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Ready to start hiring more police officers at your agency? Well, of course you are…but let me ask you a quick question to see how serious you are…when’s the last time you replied to or liked someone’s comment on one of your social media posts? If your face just went like this 😳 you really need to...keep reading! 👀
Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, we’re talking about one of the biggest factors when it comes to converting applicants into new hires and that is the relationship that you have with them. 🧑🤝🧑
Unfortunately, in the police world, this is often one of the most overlooked aspects of police recruiting as many of us still struggle with antiquated recruiting methods and a thought pattern of applicants needing to prove themselves to us as opposed to the other way around. 🙄
Let’s start fixing that right now....
Change your mindset
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know that I’m always going to go back to mindset and how critical it is for your agency’s future success in terms of recruiting. For some reason, this is a really hard concept for us, as police officers, to wrap our problem solving, type A, take care of business personalities around…but trust me, the sooner you get to this level of understanding, the sooner you’re going to be able to get recruiting turned around at your agency. 💯
Now…there are several areas this comes into play, but I’m going to focus on social media comments for this newsletter because that’s where I’ve been seeing a ton of missed connections lately from police agencies who are trying to have a presence on social media but are undermining their efforts by ignoring commenters. 👻
Look…having a presence on social media is great…you should absolutely be there…but if you’re just posting because that’s what me or somebody else told you to do, you’re missing the whole ‘social’ part of social media. 🤯
Understand your audience behaviors
Social media audiences, today more than ever, expect engagement from content creators. So, when you make a post, and when you ignore them after they make a comment, what I like to call posting & ghosting, you leave them feeling like you don’t care…and more specifically…that you don’t care about them. 🤷♂️
So, when someone comments ‘I’m interested’, or ‘where do I go to apply’, or ‘when’s the next testing date’ or any number of typical responses that they make on your job postings, and you ignore them…guess what they’re going to do? 🤔
No…it’s not wait until eternity for you to answer, nor is it they’ll go check out your website to find the information on their own…what’s gonna happen is they’re going to go to another agency who will answer their questions, be grateful for their interest, and likely go on to hire them. 👋
Look…I know you’ve got a lot going on. I know exactly how busy it is trying to juggle social media, unit meetings, background interviews, phone calls, pop ins, and everything else that happens over the course of our recruiting day. 🥴
But if you want to be successful in recruiting like it’s 2025…you’ve got to start dedicating some time to your social media audience…also known as building relationships. It doesn’t take hours and hours…start with 5 or 10 minutes three times a day. ⏲️
Follow this easy plan
When you first get in the office…check all your social media feeds for any messages or comments that were made on your posts. Hit the like button on every positive comment that was made or question that was asked and you can ignore any mean or nasty ones…that’s the only acceptable blow off on social media. 👍
Then, and this is incredibly important, respond to every question or comment in an informative, encouraging, or friendly way. Replying to social media comments is no time for a ‘just the facts, ma’am’ approach…again it’s about building relationships and being engaging with people. 😀
Next…right around lunch time, do the same thing all over again…and then repeat this process about 30 minutes before you go home for the day. 🕔
See…it doesn’t take much effort at all, and it won’t be long until you start noticing that more people are now engaging with your posts. Then you’ll start seeing those same names in your application piles. And the more and more you keep doing it the more you’ll start seeing those names…on your new hire board. 💪
You ready to learn even more about this kind of stuff? Listen, if you’re tired of feeling like no one wants to do this job anymore or that you can’t get applicants through your process…my Road to Better Recruiting course is going to change your police recruiting forever! 🙌
It’s enrolling right now, and you can check it out at: www.forcopstraining.com/rtbr. Don’t put it off one more day…your recruiting is far too important for that. 😎
Know someone at another agency who’s been posting & ghosting? Share this video with them so they can learn too! Remember, you’re not in a competition with any other agency…and it’s going to take all of us to change the future of police recruiting. 🤝
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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