Social media provides an important opportunity for public safety professionals to play a leading role in setting their agency’s narrative online. With news and information spreading quickly, it’s important to have the tools and systems in place to lead your communications efforts with the public. 

This panel will cover topics including:

• How investing in internal comms helps manage the external message and limits misinformation
• Silence is damaging. Why it's important to speak up, and how you can keep your agency’s voice in the conversation during an active investigation or controversial situation
• Strategies to increase the chances of media picking up your message
• How to identify the best and most effective brand ambassador for each issue, incident, or topic
• What it means to break your own news, and how this can help you drive your own narrative

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When a critical incident occurs, effective communication — both internally and externally — is essential. Public safety is the number one priority and ensuring important information is released in a timely manner must be a priority. The utilization of social media can be the key to successful communication for releasing and receiving information. Each emergency responder in a critical incident must know their role; too many times personnel have too many responsibilities and some things such as PIO roles get overlooked.

Fortunately, my agency has a full-time PIO role and during critical incidents our main responsibility is communication. However, other agency PIOs often have command responsibilities during an incident and cannot focus on the communication aspect of the event. It is important to identify a communicator who will bear the responsibility of communication in a critical incident, not just releasing information to the media or public, but to share information internally within their agency or other agencies involved. This session will review these challenges to prepare your agency to handle a critical incident in the most effective way possible.

Takeaways include:

• How to utilize social media during a critical incident
• How to ensure you have a seat at the command table
• Who validates the information you are releasing

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For years, the Fort Worth Police Department was able to stand out as one of the only police departments that was continuing to find recruits and stay staffed at max capacity while other departments nationally were struggling.  This was done by being a department that not only appealed to the people in the real world, but also appealed to those in the social media world.  And in this day and age, social media is where most people get their news and form their opinions about the police profession.  2020 was a year unlike any other, but the Fort Worth Police Department was still able to obtain recruits and push out graduating classes.  This course will share with you our winning recruitment formulas before, during and after 2020, through the good times and the bad.

Takeaways include:

• Why you must go viral
• The winning formula for successful recruitment videos
• How we survived through 2020
• How can you appeal to the people to join you

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Social media can be an incredible tool to help forge stronger relationships between first responder agencies and the public they serve. How can we begin to change the perception the public has regarding law enforcement and other public safety officers in their communities?

Discussion topics include:

• How to identify humanizing stories and share successes through agency-specific campaigns
• Content ideas for humanizing your agency that can be adapted across platforms
• Integrating impactful community engagement into your agency’s DNA
• Understanding the difference between a corporate account and a professional account and the benefits of each
• Identifying the best opportunities to engage through social accounts (and when not to engage)
• The art of communicating with citizens who distrust law enforcement

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Compassion, Competition and Consistency.

Ever wonder why some posts go viral and others stay stagnant? With the ever changing algorithms is hard to tell which post really reach the targets you hoped for. However, there are some ways in which you can guarantee to grow your following by sharing REAL stories. We will discuss how to identify stories that pull at heartstrings through compassion, how to use your local agencies as creative competition to up your social status, and how to determine what content aligns with your organization and be consistent about your brand. 

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Positive relationships between law enforcement agencies and media outlets within the communities they serve are critical. Media reporting impacts the public’s trust in law enforcement, which in turn influences everything from agency funding to receiving public assistance during significant cases.

In this workshop, we will discuss how police agencies can better relationships with media outlets through:

• Organizing targeted media days to create interest in your department’s work
• Using professional practices to enhance police & media partnerships
• Developing methods to create and pitch proactive news stories to reporters
• Engaging with difficult journalists you’d rather avoid

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Rebranding your social media platforms can seem like a daunting task. However, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming or expensive. By setting up a few branding basics, finding consistency and narrowing down your goals for social media, your brand can be easily recognizable and professional. 

This session will help you determine some branding consistencies, as well as your brand goals, or what you’d like your agency to say. You’ll be able to create a basic branding guideline for your agency and learn why this can be an integral tool to allowing your agency to be recognized in your community.

You’ll see a real-life example of this as I walk you through the Pasco Sheriff’s Office’s transition from a social media strategy that valued frequent posts that were light on explanation and void on brand identity, to a cohesive social media strategy with guardrails for posting, built with a few simple tools you may already have. 

