Lessons Learned from the #myNYPD Twitter Disaster

The New York Police Department’s recent, spectacular social media failure followed a now-familiar formula: organization calls for fan submissions over popular network, receives overwhelming stream of negativity.

In this case, as in the case of JP Morgan’s #AskJPM and other comparable disasters, the headlines surrounding the futile effort at community outreach quickly drowned out any coincidental good will from the public. And yet, despite it all, department commissioner Bill Bratton now claims that he will continue to attempt similar projects moving forward.

This week, we spoke to LEVICK SVP/digital communications chair Peter LaMotte to try and make sense of the resulting mess.

What was the NYPD’s primary mistake in this case?

Assuming that an open venue such as Twitter could be used as an opportunity to give positive feedback.