Tulsa Police Turn To Facebook To Keep Residents Informed

Here is a common misconception, folks think their Facebook posts will get to the number of users that Facebook has. Reality is, individual post get to your readers (Friends only). Now while Facebook has a way to Syndicate posts, it is Facebook that decides who it will go to. See Syndication and distribution on the Facebook news feed and be especially mindful of this Facebook Note:

"Facebook uses an algorithm, called Edge Rank, by which they try to guess who's interested in what. If Facebook thinks your post is interesting, it'll show it to more of your fans. Otherwise, it won't. Facebook doesn't disclose how that algorithm works, but it's likely influenced by the level of engagement your posts get. For example, if someone publish 30 posts a day and they get little engagement then it's likely that Facebook will not show their posts that much."

Sorry Charlie, Facebook is not as useful as folks think for getting a message out to a local community. While the U.S. has more users than any other country, that does not mean a specific post will reach all U.S. users. Further, Oklahoma -as of today- shows 1,807,240 users, but are they all in Tulsa and friends of the Tulsa Police Facebook page?

1-14-2012 Oklahoma:

TULSA, Oklahoma - Facebook says it has more than 500 million active users and on any given day, half those people log in.

It's no wonder businesses and groups are now using Facebook to get out their message.

Now police departments are jumping on the bandwagon. Tulsa's sex crimes unit now has a Facebook page.

They feel it's time to reach people on a new level, especially since rape and sexual assault is such an under reported crime.

The Tulsa police sex crimes unit Facebook page just went online. Detectives hope to use it to give out safety tips, release information about cases and even solicit tips.

"Facebook has just blown up. A lot of people, that's how they communicate these days. Everything we can do to be accessible to the public, we want to do it," said Tulsa Police Sergeant Mark Mears.

Sex crimes recently posted a picture of a suspect's vehicle; the man has been exposing himself to women in the 71st and Memorial area since 2007.

They also used the page to let folks know the definition of rape has finally been updated by the FBI, the first time since the 1930's.

Victims are often reluctant to report sex crimes and detectives hope, offering yet another avenue, will help.

"If someone wants to like our page, they'll get the information we put out also, they can contact us that way, if they're not comfortable calling or leaving messages or something," Sgt. Mears said.

Sex crimes are of a big issue with citizens. They want to know what the latest trends are, what's happening with sex offenders and where attacks happen.

"We want to put it out as many places as we can. Some people don't watch the news; they're just on the computer. Hopefully, they will see things like this," Sgt. Mears said.

The Tulsa Police Department has a Facebook page also and the burglary unit has one, but, it's being re-vamped right now. ..Source.. by Lori Fullbright, News On 6