Takeaways include:

• Identify the most important parts of your agency’s brand and your agency’s message
• Elevate your agency’s brand across multiple platforms
• Build a basic branding guideline

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More and more, social media narratives and strategies aim to create discord and encourage people to transition from virtual reality (VR) outrage to real life (RL) action.  In this session, Judy Pal will provide an overview of how malicious actors are using social media to cause discord and division in our communities and what agencies can do to counteract it. She’ll not only cover issues like factions, rumor, weaponizing social media, data deficits, and Doxxing, but will provide options for countering these unscrupulous strategies and highlight some best practices of agencies across the country.

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The DC Fire and EMS Department’s Media & Community Relations Division made a calculated effort to establish itself as a public safety communications leader in the Washington DC region and within the fire service within a measured time period. Key hires over the past five years and a strategy emphasizing timely and consistent messaging with a recent focus on increased quality video production took the Department into a new era of communications.

A veteran fire buff, a seasoned government servant, and two former journalists make up the team that is pushing to ensure the comeback is the new standard of how best to tell the Department’s story and how to cement positive relationships with the community and the media.

Participants will learn how one of the nation's busiest fire and EMS department currently utilizes social media and video to provide the public with real-time information on critical incidents, special events, as well as for internal and external messaging. The team also shares what they did after protestors stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as an example of the incorporation of video messaging used to capture the actions of the men and women who serve the District of Columbia 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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Whether it’s a planned large-scale event, protest or riot, what and how you communicate can make a big difference in building community trust. Following the murder of George Floyd, communities across the country found themselves in the middle of the social justice movement. Bellevue, Washington experienced its first-ever large-scale riot, followed by multiple protests in the subsequent months. We’ll take a close look at several protests as they played out on BPD’s social media, examining mistakes, adjustments and lessons learned by listening to community feedback. We’ll also talk about the importance of post-event communication with your community.

Session takeaways:

• Preparations to take now, before a large event plays out on social media
• Best practices for social media during an event
• Avoiding common mistakes to improve trust
• What to do after the event

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Collaboration is key when it comes to social media. There are so many elements to deal with on a regular basis. One person alone cannot easily or quickly do all of this work. That is where internal teams come in: primary and secondary teams. Government agencies typically have several decentralized teams with knowledgeable and talented people. Some of these teams may have a communications focus while others fall into the category of subject matter experts. Integration with your customer service group or information center allows you to tap into the top trending topics your audience wants to know about. 

Weekly check-in meetings are a great way to bring everyone together to discuss all things social media. Harnessing the power of these teams in one place at one time can improve your effectiveness as a social media manager. Ultimately, it will help you to ensure consistency and accuracy with content creation, scheduling, community management, engagement, customer service, stakeholder management, and more.

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Youth audiences can be particularly difficult to connect with: privacy regulations are constantly changing, youth are exposed to more than 6,000 ads each day and their online habits are evolving. Compounding those challenges, public institutions like governments, charities, and non-profits often have unique process, compliance, and branding needs.

Backed by decades of youth advertising experience, John Reid and Pete Baird will demonstrate how to develop a messaging strategy that resonates, analyze the most effective channels to create impact, and provide real-life examples to tie it all together. The time is now to take your youth advertising strategy to the next level. 

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With limited time and resources, you want to be able to get the most out of what your agency posts on social media. This session will cover the highlights and limitations of each platform and help you decide which platform serves your needs best. Plus, learn how to efficiently optimize your content for different platforms without reinventing the wheel. We'll cover Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Nextdoor. 

Takeaways include:

• What you need to get started on each platform
• How to sell a new platform to your executive team
• How to streamline content development for agencies of all sizes
• Audience building tricks for each platform

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Today we are being challenged to communicate flawlessly and with agility…and often on the same topic over and over again as we create content for social media platforms as well as other communications.  How can you bring a fresh perspective to your writing that will engage the reader? And how can you change your own way of thinking in order to discover new approaches and angles?

Find out here.

These improvisational-based exercises will help you break through writing blahs…and everyone’s expectations. Whether it’s social media posts, a press release or PowerPoint, this is where the magic starts.

You’ll learn:

• The tenets of improv—stagecraft exercises to help you write better
• How to use the power of “Yes, and…” to push your writing and audiences to new heights
• How to kill your inner editor and get away with it
• Savvy methods to manipulate your “same-old” writing style
• How to inspire your own creative thinking using successful examples and exercises

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In this session, Matt Hamada, lead for the City of Phoenix social channels, will share strategies for social media managers charged with consistently putting out timely and original content. 

