Melbourne Police Working Twitter Like Champs

Using social media during an active event is not the easiest thing to do but can it ever pay off for you and your community if you can work it into your resources.

Melbourne, Florida is not a big city. It’s a city of about 80,000 people dwarfed by its coastal cousins, Miami and Jacksonville along with its central Florida neighbor, Orlando. It sits on the Atlantic side of the state just south of Cape Canaveral.

On Saturday, January 17 the city garnered some international attention when an active shooter event happened at the Melbourne Square Mall. Melbourne Police responded in real life and in the cyber space.

What would everyone in the media want at this point in time? A voice from the police department to keep them updated and they got it…

If it's safe a close location for a scrum serves your media very well.

If it’s safe, a close location for a scrum serves your media very well.

What do you think the public wants to know?

I bet people inside the mall were probably on social media wondering what was happening around them…

Could you imagine what it would be like if your loved one worked at the mall or your children were shopping?

I wonder if we can take our relatives who are visiting from out of state shopping tomorrow?

Well done Melbourne Police.

Are you ready to respond as well as the Melbourne Police did? 
Do you have a designated media person trained in the use of social media?
Have you supplied your media relations and public information officers the mobile tools to be in “2 places at once”?
Do you have your voice in the social space?

The only thing you might want to do to increase your voice is consider the use of a hashtag that people are contributing to the conversation on. In this case #MelbourneSquareMall was getting a lot of attention.

About Tim Burrows

Tim Burrows was a sworn police officer for 25 years with experience in front line operations, primary response, traffic, detective operations and supervision. He has training in a broad spectrum of policing responsibilities including, IMS, Emergency Management, computer assisted technology investigations, leadership, community policing and crisis communications. Tim is available to assist you with your social media program and communication. Click here to contact him http://bit.ly/ContactTimBurrows
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