It maybe that time of the year in the UK when last minute vacations are taken just before the children go back to school - but, are you really ever contactable these days?
For me, the message is pretty clear. If I have to send to someone's email and get a bounce back out of auto office auto reply, I make a mental note: Give Up and Move On.
Police used a whistle and a wooden ratchet for alerts
The curious case of the Daily References per Tweet per 1,000 followers.
I haven't posted about the UK Police in a while, so here's an area of study. This post follows on from 60 News Orgs on Twitter (with a similar idea).
This post is short. Simple idea, you tweet, get some followers and get mentioned once in a while. You change what you can like number of tweets you make.
I gave a talk at CILIP in London last month - it served as many things. +Sarah Hill called it a great historical perspective of the last two years of Google+ and Hangouts.
For most people who visit this post, they'll have been directed here by me personally - usually from a conversation, g+ post or looking to learn something.
Update on 29 Jan 2014 Google Education launched Connected Classrooms on 4 Nov 2013 with a website and a Google+ Community (there are 4,369 members as now).
This post will still serve as a resource page, but I have a new one for the UK as Tesco launched the Eat Happy Project (which will use connected classrooms). This is the first time in the UK, a large org has stepped up with real time video with schools.
Here's the June 2013 UK Police on Social Media post. We have three charts for twitter, facebook and YouTube.
In video, there have been some changes at YouTube which now allow anyone with over 1,000 subscribers to have a LIVE Events Channel. So far, three UK forces are eligible: Greater Manchester, Metropolitan and West Midlands Police.
Rising star +Sophie Callahan told me earlier today, It's the first song I've ever recorded in a professional studio, which is fantastic news for the Kenilworth singer who has her video released today.
I'm all for supporting and promoting local talent. In a tweet earlier today Sophie said..
Here's the April 2013 Survey looking at UK Police on Social Media (data sheet).
In celebration of The Metropolitan Police passing 100,000 Twitter followers, I've added a Marine Policing Unit slide. You can watch the Met's own video of thanks at the end of this post.
There's not much news about the twitter numbers this month, still growing at a healthy rate. Facebook is where the action is with sixteen forces above 20% growth. I hold my hands up as a facebook novice, so if anyone wants to dig deeper and say why there are so many likes, be my guest.
I've titled this post Culture not Technology as it's about the Social Interaction and the Storytelling as opposed to anything else. We live in a Blended Reality where we have Media Literate Citizens equipped with creative skills to communicate with a Modern World.
To understand the facebook numbers will involve looking at each story and seeing the patterns. In my view, that's the manual labour of reading and thinking about each post, not a quick click on some data visualisation tool. I cannot say enough how people, for some reason, do not spend enough time slowing down and taking one thought at a time.
Last month, I focussed on YouTube and the new One Channel. If Culture dictates, we do not need YouTube, then so be it. But as 25% of YouTube is watched on mobiles, another 25% on screens larger than thirty inches and users swapping devices twenty seven times a day - Video is exploding.
This month's YouTube slide shows nothing more than three four forces streaking out ahead. It need not be this way. I have been working with a new company called Zoom.us who provide a 25 user face to face video platform. It is truly breathtaking and available on PC and Mobiles. All Police would benefit from giving it a try. Google+ hangouts are another way, especially LIVE at YouTube.
If you've read this far, then let me finish with how I've spent the last six weeks force feeding myself Media Studies theory. I've read a bunch of texts and even more wikis on everything from Audience Theory to The Public and it's Problems (1927).
We've come a long way. When Lincoln was assassinated, it took twelve days for the news to reach England. Nowadays, it's realtime everything.
When Paris Brown was appointed (and resigned) as Youth PCC, twitter had every part in it (link to News), it was all over, in what seemed like a few hours. For me, it's stories like this that emerge from nowhere, reach a critical point and eventually simmer.
And as for the Boston Marathon, many were saying, I heard about it first on Twitter (link to articles). And camera phones are playing a major part in supplying the visual clues to catch those responsible (link to FBI).
Here's the Met Police 100,000 Twitter Followers video of thanks ..
Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, England, UK is the lead image I use in all Mike Downes Media. For me, it represents the last one thousand years and how far we have come.
One of the questions I always ask myself, What would the medieval people have done (with Media)? How did it work back then? What can we learn from them and apply today? You don't need to be Robin Hood to figure out how some people think they have all the power and the peasants have none.
This blog's readership is far and wide. Nine nine percent of the visitors to whatsinKenilworth will nevet visit the Castle, but thank you Google for making it available in this way.
Here's the third in the series of UK Police on Social Media. As usual, we have the Google Docs Data Set. I make no excuses, it's starting to look a tad messy, that's why I produces a few charts and talk you through them.
All the data is gather by me clicking through and copy, pasting the numbers. It helps me make sense and look for the patterns. Having APIs gathering data is fine, but the more statistics, the less you read.
A month ago, I published The January 2013 Survey. Here we are, with a bunch of new data and already a revelation with the UK Police passing One Million Twitter followers (reported on this blog yesterday).
On that post, there are a few charts and a closer look at the West Midlands Police as they rose by 37%.
New this month, are a few stacked charts where you can see in blue the January numbers, and in red the followers gained from mid Jan to mid Feb 2013.
Last month, I published the UK Police Forces using Social Media. I'm updating the data every month, but bring you this special post about Twitter as three facts emerge:
1, The total number of followers to all UK Police Official Twitter Accounts is now at 1,041,850.
2, West Midlands Police has seen a 37% increase in followers from 50,101 to 68,793 in the last month.
Note: By making this public post, should anyone scan my print card as a Google Image Search, they find me. I will also make one blog post to do the Same. Notice, I do not include a phone number, who needs one of those these days..
14 Jan 13 This is the first post in a series looking at the UK Police and how they use Social Media. It's not so much a Survey, but a collection of what's public and putting it all in place.
All I've done is ask a few obvious questions, looked on the web to see what I want (which doesn't seem to be there), so decided to make one data centre for the fifty three forces, see what patterns there are and ask some larger questions.
Google+ Communities was launched on 6 December 2012. Hangouts Rangers™ is a community group I own and moderate.
It has a modest 135 members, which is on task and relevant compared to some other groups assisting people with Hangouts On Air.
Hangout Rangers™ is an Education Service for TV News, Broadcasters, Business, Media, Law Enforcement, Police, NGOs, Charity, Musicians and Celebrities.
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One of the questions I always ask myself, What would the medieval people have done (with Media)? How did it work back then? What can we learn from them and apply today? You don't need to be Robin Hood to figure out how some people think they have all the power and the peasants have none. 
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