He’ll dive into:

• Running annual campaigns can look and feel repetitive. Let’s talk about how to keep them fresh, exciting, and engaging!
• How to keep creative ideas flowing and deal with your "creative well" feeling tapped
• The "feast or famine" struggle when it comes to planning content and/or timely events and news and how to fill in the gaps
• Insights from Matt's annual planning of Phoenix’s Summer Safety campaign
• Tips from Matt’s initiative working collaboratively across several city departments (fire, police, water, and more) to be able to repurpose and resource content

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Building a government agency brand is about building reliability. This panel will discuss the best ways government marketers can leverage social media to strengthen their brand, reputation, and relationships with their communities. 

Discussion topics include:

• Using evergreen, light-hearted content to build strong relationships, trust, and interest over time. When a crisis hits, this strategy means your agency will be viewed as a trusted source of information. 
• The benefits of building relationships with and empowering brand ambassadors to help advertise your brand for you and get out important information
• Delivering top-notch customer service and being responsive to comments to bolster trust
• Keeping your brand messaging cohesive and consistent across channels (tone, colors, post frequency)

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Social media is more than just a way to push out information. It can be used as a tool to inform strategic decision making, improve how you serve the public, and inspire action from your audiences. This session will cover how social media teams of any size can use feedback from your audiences to engage and empower the public in service of your mission.

Takeaways include:

• Easy ways to build feedback into your social media strategy
• Tactics for increasing engagement and encouraging action
• Tips for doing social media research for teams of any size

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In the time of COVID-19, navigating public health campaigns can be challenging. This session will dive into actual case studies that demonstrate the power of social media influencers to impact change and behaviors in public health. Learn how to collaborate with federal partners, identify government-friendly influencers, navigate regulations and produce a meaningful, results-driven public health campaign.

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Social media messaging should be fun – even during a pandemic! Learn more about why government agencies should incorporate unconventional messaging into their social media strategies to help drive engagement, create partnerships, and strengthen your reputation with your community. 

• Creative ways to engage with your audience while still keeping them informed.
• Knowing your audience and what resonates with them.
• Keeping up with social media trends and how to incorporate them into your messaging. 

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Most government comms shops are moving at a million miles a minute. Whether you're a team of one or have a whole crew, it's important to work smarter, not harder.

Save time and get your message in front of the right people at the right time with some simple strategy decisions.

Learn how to make your content work for you. Walk away with:

• What to consider when choosing where to publish your agency's messages
• Tips to quickly tweak your content for specific platforms so you don't have to reinvent the wheel with every message
• Creative ways to optimize your content to each platform's specific audience
• Tools to expand your reach organically

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Social media is a contact sport! The best users get in there and learn by doing. Government agencies have a solid showing on Twitter, but are they really making the most of it? If your Twitter strategy is just resharing your press releases, come to this session for new ideas.

We'll discuss tips and tricks for taking engagement on Twitter to the next level. We'll talk about ways to listen and find your audience, engage with others, invoke creative style and humor, be accessible, and establish a community.

What you'll learn:

• Tips for listening on Twitter
• Organizing with lists
• Tapping into accessibility features
• Making posts fun and creative
• Finding communities and your audience
• Staying atop of trends and much more! 

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Whether you’re a team of one or 10, representing your brand on social media can pose a challenge. Your constituents, leaders, and elected officials often want different things from your content and engagement. It's important your team be aligned on social strategy to help your brand build its best online presence.

Capitalize on the power of social media — through posts, visuals, and daily interactions — to use a consistent voice that reinforces your organization’s identity and values, while also building transparency and trust. Learn how to work with your colleagues to grow your brand while connecting with different audiences, including:

• What to consider when building your brand
• How to best equip your colleagues to maintain brand consistency across channels
• How to incorporate strong branding into your social media plan
• Why you should adjust your brand to get the most out of different platforms
• What you can accomplish with low — or no — budget

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If content is king, and distribution is queen, how do ensure the two work together and the content you create is right for a platform? Larry LeCompte from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions’ Government and Advocacy team shares tips for creating breakthrough content for LinkedIn – and highlights government agencies around the world who are putting these tips into practice.

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