A recent study conducted by the International Association of Police Chiefs found that nearly 53% of law enforcement agencies haven’t identified goals and/or outcomes related to their use of social media. Another 4% simply responded they didn’t know.

Additionally, more than 30% reported being “somewhat concerned” about “resource commitments” and “availability of social media training” relating to social media use by the agency.

With more than half of law enforcement agencies unable to identify goals and outcomes relating to the use of social media, it can be difficult to enhance the use and effectiveness of these powerful tools.

More importantly, without goals or measuring outcomes along with the hard data to support them, it will be challenging for law enforcement to find justification for the funding necessary to help ease their concerns about resource commitment and training with social media.

Law enforcement agencies will need to begin finding ways of benchmarking and assessing their social media activities. This could seem like a daunting task considering many are still trying to simply figure out how social media in general fits into their agencies.

Kosovich Media Group has specialized technology-based assessment tools to provide definitive benchmarking data and customized consulting services that enable law enforcement agencies to not only understand their own levels of social media engagement, but also measure against the social media engagement of peer organization Facebook accounts.

Contact Kosovich Media Group to learn more.

View this article at the Kosovich Media Group website.

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*In fall 2013, the IACP conducted its fourth annual survey on law enforcement’s use of social media. A total of 500 law enforcement agencies, representing 48 states, participated in the survey.