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Are you posting and ghosting? If you have no idea what I’m talking about or are just really into words that rhyme and wanna see more, I’m going to tell you exactly what it is, why it’s bad for your police recruiting and how to fix it...keep reading! 👀
Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO and this week, we’re talking about posting and ghosting on your social media platforms. I see agencies do this all the time and quite frankly, it’s killing your police recruiting efforts and most of you don’t even realize it, so I knew I had to get this lesson out to you so you can start winning with recruiting. 🏆
Ok...let me start explaining this with a simple question...
If we were approaching each other in a hallway and I stopped right in front of you for a conversation and said ‘hey, how you doing’, you’d probably respond by saying, ‘I’m fine, how bout you’ or something similar. We’re living in a society after all. 👋
Now...how would you feel if after your reply, I simply turned around and walked away without ever acknowledging, replying, or giving you a second look? You’d likely think, ‘what a weirdo’ or ‘what the hell is that guys problem’ and try to stay away from me for the rest of the day. 😳
Ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what you’re doing when you make a social media post for a job opening, log off, and never return. In other words, posting and ghosting. 👻
Now let me give you a real-world example to apply the same concept to and consider.
Just recently I saw a post from an agency advertising their police officer job opening, hiring bonus and opportunity to ‘be the standard’. While that’s not in a million years the tag line I’d go with for recruiting, it worked for this agency as roughly 12 hours later a user replied, ‘filled out the application on the website. Pretty excited’. Yay, you guys...it worked! 🙌
It’s now been five weeks, yes, five weeks since this comment was made, and nothing. No reply. No like to his comment. No interaction whatsoever. Post and ghost. 👎
With that being said...here are the three main reasons why posting and ghosting is killing your police recruiting and how to fix it. 🛠
1. Makes your agency seem disinterested
In the example I just gave, how excited do you think that applicant still is? This is the opportunity of his lifetime, and you seemingly couldn’t care less. Why would he think working for you would be any different? Sure, he applied, but if you don’t care about that, why should he care about showing up to testing? 🤷♂️
At a minimum, if you want to fix this, you should be checking back in on your social media channels regularly...and I’m talking several times a day or set up notifications to your phone, so you don’t miss any activity. 📳
When someone takes the time to comment, return the favor. For this one, a simple ‘awesome, we’re excited for you too’ would have gone a long way in ensuring this applicant follows through in your testing and hiring process. ✔️
2. The algorithm
Every post you make on social media is governed by an algorithm. No one knows exactly what it is looking for, and each platforms’ is different, but what I do know is that the more likes, comments, and shares your post gets, the better it is for you! 📈
So how do you fix this? Hit the like button on every positive comment on your posts. When you do this, you’re doubling up on the interaction of a post in the eyes of the algorithm. Remember, the algorithm is a machine...it simply figures the more likes, comments, and shares a post has gotten, the more interesting it is, so it shows it to more people! The more people that see it, the better chance you have of finding the right applicant for your agency. 🔍
3. Missing opportunities to build relationships
Police recruiting has always been about building relationships and doing it on social media is no different. To go back to our example from earlier...had the agency taken the advice I provided in area number one and replied with a hey, we’re excited for you...what do you think the chances of that applicant continuing to engage with you would have been? I can tell you from experience it’s incredibly high. 💯
To fix this, your ultimate goal should be to carry on real conversations with people to build a relationship with them. Whether that conversation happens in the comment section or via direct messages doesn’t matter. Just have one. Then do that again. And again. And again. 😵
The more real conversations you have with people the more they ‘buy in’ to your agency. When an applicant buys in to your agency, every other opportunity elsewhere magically disappears. 🧙♂️
Look, recruiting in 2024 isn’t hard...it’s just different. You can do this! 🚀
If you thought this lesson was something, wait until you see what’s inside My Road to Better Recruiting course! It’s launching soon and is packed with everything you need to get your agency headed in the right direction. Check it out and join the waitlist at www.forcopstraining.com/rtbr.
Know someone who’s been posting and ghosting at another agency? Give this video a like or share it with them so they can get rid of Casper too. Listen, it’s going to take all of us, working together, 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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