3 Social Media Recruiting Considerations After a Police Incident Makes National Headlines!

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A police incident somewhere else has just made national news...and it looks terrible.  😟

You know it’s just a matter of time before the comments, questions, and negativity come rolling in even though your agency may have had nothing to do with it.  There’s a lot of ways to handle this, but here are the three main actions to consider for your social media recruiting when a use of force incident makes national headlines...Keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, in light of some fairly recent use of force national headlines, let’s talk about how to make sure your police recruiting efforts keep rolling along unscathed when something bad happens somewhere else. 😎 

Now...whether fair or not, whether we like it or not, or even if we agree with the actions or not, when a police use of force incident makes national headlines, we, as police officers and representatives of our agencies, are all getting lumped in together as if it were us, ourselves, that did whatever it is that is making national news.  🤷‍♂️

There’s nothing you can do to change that and if you want to start winning with recruiting while at the same time having peace in your life you must simply accept this and move on as I’ll explain in a minute. ☝️

This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to accept the blame, overreact, or suffer the consequences from it, especially on your recruiting related social media channels.  Here are the 3 main questions to consider when a police use of force incident makes national headlines and how to handle them. 👇

Question 1.  Should we stop making social media posts until this blows over?

A natural reaction to negative headlines is simply to go into hiding until the coast is clear but this is the last thing you should be doing.  Just because something bad has happened somewhere else doesn’t mean you have to suffer the consequences for it, and it doesn’t make you unsympathetic or signify that you condone whatever has happened if you continue on with business as usual. 👷‍♂️👷‍♀️

My recommendation: keep posting!  That’s right...all of those now hiring announcements, new hire photos, testing tips, where to talk to recruiter locations, and here’s why I chose our agency videos should keep on going as if nothing happened at all...because quite frankly, for your recruiting purposes, it hasn’t.  That’s the beauty of a recruiting only social media page as opposed to one that covers all aspects of your agency. 🤩

The bottom line is that regardless of what has happened elsewhere, you’re still looking to hire awesome people who are honest, trustworthy, compassionate, patient, intelligent, and caring who also want to help people in their community while making it a better place to live, work, and play.  Keep posting and looking for them. 👮‍♂️👮‍♀️

Question 2.  Should we respond to the negative comments?

It’s also completely natural to want to defend yourself against negativity and comments that are unfair to you or your agency but again, that’s the last thing you should be doing, especially on social media.  This is a world where some people are genuinely upset, and some are just there looking for a fight no matter what you rationalize.  The problem is it’s impossible to figure out who is who and it leaves you in a position where nothing good can come from it. 🙈🙉🙊

My recommendation: Ignore the negativity and continue focusing on trying to find the best candidates that you can for your agency.  No responding to negative comments, no deleting them either, no responding to negative messages in your DM’s and definitely no responses from a friends or burner account you may have. 🚫

If you want more in depth specifics on how to handle negative social media comments, you can check out this edition of my Marketing ‘For Cops’ Newsletter where I cover precisely that. 💡  

Question number 3.  Should we make a statement about the incident?

This practice became very popular amongst police agencies after the George Floyd pretests in 2020 and I fully understand the concept of it.  You make a statement condemning the act in an attempt to stand in solidarity with the community.  The problem was...statements like these were widely thought of as ‘pandering’ by a lot of people who weren’t big fans of the police at the time, and they did little to bridge the gap between police and community. 💔

My recommendation: For a police recruiting social media page, there is no need to make any statements, post any letters or memos, or even address the situation at all.  Again, the beauty of a recruiting only focused page is that the page is simply there for recruiting purposes and that is precisely the type of content that would be expected from it which allows you to stay in your lane, so to speak, and keep recruiting.  🚀

If you have an all in one page that covers both recruiting and everything else going on at the agency, my first recommendation would be to split the two pages and take the recruiting aspect out of the equation...but in the meantime, the decision of making a statement is something that you, your staff, legal advisors and higher ups are going to have to collectively agree upon depending on the incident, the reaction in your community, and what you all feel is best for your agency moving forward.  💯

Look, we’re all just one incident away from having to decide on these kinds of things and I hope this newsletter has shed some light on how to keep your recruiting moving forward despite it all. 👍

Need some more tips on how to get your agency recruiting like it’s 2024?  Check out my Road to Better Recruiting course which will be launching soon.  I'm working hard to make sure this is the best recruiting class you've ever taken and if you finally want to understand all of those options those companies are pitching you...this course has got you covered! You can learn more on my website at forcopstraining.com/rtbr. 

Have a friend at another agency who needs to learn how to handle situations just like these?  Share this newseltter with them, so they can learn too.  The future of our profession will thank you for doing so later. 🤝

Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing, or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to reach out...I’m always here to help. ⛑

Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃

Tom

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👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.

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