{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,3]],"date-time":"2026-06-03T09:45:58Z","timestamp":1780479958708,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,9]],"date-time":"2017-10-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1507507200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["OIR"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>American police departments are beginning to implement social media as a strategy to engage the surrounding communities through various methods, including Facebook and Twitter. The purpose of this paper is to examine the varieties in the use of Facebook and Twitter by local police departments.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This study collected all data between October 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014 from Facebook and Twitter accounts of seven city police departments in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. These agencies resemble many police departments in the USA, and in total serve a diverse population of approximately 1,435,000. Content analysis and statistical tests are conducted.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Results show that specific types of posts are more engaging for the community. Facebook and Twitter interactions vary depending upon the type of posts, demonstrating that citizens are using Facebook and Twitter to interact in different ways.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The findings presented here give police agencies\u2019 insight on how to appropriately adjust their use of social media to fulfill the needs of the citizens and optimize interactions with the community.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This is the first study to systematically examine and analyze the varieties in the use of social media by traditional American local police departments and their interactions with citizens.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/oir-01-2016-0002","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,25]],"date-time":"2017-08-25T07:23:15Z","timestamp":1503645795000},"page":"782-796","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":41,"title":["Working with communities on social media"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"41","author":[{"given":"Mengyan","family":"Dai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wu","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xin","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ashley","family":"Giraldi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Feng","family":"Gu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Asur, S. and Huberman, B.A. (2010), \u201cPredicting the future with social media\u201d, 2010 IEEE\/WIC\/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Vol. 1, IEEE, Toronto, ON, August, pp. 492-499.","DOI":"10.1109\/WI-IAT.2010.63"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"264","DOI":"10.1016\/j.giq.2010.03.001","article-title":"Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: e-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies","volume":"27","year":"2010","journal-title":"Government Information Quarterly"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref003","article-title":"Tools and methods for capturing Twitter data during natural disasters","volume":"17","year":"2012","journal-title":"First Monday"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref004","unstructured":"Burger, L. (2016), \u201c4 ways social media can help police departments\u201d, available at: www.policeone.com\/social-media-for-cops\/articles\/6250205-4-ways-social-media-can-help-police-departments\/ (accessed November 22, 2016)."},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.2202\/1944-2866.1130","article-title":"What are the police doing on Twitter? Social media, the police and the public","volume":"3","year":"2011","journal-title":"Policy & Internet"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"361","DOI":"10.1377\/hlthaff.28.2.361","article-title":"Take two aspirin and tweet me in the morning: how Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are reshaping health care","volume":"28","year":"2009","journal-title":"Health Affairs"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"464","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijinfomgt.2013.01.001","article-title":"Social media competitive analysis and text mining: a case study in the pizza industry","volume":"33","year":"2013","journal-title":"International Journal of Information Management"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1080\/08874417.2016.1117377","article-title":"Actionable social media competitive analytics for understanding customer experiences","volume":"56","year":"2016","journal-title":"Journal of Computer Information Systems"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1177\/1745790413477647","article-title":"Connecting to patients via social media: a hype or a reality?","volume":"13","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Marketing: Device, Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical Marketing"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"561","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2011.11.001","article-title":"A tale of two sites: Twitter vs Facebook and the personality predictors of social media usage","volume":"28","year":"2012","journal-title":"Computers in Human Behavior"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref011","unstructured":"IACP (2012), \u201c2012 IACP social media survey\u201d, available at: www.iacpsocialmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/2012SurveyResults.pdf (accessed September 4, 2017)."},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bushor.2009.09.003","article-title":"Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media","volume":"53","year":"2010","journal-title":"Business Horizons"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"241","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bushor.2011.01.005","article-title":"Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media","volume":"54","year":"2011","journal-title":"Business Horizons"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref014","unstructured":"Klockars, C.B. (1988), \u201cThe rhetoric of community policing\u201d, in Greene, J.R. and Mastrofski, S.D. (Eds), Community Policing: Rhetoric or Reality, Praeger, New York, NY, pp. 239-258."},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref016","unstructured":"LexisNexis Risk Solutions (2012), \u201cSurvey of law enforcement personnel and their use of social media in investigations\u201d, available at: www.lexisnexis.com\/investigations (accessed September 4, 2017)."},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref017","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"438","DOI":"10.1177\/1098611113495049","article-title":"Police departments\u2019 use of Facebook: patterns and policy issues","volume":"16","year":"2013","journal-title":"Police Quarterly"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"357","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bushor.2009.03.002","article-title":"Social media: the new hybrid element of the promotion mix","volume":"52","year":"2009","journal-title":"Business Horizons"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"327","DOI":"10.1016\/j.giq.2013.05.015","article-title":"A framework for interpreting social media interactions in the public sector","volume":"30","year":"2013","journal-title":"Government Information Quarterly"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"52","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.1120.0466","article-title":"Active social media management: the case of health care","volume":"24","year":"2013","journal-title":"Information Systems Research"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref021","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"351","DOI":"10.1016\/j.giq.2013.05.016","article-title":"Connecting citizens and local governments? Social media and interactivity in major US cities","volume":"30","year":"2013","journal-title":"Government Information Quarterly"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"413","DOI":"10.1080\/10439463.2013.780223","article-title":"Reading the riots: what were the police doing on Twitter?","volume":"23","year":"2013","journal-title":"Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref023","volume-title":"Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business","year":"2012"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref024","volume-title":"The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success","year":"2010"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref025","volume-title":"Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media","year":"2016"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref026","volume-title":"The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly","year":"2010"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref027","first-page":"624","article-title":"Backchannels on the front lines: emergent uses of social media in the 2007 Southern California wildfires","year":"2008"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref028","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"338","DOI":"10.1177\/1524839908325335","article-title":"Enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of Web 2.0 social media","volume":"9","year":"2008","journal-title":"Health Promotion Practice"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref029","article-title":"Mining online hotel reviews: a case study from hotels in China","year":"2016"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref030","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"374","DOI":"10.1177\/1062860612474839","article-title":"Do patients \u2018like\u2019 good care? Measuring hospital quality via Facebook","volume":"28","year":"2013","journal-title":"American Journal of Medical Quality"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120513490158700_ref031","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tourman.2009.02.016","article-title":"Role of social media in online travel information search","volume":"31","year":"2010","journal-title":"Tourism Management"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref032","volume-title":"The Social Media Marketing Book","year":"2010"},{"key":"key2020120513490158700_ref033","volume-title":"Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives","year":"2006"}],"container-title":["Online Information Review"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/OIR-01-2016-0002\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/OIR-01-2016-0002\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T22:42:00Z","timestamp":1753396920000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/oir\/article\/41\/6\/782-796\/315244"}},"subtitle":["Varieties in the use of Facebook and Twitter by local police"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,9]]},"references-count":32,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,9]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/OIR-01-2016-0002"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/oir-01-2016-0002","relation":{},"ISSN":["1468-4527"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1468-4527","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,10,9]]}}}