7 ways TSA creates an Instagram feed that is ‘terrifying and totally awesome’
Snakes on a plane? No, thanks. Dud hand grenades? Bullets smuggled in Bibles? TSA catches all kinds of stuff you don’t want on board, and it is using its photos to educate the public.
You remember the good, old Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency that slows airport travel to a shuffle and peeks into your luggage when you fly.
Do you appreciate, though, what these devoted public servants and viewers of flying-public flabbiness catch every day?
Consider the knives, tomahawks, antique bombs, dud grenades, loaded firearms and hollowed-out Bibles filled with bullets that various nitwits and ne’er-do-wells try to sneak past TSA in carry-ons.
By documenting all this in photos, the TSA has won 447,000 followers on Instagram and reminded the public why a bit of patience is in order when you are asked to raise your hands and grin while standing in a digital scanner whose operator can see through your clothes.
In the Ragan Training video, “Innovate with Instagram: Secrets of building brands and followers with buzzworthy visuals,” Curtis “Bob” Burns of TSA’s office of strategic communications and public affairs explains how the agency’s Instagram account has drawn such a fascinated followership. Even Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the feed on his late-night television show.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
