Not exactly, but in a spunky article about the Army’s online efforts in today’s New York Daily News, I did offer a bit of a challenge – if Ashton Kutcher can get 1 million followers on Twitter, why not the U.S. Army?
1 million isn’t just a random, large sounding number for us – it’s actually the approximate number of Soldiers we have serving in our U.S. Army today, when you include Guard and Reserve Soldiers. Add to that the millions of spouses and family members, millions of veterans, and millions of involved Army supporters, and we have a natural community that extends into the tens of millions. Why wouldn’t we want to reach out to as many of those people as possible?
Social media and social networking is all about building community. As I said in an interview yesterday with Stars and Stripes, we’ve been thrilled by how people have used sites such as our Facebook Fan Page and this blog to connect. But why would we stay satisfied with the 4,000 person community we’ve built on Twitter when we have so much farther to go? We know that there are dozens if not hundreds of active-duty Soldiers twittering – for a great and growing directory check out www.milblogging.com. I would love to connect with those people through @USArmy in order to improve that platform and make it an even more useful place for people to get news and information.
Ashton Kutcher gets social media. One of the things he pointed out in his interview with Oprah as she launched her own Twitter account, was how Twitter enables you to “rally people around causes.” Ashton has done this successfully for the organization Malaria No More. He’s used social media to communicate about his life in a way he has control over – and it’s not about having the most followers. It’s simply a commentary about how people choose and prefer to get their news today, and how one person can gather more followers than a corporate entity. We know the way people prefer to get their news and information has changed. That’s just one of the reasons why we started using Twitter, and why we hope @USArmy will continue to grow followers who want real updates from their U.S. Army.
So, in the end, it’s not about getting to 1 million followers (although that would be nice), it’s about building and engaging a community. New followers and new voices help us reach out with information that may have otherwise never crossed outside of the www.army.mil Web site.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section, or drop us a line @USArmy.
Update: I forgot to mention @USArmy is keeping a small margin in the NY Daily News’ Online Poll – “Who do you think will win the battle of the top Twitter?” 53% to 47%!
I am happy to spread the word to help, Lindy!
I think what you are doing is fantastic. Social media (and New Media) is all about community and thats exactly what you are doing! Keep up the great work Lindy and crew! : ) I’m happy to help out wherever needed.
Tammy aka Armyhoushold6 (@tammymunson on Twitter)
I love seeing more and more of our military community engaging in social media. We’re happy to help spread the word to help educate and inform as well as support.
This post was added to “The soljr Blog” mentioned below. Yes, we do follow @USarmy on our twitter site. (We are hopeful of future content)
As social networks begin to pull in various groups for networking the US Army will find a tough time to develop professional social network for a couple of reasons. Most Soldiers interact within a community of known friends not among potential peers, subordinates, and supervisors. Also, a perception real or not of another mandatory function placing demands upon Soldiers with little impact to them through @USArmy.
I personally have created an social network within AKO featuring blogs, forums, reunion posts, and micro-memorials.
I don’t see a unified agenda FaceBook or social network which smacks of a good idea fairy sprinkling the fairy dust around. In the blog written by lindykyzer discusses the media to “improve that platform and make it an even more useful place for people to get news and information. I would like see more of an agenda that will make its use compelling.” Where’s the beef? What do we get out it or what do we hope to achive?
Further, in the end the content provider with the most compelling content is going to drive the social network to even greater heights. This bravado stunt seems more like just another bragging rights smack talk that in the end does not serve our Soldiers interest.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a twitter account and I do follow various tweets that provide very little content but with my goal of staying connected, however, what I desire most is share innovate ideas in accomplishing missions to save time, effort, energy, and resources. Its made me success in my career.
I welcome your thoughts.
Gregory A. Armstrong
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This blogpost originated at soljr, the AKO social Community at: https://www.us.army.mil/suite/page/608774. Please link-back to us.
As a Soldier in Public Affairs, I am excited about where the Army’s new division is heading. Great job on the “challenge” to twitter users to support their family, friends and protectors currently serving. In support of the PA mission, the 3rd Brigade Public Affairs Office is opening up our upcoming media day to bloggers in addition to traditional media outlets. See http://twurl.nl/ulrb4h for more info.
twitter.hammerpao.com
facebook.hammerpao.com
Found this place through the military.com newsletter, and I’ve already followed you on Twitter. I’d also recommend doing #followfriday every week. If my “tweeps” can listen to me whine about deployments, surely they can give y’all a follow.