Invite a guest to use your Police Twitter Account! What am I talking about? Many talk shows on radio and TV add interest by inviting guest speakers to chat with their listeners on a variety of topics. You as a police officer can do the same. Once you have built up a reasonable amount of local followers advertise that you will be running a one hour question and answer session.

Some police services on twitter have already done this with great results. Just search for #Kayday in twitter search. Getting a senior officer to answer questions from local people is a brilliant idea. I want you to expand this method of engagement with your community. The whole point of Social media and the police using Twitter is to generate a two way conversation. It improves the openness of the police and increases our reputation. Many senior police managers see Twitter as a one way broadcast medium. Luckily others have seen the light and are willing to experiment.

I want you to start small. Get a dog handler in to answer questions. What about a traffic sergeant? Do you have police horse stables nearby? People love watching detectives on the TV. Why not enable them to be able to speak to one. One of the biggest programs on TV is CSI. Ask your local SOCO to answer questions for an hour. Tell the local newspapers what you are doing. They will love to run an article on your radical use of twitter. It is free advertising. You will get more local followers and supporters. What are you waiting for?

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