The Biggest Police Recruiting Social Media Misconceptions!

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Wanna know what a big audience, going viral, and paying for advertising on social media all have in common?  🤔

The answer may surprise you...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, I’m setting the record straight and spilling the beans on the three absolute biggest police recruiting social media misconceptions of 2025.  🙌

Truth be told…this same list was true in 2024 and unless I get this message out to agencies all over…it’s going to be the same again in 2026 and I don’t wanna see that happen to you. 🙅

When it comes to recruiting on social media there are a lot of theories and opinions out there as to what you should be doing as a police agency.  Unfortunately, a lot of the advice being passed around as gospel is perfect for businesses with products designed for the masses. 🏬  

But when it comes to police recruiting, and if you take nothing else away from this newsletter, please let it be this…your social media channel is not meant for the masses. 💯

Let me explain as I introduce you to the three biggest police recruiting social media misconceptions of 2025…

1. You need a lot of followers

This is advice that I see out in the wild nearly every single day, in fact I just saw it in an official audit that a city did on its recruiting unit and published it online.  🤯

The long and the short of it was the department’s main account had around 10 thousand followers and the recruiting page only a couple thousand, so it was suggested to get the follower count up to see better results. 📈

This direction could not be any further from the truth.  Just like with applications…when it comes to followers, it’s not more of them that you need.  Nope.  What you need are the right followers…and there’s two types of them. ✌️

One…you need people who are interested in applying for a job with your agency.  That’s a no brainer and I don’t even need to explain why.  Two…you need people who work for your agency or are family members of those who work for your agency.  Why?  These are the people who are going to like, comment and share your posts with their network.  And who’s in their network?  That’s right…other cops and people who want to be cops. 👯‍♀️ 

So, why don’t you just want anybody and everybody?  The answer lies in misconception number two… 

2. You need to create viral content

Social media is flooded with classes from influencers trying to teach people how to go viral.  This concept has caught on in the police recruiting world with agency after agency trying to create funny or trending type videos to cash in on the viral craze.  Seems like sound logic, get your stuff out to as many as people as possible right?  Afterall, the more eyeballs that see it, the better chance you have at reaching more applicants. 🤩

Sounds awesome…until you realize social media is governed by algorithms. 🤖

Algorithms determine what content is shown to what type of people. 🧮

So…when you make that funny dance video or parody spoof that everybody seems to love and you get thousands and thousands of likes from people all over the world you think to yourself, we’re doing it…good things are happening. 😎

Then you make a regular post the next day and all of those people who are now following your page waiting for more viral content couldn’t care any less.  They’re not looking for a job at your agency…they just want to be entertained on social media. 😒

The algorithm doesn’t know any of that and more importantly doesn’t care.  It’s a machine and simply says to itself…these are the type of people who want to see content from your agency…we’ll keep showing it to them.  Then, when that audience ignores your content the next day or the day after that, the algorithm figures you must be making boring content and then simply stops showing it to everyone. 😳

Long story short…viral equals the wrong audience. 😧

3. You need to pay to advertise your police recruiting on social media

This is another massive misconception…you have to spend a lot of money to fill your vacancies.  The simple fact is…it’s just not true.  You can attract plenty of applicants without spending a dime.  How do I know?  I just did it for the past year, attracting plenty of applicants to our agency while spending only 8-10 volunteer hours a week creating content and spending nothing.  Yeah, it can be done. 👍  

You don’t need a big audience, a viral video, or a big budget to pull off effective police recruiting.  Focus on what makes your agency great and consistently spread that message over and over again and good things will happen. 💪

Need some direction on how to get started in doing just that? 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

My Road to Better Recruiting online training course is now enrolling and will teach you the same exact social media strategies I’ve used for the past decade plus to attract the right applicants to our agency without all the hub bub or big ad spends.  🧲

See everything you’ll learn in this course by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr. 

Have a friend in recruiting who really needs this information in their life?  Share this newsletter with them so they can learn too.  Together, we can change the future for this great profession we all love so much.  🤝

Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing, or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to 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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