Social media is a powerful tool that law enforcement agencies can leverage to reach more people than ever before. However, in the age of mass digital audiences, it is easy to forget that every post has a person at the receiving end.

With a driving mission to serve and protect, police departments must have a deep understanding of their community — now that includes those in the digital town square of platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. Social media has opened a new forum for agencies to connect with audiences and forge stronger relationships through messaging and education.

So, how can law enforcement communicators effectively look beyond screen names and anonymity to craft materials that will truly resonate?

Understanding Audience Basics

To understand the makeup of a digital audience, two key areas offer insight into who they are and what they value. In the marketing and communications fields, these areas are referred to as demographics and psychographics.

Demographics are statistical elements of a population, including factors such as people’s gender, ethnicity, education, geographic location, and other measurable attributes. Meanwhile, psychographics include information about a person’s attitudes, interests, values, and other psychological criteria. Of course, it is not feasible to run a full background check on every follower, but research into social media platforms’ general demographic and psychographic makeup can offer insights into what will interest audiences and help foster genuine connections.

Demographics

Gaining demographic insights is relatively straightforward. The best way to assess demographic data in a privacy-conscious manner is by taking a “big picture” approach and considering platform metrics over an individual’s data. Agencies can access this information through industry reports. For example, the figures cited below are from free reports issued by Statista, Hootsuite, and the Pew Research Center.

In addition to basic demographic breakdowns of platforms’ users, agencies should consider evaluating publicly accessible community metrics, such as census and city data, to learn about factors like language, education, and accessibility needs to better craft materials relevant to local audiences.

Psychographics

Building on demographic insights, psychographics allow a deeper look into who people are and what they value. When conducting psychographic research, two key areas must be assessed.

1) Remember that social media users do not care about why someone else is posting — they focus on what is in it for them. No matter how noble agencies may consider their cause or how valuable they think their information is, none of it matters if the audience does not understand why they should care about it too. Thus, when attempting to bridge the gap between what a law enforcement communicator wants to share and what an audience wants to see, departments can ask themselves several questions.

• Why should an audience care? How clearly is this “why” expressed in the message?
• What elements of the message are genuinely relevant or helpful to the audience member? How does the agency place these front and center? Will the audience understand why it is useful, or will it require additional explanation?
• How will the message directly impact the audience member, and what actions can/should they take based on the information provided?

By asking these questions and putting themselves in the audience’s shoes, agencies can more easily create messages likely to resonate with and feel relevant to those on the receiving end.

2) After implementing these theoretical considerations, departments can move on to the second facet of psychographic research — evaluating metrics. Actions speak louder than words. When it comes to social media streams flooded with content, people vote with their attention. Metrics, such as views, likes, and comments, tell the story of what individuals find genuinely engaging. The numbers do not have to dictate messaging, but they can serve as a helpful guide for understanding what audiences care about and want to see more of.

Putting It All Together

Understanding a target group’s demographic and psychographic characteristics allows communicators to create messages that are more likely to resonate by providing relevant, impactful information.

The example below uses demographic insights about the primary user ages on different platforms to demonstrate how agencies can adjust the language in a post to speak directly to a specific type of audience member. In this case, the message is a public service announcement about what an individual can do if they believe they or a loved one are a victim of sextortion. While the fundamental message is the same, personalized distinctions help appeal more to each target group.

Age is just one insight that can influence how departments tailor a message. Agencies can structure a post to connect with different audiences based on different factors. For instance, a post for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day could be released in a language like Navajo to show solidarity with the community and demonstrate an authentic effort to connect on its terms.

Conclusion

Social media is a powerful tool that can help law enforcement reach more people than ever before, but reach is not everything. Implementing techniques like researching an audience’s demographic and psychographic characteristics can help agency communicators craft higher impact messages that can fundamentally shift the reception of a post from “listening to someone shout into a crowd with a megaphone” to “information meant just for me.”

Ultimately, using audience insights to create relevant, thoughtful messages is a foundational skill that can transform the social media landscape from a simple tool for posting announcements to a critical asset for building and strengthening community relationships.