3 Ways to Deal With Police Marketing Social Media Copycats!

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Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO and this week, I want to talk to you about something that you may not have experienced yet, but if you continue to implement and follow the social media recruiting tactics I’m teaching you, it won’t be long until you’re facing full on copycats of everything you’re doing on social media to include ideas, features, posts, videos, color schemes, all of it. 👯

Over the past decade, I’ve seen a lot of changes in police recruiting, with the biggest being in the implementation of social media.  As an early adopter of social media platforms for recruiting purposes, my department has always had a leg up here in this area...and it certainly didn’t hurt us either that I had a background in marketing, broadcasting, and commercial voice over which allowed us to do things early on that literally no one was doing. 🦄 

With that though, and as other agencies began catching on, we fell, what I would then call ‘victim to’, a lot of copycats.  And I’m talking ripping off features word for word, concept for concept, and putting out essentially the same things we were doing with just a different logo on the package. ©😼

And I’ll be honest with you...it used to make me really mad.  And I mean irate.  I would angrily think to myself and sometimes out loud, ‘how could they do this’, ‘come up with your own stuff’, and multiple other phrases and four-letter word combinations that wouldn’t exactly be professional to write about here! 😡

The bottom line is: if you’re putting out good stuff, this is gonna happen to you so many times, just as it has for me.  Even now, with this business, it’s still happening as I’m seeing things I’m putting out with 'For Cops' Training get repackaged and presented by others as their own Police Marketing tips. 🤷‍♂️

It really is enough to drive you insane, especially the first time it happens to you, but have no fear. The solution does not require seeking the assistance of a Buddhist monk to work on your patience.  You won’t need yoga or meditation sessions to mellow you out, although both are really good options for better health.  And you won’t need to practice incantations or chanting rituals when you’re feeling extra stolen from. 😎 

Now, anyone who knows me or has been following me for a while understands that mindset is a huge thing for me.  And the solution for dealing with copycats involves a simple mindset realization that can be found within these three areas. 👇

1.  You should feel flattered.

Cast aside your anger and realize you created something so good that another agency said to themselves...'hey, that’s really good'...and decided they wanted their audience to feel that way too! 🤩 

You’re designing things that others are taking note of, and that should serve as a testament to your creativity.   This is something that you should be proud of, not mad at. 🌟

2.  Realize you are now positioned as a police marketing leader.

Positioning is something that is very important in marketing.  It’s how others see you. 👀

Whether it’s your customers (in our case applicants), your fans (i.e., coworkers and family members), or your so-called competition (you know, the other agency taking your ideas), the fact that someone is copying what you are doing lets you know that you’re leading the way and people are chasing you. 🏃🏃‍♀️

When people are chasing you, they don’t have time to come up with new and fresh ideas which leaves that path wide open for you, the industry leader, to continue paving.  Trust me...people know who’s who.  🙌 

3.  You don’t really have competition, so it doesn’t matter. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking...Tom...what the hell are you talking about?  I’ve lost plenty of applicants to other agencies, of course I have competition.  I’m constantly fighting it out and battling for people. 🥊 

Look, I get it...I was there once too.  But remember, this is a mindset. 🧠

If you want to be successful, and happy, in recruiting the next generation of Police Officers, you have to realize that applicants choose your agency for two reasons alone and neither of them has anything to do with competition... 👇

1. They like what your agency has to offer. 😍

2. They believe that people like them, work for you. 👨👩👮👮

If these two factors aren't present in your applicants mind...no amount of money, benefits, opportunities, promotions, promises, or persuasions will matter.  If they did...everyone would simply work for the biggest agency with the most pay.  The fact that every police department in the world has employees working for them proves this. 👍

Realize this 👉 you didn’t really lose out on someone.  Another agency didn’t beat you out or hire them faster.  You simply weren’t right for that applicant at that particular moment in time. 💡

So, if another agency wants to steal your slogan, design, event, whatever, it really doesn’t matter.  Your department is unique and the only one of its kind.  You’re the only department in your city, the only Sheriff in the county, or the only Highway Patrol in the entire state. ❄

When someone truly wants to work for you, and that’s the people you should be really trying to attract by the way, no one else’s message will matter.  Be confident in your product, don’t worry about copycats, and get to showing applicants what makes your agency the place for them. 🚀 

Have questions? Please reach out!  I’m always here to help. 🤝

Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃

Tom

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👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.

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