Thames Valley Police on Twitter - what's going on here then?
Thames Valley Police is on Twitter! The largest non-metropolitan police force in the UK has begun a two-month experiment in using social media to engage with the community, using both Twitter and Facebook in specific areas. Here we look at how they are doing on Twitter.
In a press release Roy Probert, acting head of Corporate Communications at Thames Valley Police, wisely said: “We ignore the advance of social media at our peril.
“While it is all well and good communicating with our communities through traditional methods, we must realise that more and more people are using these sites to keep in touch with what is going on in their lives.”
So far so good! Now, Morgan PR’s founder, Nigel Morgan is a former TVP police press officer and ideally placed to assess the performance and impact of this experiment after almost a month and here focuses specifically on the Twitter accounts set up in four different communities – ranging from Newbury town centre, a rural beat in Banbury, the urban community of Caversham and Maidenhead. Click to check out @TVP_Newbury, @TVP_Banbury, @TVP_Caversham, @TVP_Maidenhead.
The following snapshot of the four ‘neighbourhood’ Twitter accounts was taken at what the boys and girls in blue would call 0800 hours, on Sunday 2nd May. A traditionally quiet time for the police service and are quite telling.
There will always be a correlation between the number of times you tweet and the number of followers you gain. However the content is also absolutely vital and the clear success of Caversham is largely due to a consistent and Twitter-friendly approach. For example they are using:
Single voice – a clear single voice speaks on behalf of the beat officers.
Twitpics – publishing photographs – including this one of a cannabis factory, viewed over 200times.
Hashtags – by using #hashtags they expose their tweets to a wider audience, gaining more followers.
Useful links – for both Thames Valley Police, but crucially community links and numbers too.
RTs – retweeting is essential and while sparse so far, is essential to engagement.
I suspect the @Caversham account is being run by someone with social media experience. The other three accounts are not being used so proficiently and this is partly why they have not got so many followers. Often they are impersonal and just use a shoulder number rather than a name – contrast this with an officer in Caversham being referred to by their nickname ‘Buzz’!
None of the accounts is making good use of Twitter Lists - using this to list influential fellow Twitters and community accounts, partly so they could be followed through tools like HootSuite to find good material for retweets. Remember that retweets will earn you retweets and build the kind of relationships that help you build up for your number of followers.
Another error is the use of jargon. Do you know what BCU means? Or an £80 PND? Use jargon if you must, but how about a link to a police jargon busting page that you regularly tweet? Regular repetitive tweets do not work for everyone on Twitter, but TVP is providing a community service and providing that no more than five per cent of the feed is like this, it can really work by telling new users where to find important information, not least on the TVP website, its facebook page and its YouTube channel. Indeed videos from the YouTube channel should be tweeted as there is nothing stopping these local Twitter accounts tweeting stuff from the corporate level.
Whilst openness is vital, one tweet I spotted from @Maidenhead gave the name of a ‘local resident’ who has been charged with various vehicle related crimes, including theft from vehicles. While good and reassuring, it is a tweet ripe for legal action for libel if someone with the same name from Maidenhead is mistakenly identified as the suspected car criminal. You either need more detail to avoid this, or less so no mistakes can be made.
One other wider observation relates to safeguarding other potential Twitter accounts. It does not appear that Thames Valley Police has registered Twitter accounts for other likely towns or patrol areas. High profile organisations, much like celebrities, are vulnerable to having their Twitter names registered by others. If TVP wants to keep a unformity of Twitter accounts (@TVP_area) it should register them promptly.
The future of social media is increasingly local and it is really promising that Thames Valley Police recognises that Twitter can have a role. The key will be taking and learning from the best practice of @TVP_Caversham and ensuring that other accounts follow their example. We are halfway through a two month trial, which may not be long enough to realise Twitter's potential. With businesses we recommend at least three months spent building up followers before an account can be properly leveraged.
Would you like to be able to use Twitter to promote your business? We run a regular Twitter Workshop in Newbury that attracts businesses and public sector staff from across Berkshire, Hampshire and the Thames Valley who want to learn how best to use Twitter and to master the use of HootSuite to minimise the time you spend tweeting.