What would YOU tell a GO about Social Media?

– February 11, 2010Posted in: U.S. Army

This is a question I asked on my personal Facebook profile about a month ago, as I prepared to teach a group of about 20 general officers and Army senior leaders about social media. Teaching our leadership about the ins and outs of Facebook, Twitter and Flickr is pretty common place in the Army. Education is at the core of our social media strategy, which means a big part of my job is getting out there and engaging with folks, especially Army leaders, about social media.

The presentation changes every time, because the subject matter does. Social media is a moving target, an ever evolving subject matter and a communications realm with new opportunities seeming to appear daily. With many of the folks in my online network public affairs professionals themselves, I wasn’t surprised by the flurry of responses I got when I posed the question on my Facebook profile.

From “just do it” to “avoid shiny object syndrome” and my personal favorite: “It’s not our Soldiers duty to die without tweeting, it’s their duty to ensure the enemy dies without tweeting” responses were certainly varied.

The moral of the story? The reasons to engage with social media are as myriad as the platforms themselves.

I had another opportunity to educate on social media this week at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. There, I spoke to some of the Army’s newest battalion, brigade and command sergeants major, and their spouses. Most saw social media as an amazing opportunity to affect command climate and connect with their troops. Others were a bit skeptical. The old methods of communication worked for them – so why should they be considering Twitter as a better tool?

My answer – maybe they shouldn’t. Social media isn’t a one-stop-shop solution for everyone. Authenticity is key, and if a senior leader feels forced to communicate in a medium with which he or she isn’t comfortable, then it isn’t worth it. Better they understand the medium enough so they at least aren’t telling their Soldiers they can’t engage.

Moving a bureaucracy as big as the Army isn’t a small feat. But, fortunately we have the forward momentum of over one million Soldiers and their families to help get us there. Where social media affords the opportunity to keep our families connected and helps our leaders get feedback on important issues, I think it’s a force we shouldn’t ignore.

But, what do you think? If it were your job to educate military leadership on social media, what would you be telling them?

http://www.usar.army.mil LTC James Billings

Social media is your new command information channel. If you think your junior enlisted Soldiers are reading your stale old magazine, you’re probably wrong. Eliminate or scale back your publications and let your PAO really go to work!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=1144223419 Franklin Adams

Ma’am, I would say that Lieutenant General Frank Helmick of Fort Bragg and XVIII Airborne Corps is the absolute best example of how a General or anyone in Army leadership can use Social Media to communicate with the people, Soldiers and Dependents, living on his post. He engages his audience on his facebook page, (), he WANTS to know what people think about what work needs to be done on his post, and takes people’s suggestions seriously. For example, he posed a question to the entire Fort Bragg community about what needs work at their post, and seriously takes what his Soldiers and Dependents have to say.

As far as Military Leadership outside of the Army goes, Admiral Michael Mullen (USN), the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also deserves credit for his work using Facebook and Twitter to communicate with the entire DoD community about things of importance.

Its really amazing to see upper level leadership in the Army and DoD at large leading the way on using Social media as a major tool to help them with their work. So many people have seen Generals as resistant to change, and these examples on things like Facebook and Twitter are proving that simply isn’t true any longer. You don’t see CEOs and Vice Presidents in Civilian occupations or the Civilian areas of the Government doing this, the Military is leading the way and Its a very good thing to see.
Carol

I would encourage them to allow their soldiers to use whatever networking method works best for them to connect with their friends and family.

When our son entered Beast Barracks at West Point two years ago, he was only allowed two or three phone calls until Beast was completed. While the new cadets were bonding and learning the ropes of trusting their chain of command that summer, the new WP moms and dads were connecting through the social media – namely Facebook. We were sharing photos of R-Day, and apprehensions, fears, tears, and laughter. And we were learning all about our new-found military family. It was amazing how quickly we also bonded.

By the time the academic year began, we were able to communicate very effectively through FB with our cadet. While he often called every day that first year, there were times he needed some counsel without roommates and upperclassmen overhearing him – and since we do not have a texting plan on our cellphones, FB chat was the ideal way for him to communicate. He was also able to post photos of special events that were not been able to personally share with him. (Great for us scrapbooking moms, I might add!).

It didn’t take long for the USMA community to jump on board. Now the Dean, the Superintendent, and the Commandant all have their own Facebook Fan pages. They often post updates of West Point events and photos of cadet activities. It has allowed WP supporters and parents to feel much more a part of the military community. I believe it has also interconnected the WP COC and instructors to their students.

While FB works well for this situation there may be times other social media might be a better option. For this reason, I would request that officers be encouraged to attend ongoing training sessions in using newer avenues of communication. What works well for one family (texting) may not work as well as chatting with AIM, MySpace,Facebook, or Skype,and no media can ever replace hearing the voice of the loved one far away and in danger’s reach.

I think if you ask the USMA COC now, they would admit they are as hooked on Facebook as the cadets! Thanks for letting me add my two cents.
Kelsie White

I think one of the most important things to realize about social media, is it’s capacity to connect a wide range of people through a very simple medium. The younger generations of soldiers that are coming into the Army are going to be very familiar with the new forms of social media, and this gives our military leaders a great way to relate to and communicate with these men and women. If we can educate our military leaders on how to responsibly and effectively use social media, we have the chance to create a more unified Army in the process, because we would be solving many different challenges, such as challenges with differences in age and challenges in the differences of geographical locations. If our younger soldiers feel that their superiors understand them and can communicate with them more effectively because they understand the different forms of social media, we will then in turn have a greater sense of trust between all soldiers in the Army, and who wouldn’t want that?
JM Sherrill

We have way too many Officers, NCOs and Gov Cilivains that need to accept it. Don’t just talk about it, embrace the knowledge sharing media technology of today.
I agree with LTC Billings, start saving money by placing lessons learned, research and news articles onto media sites, knowledge networks, etc.
http://Facebook Margie

First and foremost, the Armed Forces needs to realize that newbies, new soldiers and their families may not understand the safety issues regarding regarding placement, deployment etc.
Many parents are proud of their children for joining the ranks of the military and do not understand security issues to protect their child/new soldier and all others within the ranks.
Frequently parents, siblings or relatives may out of the joy of their heart post something that they probably should not. Not meaning harm, but rather out of lack of understanding. because they want to share the joy of their soldier’s pride with others.
The Armed Forces should send out letters to every new recruits family advising safety issues because we are living in terrorist times.
The Operational Security (OPSEC) has on its web page a statement that should most likely be sent out to new recruits families, and possibly consider PSA’s for the general public.
The statement is as follows,

All personnel (including families and friends of service members) have a responsibility to ensure that no information that might put our military members in jeopardy or would be of use to our adversaries is posted to websites that are readily accessible to the public.
Not surprisingly, that information includes, among other things, technical information, operation plans, troop movement schedules, current and future locations of military units and ships, descriptions of overseas bases, details of weapons system, or discussions of areas frequented by service members overseas.
Other information that’s not as obvious but should also not be discussed in an open forum includes daily military activities and operations, equipment status, unit morale, and results of operations. Any of these topics, if released in an open medium, have the ability to provide our adversaries opportunities to harm our military members.

In my opinion, It is better to be safe, then sorry.
Ed R

Why does the Army have a YouTube Icon on it’s front page under social media yet YouTube is a blocked form of social media by DoD?

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