by Liam McKenna

the SandPaper, July 9, 2014

To steal a phrase from Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay in “The Social Network”: a hundred and 40 characters isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? 12,000 characters.

“We think social media is the easiest way to get information out to the public in an efficient manner,” said Harvey Cedars Police Detective Robert Burnaford. “We want people to say, ‘What’s going on down on LBI? Well, Harvey Cedars usually posts a lot. Let’s check them out.'”

Burnaford runs the police department’s social media accounts, which feature thousands of Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers.

The origin of the department’s social media presence began under tough circumstances. As Hurricane Irene stormed toward the shore in 2011, folks were asked to evacuate.

“When you ask people to leave, it’s hard for them to leave that place they call home,” Burnaford said. “We wanted them to have the eyes and ears of what was happening here. We didn’t want to leave them in the dark.”

To Burnaford, the best way to accomplish this goal was through social media.

“It’s been a great avenue to communicate with the residents,” Burnaford said.

During Hurricane Irene, Burnaford mainly used Facebook, but about a year later, that would change.

“For some reason, Twitter has just gotten really popular, especially during Superstorm Sandy,” Burnaford said. “Everyone was just boom, boom, followers, followers, followers.”

After Superstorm Sandy hit, Burnaford felt it was crucial to let people know when the Causeway bridges were opening, when utilities came back and what to expect when they saw their homes for the first time after the storm. He used Twitter to do much of this, while also posting photos to Facebook.

As Superstorm Sandy died off, relief efforts quickly took over. Among them, the work of the beachwear apparel company Jetty.

“After Sandy, Jetty had that huge campaign of Unite, Rebuild with T-shirts that they created and sold for the community,” said Jetty’s Danielle Corso.

She has been friends with Jetty co-owners Jeremy DeFilippis and Cory Higgins for close to ten years, and she stopped by the warehouse to help with shipping, printing and organization of the fundraiser for disaster relief.
DeFilippis and Higgins knew that Corso had a background in social media, promoting musicians and others.

“They asked me to help out with the Facebook page,” Corso said.
As relief efforts continued, Corso was soon offered a job to manage Jetty’s social media accounts, among other things.

This new gig was not simply posting what ever popped into Corso’s mind, though. She was required to take Jetty’s brand and mission statement, and apply it to social media.

According to Corso, Jetty’s social media philosophy is to “connect with the community we have built over the last ten years, and establish new relationships with people who may not be familiar with the brand and what we’ve done in the community and beyond.”

The social media accounts promote not only merchandise, but also upcoming events and folks related to the brand and much more.

“We have made deeper relations with our retailers through social media,” Corso said. “Social media gives us another way to communicate with them.”
Corso sees distinct differences between the communication on Twitter and Facebook.

“Twitter is like having that friend who doesn’t stop talking,” Corso said. “It’s a great way to learn about who your fans are.”

While Corso said content on Twitter leans toward entertainment, there is still information Jetty can learn about its customers to better appeal to them. On Facebook, Corso focuses more on the business itself.

“A lot of our Facebook posts are right from our website,” Corso said. “We focus on the family and team we have created.”

Yet, Corso cannot determine whether Jetty’s nearly 12,000 Facebook likes and 3,500 Twitter followers have impacted the bottom line.

“We have seen an increase in sales over the last year-and-a-half to two years, but there have been so many changes in the brand,” Corso ad-mitted. “For me to say those sales are because of social media, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing so.”

“We have such a great marketing team that works outside of social media,” Corso said. “It really is a collaborative effort.”

Tuckerton resident Scott Miller saw how social media impacts collaboration while attending a chili contest in Eagleswood on June 7.

“When I was doing this in the past, we didn’t even have stuff like Facebook,” Miller said. “It’s amazing how social media has changed things.”

Miller whipped out his phone and ran through a bunch of photos he posted to his wall, showing him prepping for the chili competition. One image, showing a pile of spices and other chili ingredients, garnered more than a dozen comments. Not only that, this post also enticed a couple of his friends to swing by the chili competition.

“I’m expecting a lot of people to show up,” Miller said.

“You have to know how to use social media,” Miller said. “It’s amazing, in a good way.”

For the Long Beach Island Education Foundation, learning how to better use social media has become quite important. Currently, its Twitter account is run by the foundation’s interns.

“I don’t want to say we’re all old, but we’re still just on Facebook,” foundation President Laura Dunlap said.

“A lot of people have said, ‘Oh, I’ve switched to Twitter. I don’t even go on Facebook,’” Dun-lap said. “I know a lot of the younger kids have left Facebook – probably because their parents are on it.”

Recently, the foundation has reached out to alumni of the Island’s schools to grow awareness for the foundation.

“On Facebook, there’s an LBI school alumni page and another one called, ‘I grew up on LBI,’” Dunlap said. “There’s a lot of local groups out there.”

While Dunlap is interested to see how any form of social media can help the foundation, she also likes to keep tabs on it for her day job: real estate. For Dunlap, social media plays a very important role in getting things done.

While social media plays a central role in Burnaford’s work at the Harvey Cedars Police Department, he does not take his work home with him: he doesn’t have a personal Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account.

