to “teach them” SM. Presentations around how SM can save money, relative to solving via community, any outstanding criminal events–well then now you’re talking. I have that presentation ready to go with my own research to accompany it. I will be publishing some things on a blog but am just finishing another study right now. If you want i notify you and can share so long as my work is credited
Thanks Laura! Actually we don’t disagree — that “laundry list” statement was a (probably not quite clear enough) continuation of the previous paragraph, that restrictive policies are not the thing to do here.
As far as confidentiality policies though, even that is a gray area. At least two cop bloggers I know of have had their blogs “found out” even though they blogged anonymously… they would write about things only they could have experienced. In one case, the officer was threatened with firing. In the other, administration looked the other way.
The first officer’s agency has a lot of problems. He blogged about those. And it didn’t read like the rantings of a cop with a bad attitude. It was no surprise they wanted to control his message. The second officer, though, blogs very positively. He doesn’t pull punches about reality, but he doesn’t paint his police department in a bad light either. So admin let it go. When people talk about “citizen journalism”… his is one of the best examples. (I’m talking about the Roanoke Cop, BTW.)
Also, I don’t blame agencies for not wanting to pay anyone to “teach SM.” That’s not the right goal here. SM presents new channels, and there are boatloads of new implications, the biggest one being that things don’t “blow over” as quickly as they did with traditional media. But I think they can be managed once officers and administrators know the right kinds of content to put out there.
Finally, your work will ALWAYS be credited here! Trade journalist here — I would NEVER not properly credit! Bad writer karma…
I think a lot of administrators fear that type of transparency across all fields. One example of embracing social media marketing transparency was Dominos latest new pizza campaign. They acknowledged that yes, their pizza isn’t that good and vowed to make it better. Then they launched a website that hosted a live feed to anyone talking about #newpizza.
While people were saying not-so-nice things about the new pizza (and these negative comments showed up on their pizza’s homepage!), this transparency and honesty made me respect them more as a corporation who wasn’t afraid to face the truth/real criticism. I certainly think this level of transparency can be applied to law enforcement at all levels. It’s that tell-us-what-you-really-think attitude that makes social media so appealing.
Jeanette, thanks for the comment. Domino’s willingness to open itself up like this is all the more profound considering just months ago, its employees’ video made it look terrible. Maybe they figured they had nothing to lose… but it would have been easy for them to get defensive about its whole brand. The example you cite is more along the lines of an organization that knows mistakes have been made — from hiring/employee public health education all the way down to recipes — and wants to make changes… according to its customers’ needs.