Social media and content creation are critical aspects of any marketing strategy and Epic Recruiting’s overall success. As an actively recruiting department, you must engage in social media and connect with your following. I sat down with Kelly Hajek, Epic Recruiting’s Social Media Manager, to learn about social media and how Epic utilizes social platforms to help reach qualified applicants.
Q: What does your content creation process look like?
A:
Typically, once I’ve selected enough content to fill out the month, I’ll use Adobe to go in and create the graphics or footage according to their brand standards. So that’s all of their fonts, colors, and logos consistent with the website we’ve created for them. With the theme that we’ve decided on with the client, I create posts that correlate.
Q: How do you create content that's specific to each department?
A:
I think it goes back to that creation process of looking at the website and the videos we’ve already created for them. Using those brand standards, the colors, fonts, and logos to really keep things consistent across the board. A lot of the issues we’ve run into are when, you know, people go from the city website to our website and the city, Instagram, and everything’s really inconsistent. So we’ve created a streamlined process to, you know, keep things consistently applicants. That way, they can go from our videos, to our website, to our social channels, to our ads, and everything looks the same, and there’s no confusion as to what they’re doing there.
Q: What is your first step when working with them and creating their socials?
A:
My first step is looking at the web mockup that our creative director, Mike Ford, has designed. He’s the one who creates all of those different elements, which I usually end up pulling from, and then after that, I look at the creative brief, which has all of the footage we’re going to be shooting. It’s a collective mesh of those things.
Q: How does the PD'S brand play a role in social media?
A:
Each department has its brand. We have departments who want to do something new, funky, and fresh, and then we have departments who think they’re better suited to the old school, military-forward brand. It kind of depends on what part of the US they’re in. Like, a lot of our California departments are a lot more, I would say, liberal with what they’re willing to do. I would say our Virginia or East Coast clients are a bit more old school. So, each department has its voice. It’s about talking to them and figuring out how they want to be represented.
Q: What advice would you give departments creating their content?
A:
Try to keep it personal. Mesa PD is a good example. Many departments have found success on their social media as they create content daily and make it personal to their department. They’re having fun with it. I also think posting is better than not posting, so you can always delete, you know, select one or two people on your team who are passionate about creating content and let them take the reins.
Q: What is your role at Epic and what does your typical workday look like?
A:
I am a social media manager at Epic. As for a typical work day, it depends on what part of the month we’re in. Typically, it’s going through the footage from all of our clients, picking out different photos and video content that can be used for the month that we’re creating. Normally, each department or client has its own theme. So, we need to find something similar to the theme we have created. Most of my days are filled with content creation.
Q: Would you say it's important for law enforcement agencies to use social media?
A:
I feel like the candidates they’re trying to attract are a part of that younger generation that is on social media. If you want those fresh recruits, that’s probably where they will look for most of their talent. I know that when I even have a thought, I feel like I go to social media before I go to Google, which is crazy, but that’s the generation we live in. If departments can appeal to that younger audience, it strengthens your overall recruitment campaign.
Q: Do you have a specific social media strategy for police departments?
A:
I think it depends on the police department. Each department is trying to target a different group of people. We have a lot of different departments who are really focusing on diversity, we have a lot of departments who are focusing on the younger generation, and we have a lot of departments that want to target laterals. Sitting down with these departments and the people we are in contact with and deciding who their target audience is, it’s important.
Q: What posts do you see having the most success?
A:
Video Content. That’s why I feel like, for the past few months, we’ve taken a step more in that direction. I would say 80% of the department’s posts will be video content. That’s just what the algorithm is favoring. Now, I would say next to that would probably be carousels.
Q: What is the most important thing to remember when creating social media posts?
A:
Being open to change. Sam told me that not everything has to be like a homerun knock out of the park. If you can take those risks maybe once a month, or once a week, depending on what your department allows, you never know what will catch traction. So I think remembering your overall voice and talent, but being open to trying new things and experimenting, especially given how the algorithms are now, you never know what will play well.