“I’m up on social media, but I’m really not,” Burnaford admitted.

There are no selfies on the department’s accounts, keeping it as anonymous as it can be – despite this article.

“I’m a quiet person,” Burnaford said. “I don’t like the attention.”

“Harvey Cedars Police Department is doing a really, really great job on social media right now,” Corso remarked. “They are making a presence for themselves.”

Burnaford speculated the police department’s Twitter account remains popular because it allows them to communicate concise information instantly. He added that keeping the account active has led to more followers.

This information is diverse: from arrests, weather and officer awards, to how to properly signal a left turn while riding a bike.

“We put out good news, but sometimes we have to put out some bad news, too,” Burnaford said.

The word have is interesting because Burnaford could decide not to publish bad news. He releases any sort of news because he feels the community needs to have an accurate perspective on what is going on in their community.

“Yeah, Harvey Cedars is a great place and one of the safer places out there, but you need to keep your eyes open,” Burnaford said.

“If we release that so-and-so officer arrested so-and-so person for drinking and driving, maybe the person on social media looks at that and says, ‘Oh, Harvey Cedars is cracking down on that. I’m going to be a little more careful.’
“We don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, though,” Burnaford said.

He added that he also releases information on a diverse range of topics to appeal to all of his followers from the police news junkie to the curious vacationer. He is always interested in hearing feedback.

“Sometimes, we’ll post about a new law and, sure enough, some people will reply saying how much they hate it,” Burnaford said.

While he said the social media accounts can at times be a complaint box, overall feedback is positive.

“Last year, we had a lost dog. We put it up on Facebook. Within 20 minutes, someone recognized the dog,” Burnaford said.

This not to say that Burnaford’s work on social media doesn’t come with stress.

Burnaford has taken several social media courses. Some of these classes are basic, simply teaching police departments how to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and such.

“They will teach you literally how to set up an account and how to post,” Burnaford said. “There’s a couple of hundred people in these classes and not all of them know how to use social media.”

Over the last two years, Burnaford said he has spent over 40 hours on these courses. They also focus on how to communicate with followers. Burnaford said these classes are relatable to courses on working with the press.

“You learn what information you can and cannot give out,” Burnaford said. “You want to be able to put out the correct amount of information and do it the right way.”

Burnaford gave some examples of when the police use caution posting on social media: juvenile suspects and wording of releases. The words charge, suspect, accuse all carry huge weight in maintaining the old phrase innocent until proven guilty.

“It’s something that’s always in the back of my mind,” Burnaford said. “My dad always taught me you have to think before you speak.”

However, sometimes social media has drawbacks that are out of Burnaford’s control. Like so many social media accounts, Harvey Cedars’ Twitter account was once hacked. Burnaford said it was just a matter of having to change the password. He then quickly spoke about the importance of having to change passwords – a public service announcement of sorts.

“God forbid someone actually put out information that wasn’t accurate with that account,” Burnaford said.

Social media can certainly offer a legal lesson or two.

At the June 10 Eagleswood Township Land Use Board meeting, resident Michelle Paccione attempted to voice the concerns of the community over skydiving at Eagles Nest Airport. She printed Facebook posts and images depicting skydivers allegedly not jumping appropriately.

However, much of her testimony was deemed inadmissible – mostly due to hearsay.

“Someone has to testify that the photo was a fair and accurate depiction of what it is that actually occurred,” planning board attorney Terry Brady said. “It’s not something we can take into consideration. It’s not evidence.”

“Ma’am, I’m sure you wouldn’t be satisfied with what everyone posted about you on Facebook,” Brady said at that meeting. “I’m not satisfied with what everyone on Facebook says about me.”

“But, what about what they’re saying on Facebook about themselves?” Paccione asked.

“Facebook is not known to be a reliable and verifiable source of information,” Brady answered. “In fact, the opposite might be truer.”

“So I can’t show you photos they’ve posted themselves?” Paccione pursued.

“You don’t know that they took those photos,” Brady answered. “Who took the photo and when did they take it?”

“It’s completely different if you took the video, and say (testify), ‘This is what I saw,’” Brady said.

With social media, Burnaford is trying to build up the police department’s reputation. This especially applies to younger demographics.

“I would like to think that if young kids see us on Twitter or Instagram, they think, ‘Wow, they’re on here – that’s cool,’” Burnaford said. “They say, ‘Oh wow, they’re not just pulling people over for speeding.’”

Burnaford said at times people only interact with police because of something negative. He hopes that can change.

“Here in Harvey Cedars, we’re trying to interact with the community on positive terms, too. Simply coming up to someone and saying, ‘Oh, I haven’t seen you in a while. How was your winter?’”

Keeping this open line of communication is important to Burnaford.
“We want our people to know what’s going on,” Burnaford said. “In wintertime, our population might be around 500 people. In the summertime, it’s 10,000.”

Social media has changed things in terms of how those 9,500 people stay informed about what’s going on during the nine months they’re not present.

“This is important. This is the next step in community policing,” Burnaford said.

While he may not be meeting folks face-to-face, Burnaford said social media has left him feeling that the department is more connected with the community. Yet he was quick to mention that social media does not replace in-person communication. To him, social media supplements in-person communication.