DENVER — Focusing on Reels, the short-form videos watched by Instagram users, has led to significant growth and user engagement for the Fairfax (Virginia) Police Department.Vertical videos, often featuring body camera and dash cam video, feature officers doing the crimefighting, traffic enforcement and community service the public expects from them.
Katie Watts, PFC, Public Affairs Bureau and Alaina Gertz, Deputy Director, delivered an engaging and actionable presentation to International Association of Chiefs of Police attendees on how to authentically grow a socialmedia following. By focusing on Instagram Reels, they grew their Instagram followers by 90% in one year and 80% of their views came from non-followers.
Memorable quotes
Watts and Gertz gave a fast-paced presentation. Here are a few of their memorable quotes, with two focused on how social media is impacting new officer recruitment:
- “Simple is relatable. Trying to grab people and get them to stop the scroll.”
- “Applicants to the academy are seeing what happens during the academy (from the Instagram page).”
- “We are getting Fairfax on the board and showing future employees that Fairfax might be a great place to work.”
Top takeaways on Instagram growth
Fairfax County PD only posts Instagram reels because “Reels get the views,” Watts said.
They’ve found that a quick reel performs better and has a greater impact than a long-form horizontal video, but they aren’t just going for laughs. They always want content to be educational. Here are the four things Watts and Gertz wanted attendees to take away from their presentation.
1. Short form video wins
“If growth is a goal for you, focus your time on video,” Watts said.
Fairfax creates Reels with body camera videos and dashcam videos to display the impact their officers are having on criminal and traffic enforcement, as well as the other ways their officers are serving the community, like using a police bloodhound to find a missing elderly man.
“The numbers don’t lie. We’ve seen insane growth,” Watts said. “And it’s because of Reels.”
2. Talk like a human
“We want to talk like a normal person talking to their friends,” Gertz said.
Fairfax aims for captions and video content that is:
- Professional, but real
- Teaches every time
- Sounds human
Following online trends, including the use of humor, is a way to showcase that Fairfax PIOs, officers and cadets are actual humans and understand the world outside the law enforcement bubble. Regarding humor, Fairfax PIOs have these principles for humor:
- Spice, not the whole dish
- Authentic hooks
- Builds trust and value
They also emphasized the importance of asking other department members, and even friends and family, if a draft video’s humor hits or misses the mark. If there is any question or concern that a video might not land the way it was intended, they don’t post the video.
3. Turn trends into teachable moments
Creating content for trends can increase attention to the Reel and grow the department’s audience.
“Spend time scrolling to see what’s popular,” Watts said.
Understanding trends drives growth and brings people to the page. To do so they recommend:
- Spot the trend
- Translate the trend
- Localize the trend
But before they jumped into trends and memes, they built up their reputation, both internally and with their public audience by featuring the great work the department’s officers were regularly doing.
4. Algorithm cares about first two seconds
The videos Instagram users see are controlled by the algorithm. They’ve learned that they have about two seconds to get a user’s attention and here is what is working for Fairfax to get their videos in front of the audience:
- Ditch the intros and outros
- Short and evergreen captions that are not dated
- Post when people scroll
- Time content to the music
- No talking heads
On the Fairfax PD Instagram page, they’ve steered away from an officer talking direct to the camera. Instead, body worn camera footage and b-roll is more attention getting and performs better with their audience.
Additional tips
During the question and answer period, Watts and Gertz gave these additional tips:
- Start with department vehicle and equipment videos to build up internal support
- Stop using hashtags, app users are not using them anymore
- Give PIOs access to body-worn camera footage to use in social video
- Check the duty report for recent incidents, then see if the video is useful
- Search the department video database by keyword like “red light” or “foot pursuit”
- Network with officers to encourage them to share incident numbers and video clips that highlight the good work they are doing
- Tell community outreach officers to capture vertical video
- Music helps videos go viral
- Pick a thumbnail from the video
Police1 social media resources
Check out these Police1 resources to grow your department’s social media presence and audience.
- 10 ideas, best practices for police departments to create videos
- California police department casts alleged crooks as social media video stars
- 5 tips for creating an effective police recruitment video
- Survey: Twitter/X is no longer relevant for public information officers
- How an Elf on the Shelf can boost your police department’s emergency messaging
- Law enforcement and social media: Strengthening the bond
