FBI
Jonathan Cox
Supervisory Management and Program Analyst
FBI
Washington
District of Columbia
Electronic Publication
Danger Beneath the Surface
FBI
Steven Lewis
Scott Carmine, Management and Program Analyst
Ben Wells
The FBI recently created an interactive and mobile-friendly slideshow tool for fbi.gov. Our first use of this web format featured a compelling mix of video clips, photographs, and text designed to educate the public and the news media about the high-stakes work of the Bureau’s underwater post-blast investigators and their innovative week-long training course for local law enforcement partners.
This piece was designed to reach the American people, to educate them about the FBI’s innovative and proactive efforts to protect the nation. The budget for this project was minimal (less than $3,000) for staff travel expenses to the training in South Carolina.
We set several Key Performance Indicators to measure. Those KPIs included achieving smaller baseline bounce rates than what we typically see for our standard feature content and increased feature story page visits from external sources like social media. With all of these tactics and measurements, we exceeded the baseline objectives we originally set. The project received more than 32,000 likes on Instagram and hundreds of engagements on Twitter and Facebook. The project was also publicized by Counter-IED Report, a news site for counter-IED professionals.
This project was made possible by the FBI’s underwater post-blast investigators, who provided unfettered access to their training, including the opportunity to take underwater photos and videos that were the cornerstone of visual interest in the piece and accompanying podcast. The format used to tell the story was also an innovation for the FBI, as the swipeable and mobile-friendly slideshow concept had never been accomplished before in our agency.
The FBI Office of Public Affairs was proud to highlight the complex, demanding work of the Bureau’s tactical teams through this dynamic slideshow. For security reasons, the efforts of these teams are not often told publicly, but they are vital to protecting and defending the nation.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/interactive/danger-beneath-the-surface/view-slideshow