Hartford Police Department’s Social Media Experience
July 18, 2008Speaker: Nancy Mulroy – Hartford Police Department’s Public Information Officer
Topic: From the past to the present: How to gain social media success
Nancy is a former attendee of the social media conference and in a very short amount of time after attending she has been able to bring social media to the Harford Police Department. She emphasized the “one step at a time” approach. At first the Dept. brought RSS feeds to the websites and she sold the local press and media on their use vs. conventional listserv technology. It took approximately a week to develop the RSS feed with a few hours from an internal developer.
As the possible benefits of social media became apparent, police chief Daryl Roberts started a blog to gain trust with the community, work with people and address the need for help solving certain crimes in the area.
Nancy recommended using a three E approach when changing your organization:
- Explore
- Engage
- Enlighten
Nancy’s involvement came in part with the Web Governance Committee and gaining buy in. By taking a lead in web governance Nancy was able to apply her new knowledge and guide discussions on development.
Key Points:
- Use multi-purpose content
- Don’t reinvent the wheel – add social media (e.g., comment features) to existing sites
- Maintain Service Relationships and safety
Resources:
