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Video, video, video, video, video, video…video! 📽️
It’s all the rage these days in terms of growing your social media following and seemingly everyone, law enforcement related or not, is telling you how you need to be using it if you want to effectively pedal your brand…it’s a lot to take in and with all the options available can be very confusing. What would be great is, if someone made a quick video guide to social media video, right? You know I got you covered...keep reading! 👀
Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, we’re talking about social media video and I’m going to break down the two main categories of video, tell you about the different types of videos and compare what most people think they do versus what they actually do. Get ready to know what you’re talking about when it comes to video! 🧠
OK…if you’re gonna learn about social media video, the first thing you need to know is that there are essentially two categories of video…long form and short form. Yes, there are seemingly a million different styles of videos out there, but each one can always be grouped into either long form or short form. 👈👉
There is a lot of contention and opinion on what the differences in length are between the two with some people saying long form video is anything over ten minutes in length while others say short form video is anything that is under two minutes. The ones falling in the middle…I guess have an identity crisis. 🤷
Let me set the standard for police recruiting. A short form video is anything that is under 90 seconds in length and a long form video is anything over that. Yes…90 seconds is an eternity to social media users scrolling through their feed. Realize that now. 🤯
All right, now that you understand the difference between long form and short form video…one’s long and one’s short…let’s talk about the 3 most common types of videos that are being used on police related social media channels…and clear up what people think that they do versus what they actually do for your audience. 👇
1. Recruiting Videos
These are the mother of all police related videos and are typically professionally produced with stunning graphics and are shot in 4K high definition. Recruiting videos are used to showcase an agency and all of the specialty assignments, good people, benefits, or anything else a department wants to highlight and usually range anywhere between three and five minutes in length, but I have seen some that span between the seven- and ten-minute range. 👮♂️👮♀️
What people think that they do - Most agencies believe a recruiting video is a critical piece to their recruiting puzzle and that by putting one out they will receive an influx of applications and solve their recruiting problems. 🚀
What they actually do - Now…don’t get me wrong, recruiting videos have their place in the mix…but these are a gigantic waste of your recruiting budget and resources because they deliver very little in return. Sure, they look great and get a few compliments from friends and colleagues but they’re simply too long to gain any real traction on social media with users swiping away from them after a few seconds when they realize it’s the exact same thing as any other one they have seen. 😴
My advice: If you’re going to have one keep them to YouTube where long form video is far more expected and also throw it up on your website…just make sure you don’t have them set to auto play. Massively annoying. 😠
2. Ride Along Videos
These types of videos are also typically long form in nature and show the different types of calls and interactions an officer has during a routine patrol shift while talking about the impact the job has had on them. 🚓
What people think they do - Most people see these as a way to ‘humanize the badge’ which we’ll cover next, and feel they show a lighter and more caring side of the job. ❤️
What they actually do - Ride along videos are actually very effective in showcasing what the job is going to be like. If I’m being honest, most social media users don’t care about the back story behind these…they are far more interested in what is going on and what they will be encountering on a daily basis when they work for you. 🤔
My advice: You should definitely be doing these, but they can be self-filmed and should focus more on the job itself as opposed to telling a story about the officer. You should see much better engagement by doing so. 👍
3. Testimonial Videos
These are your true humanizing the badge type videos where employees are shown talking about why they chose the agency, got into the profession, or what they get out of helping people on a daily basis. 💪
What people think they do - Agencies use these to tell the stories of their employees and feel this helps to normalize officers as regular people and not just robots with a gun and a badge. 👨👩
What they actually do - Testimonial videos indeed do a really good job of humanizing the badge and are one of the rare occurrences where they do exactly what people think they do. 🎯
My advice: These are nice but pare down the time on them to help keep a watcher’s interest through the end. When you make them too long, people get bored and click away…that hurts your view time and kills the post in the algorithm. 📉
OK, you may have noticed that all three of those examples were long form video formats and you would be correct. The reason these three are so popular is because video companies are stuffing your money in their pockets recommending them to you because you don’t understand that short form videos are king in social media and don’t require a video company to produce. 😳
Social media research company Sprout Social shows that short form video outperforms its long form counterpart over and over again with an astonishing 250% higher engagement rate. That’s a massive gap if you are unsure! 📏
So…if you want to get a little more traction on social media…short form video is where it’s at. 💯
From testing, application, and employment process tips to encouraging messages and even premade templates found for free on a variety of video sites like CapCut, you should be implementing short form video on the regular to keep your audience interested, active, and engaged. When you do that for your audience, you’ll start to see the applications piling up. 📚
Need some more advice on how to pull that off? My Road to Better Recruiting course is open right now and will teach you the exact social media and recruiting strategy I used at my own agency for the past decade to keep up with vacancies and fill our ranks with highly qualified and awesome police candidates…all without dumping endless dollars on recruiting solutions that don’t work. 💪
Check it out now on my website by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr. This course is unlike any other you’ve ever taken and will help you get things turned around…I promise! ✌️
Have a friend at another agency who’s also struggling with social media? Share this video with them so they can learn too! Remember…we’re all in this together. 🤝
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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