Pin this!

via mashable.com

I admit it…I’m a “Pinner”.  Myself and seven other males in this world have Pinterest accounts[1].  We were brave enough to join the women’s unofficial social media platform of interest.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that “Pinning” has become all the rage.  Pinterest, Gentlemint (that’s the men’s version of Pinterest) and TheFancy are virtual cork boards that you can ‘pin’ content on.  What kind of content?  The best kind…pictures, video and info-graphics primarily.  But it doesn’t just stop at the digital images that can be uploaded.  You can also pin images that are attached to content that allows you to click through a pin.  That is where content that is hidden within the pins.  That’s where you’ll find the real treasure!

As an example, this post will be pinned on Pinterest and what you’ll be able to see is the images that are imbedded in this post.  Once you click-through the ‘pin’ you’ll be on this blog again.   Not all pins lead to content though.  Sometimes the image itself is the pin.

Options for pins are liking, commenting, re-pinning them…sound familiar?  You can even share pins outside of the pinning platforms themselves to other social platforms.

How can police and law enforcement use pin platforms?

There are already some great examples to look at on Pinterest.

• Kansas City Police
  

  via Kingston Police on Pinterest

• Greater Sudbury Police
• NewPort Police
• Arcadia Police

The pins that the agencies are putting forward vary from content such as their vehicles, officers, wanted persons, community involvement, news and history.

The base use of pinning is sharing content and that is a great thing and ideally what we should all be aiming for; communities sharing our content and raising the awareness of our initiatives and information.

Danger

The dark side of the pinning platforms is simple.  Copyright infringement and theft.  The pure sharing and ethical users use the platforms the way they are meant to be used…sharing.

Here’s what happens.  Someone uploads an image, we’ll say a great picture of a city feature.  The image is imbedded in a blog post about photography and the picture is an example of the selling point of the post.  Someone comes along and sees the picture and decides that they don’t want to re-pin it, they want to download the picture to their own computer and attach it to their own content.  They never give credit to the owner of the image, they never ask for permission and the worst part is they use the other person’s image to help sell their own product or service.

That’s the big problem.  Now most people won’t care if their content is being shared, in fact if they using the platforms they probably appreciate it.  But no one wants his or her content to be stolen.

Protection

Read this page & tabs

All the platforms that allow for pinning have pretty strict policies on what you can and can’t do on the platforms.  It’s usually somewhere within the terms of service or user agreements that so many people just click and say they agree to without reading and understanding what the implications can be.

Report a bad Pinner

They also have reporting processes in place if you believe your property has been used improperly.

Why

Like I said in the beginning, I’m a ‘pinner’.  I have lost many hours getting sucked into searching, re-pinning, liking, commenting and uploading my own pins.  I do it for fun.  I have found some incredible recipes, projects for the home and quotes to live by…not to mention some hilarious pictures and content that just make me laugh.

For police and law enforcement though, liking it, surfing and searching are not advisable.  So you have to figure out why you want to do it.  “Everyone else is doing it” just doesn’t cut it with me, nor would it make the grade with your bosses.

If you can come up with a solid reason(s) for using the platforms and you can work it into your communication strategy I say go for it!  If you can’t, walk away.

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

I will share a piece of advice from the Public Information Officer for the Boca Police Department, Mark Economou, “You should at least create an account to reserve your agency name” to avoid an outsider from name squatting on your brand.