As we reach out to our customers via social media, we see them making the same kind of outreach efforts to their constituents. This week, the Houston Chronicle reported on the Houston Police Department’s use of social media tools like blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. HPD and other police departments report that using these popular and accessible communication media reaps many two-way benefits and is having a positive impact on recruiting, in particular. (See our blogroll under the Explore tab, below right, for the HPD blog and other industry resources of interest, including police videos captured on BluTube.)
Other public sector agencies are getting in on the act, from the Coast Guard to the Drug Enforcement Agency to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the chief of the FBI’s national press office, “Our job … is to talk to people out in the world, and this is how people are talking these days. We can either be part of the new wave or we can watch it.”
Move over Ashton, Oprah, and Ellen: all the world’s a-Twitter….
Photo by Flickr user lucy96734
