Social Media: Harnessing the Power of Networked Communication

WIFM

1. Command climate/Command information2. Educating your Servicemember – Online etiquette

OPSEC/UCMJ

3. Organizational image4. Media relations / outreach

Online etiquette5 things every Servicemember should know

1. OPSEC applies on-line, too

• Names/photographs of important people

• Present and future U.S. capabilities• Meetings of top officials• News about U.S. diplomacy• U.S. positions• Important government places• Information about military

facilities:▫ - Location▫ - Units▫ - Weapons used▫ - Fortifications & tunnels▫ - Amount of lighting▫ - Exterior size and shape▫ - Number of personnel &

officers• - Ammunition depot locations• - Leave policies• - Brigades and names of

companies• - Degree & speed of mobilization

2. Remember UCMJ in your online interactions

Got a beef with your commander? Hate the latest DoD policy?

Save it for your memoirs.

Do you have photos of yourself in uniform on your Facebook profile? Think about how your status messages reflect upon the Department.

3. What you say online doesn’t stay onlineStatus

messages or posts, particularly as they pertain to your chain of command or coworkers, can have real life repercussions

Stay in your lane

If you’re not the expert on a military topic, don’t comment like you are. Keep in mind: reporters can quote online interactions.

Stay in

your lanet

4.

5. Talk to your family

Educate your spouse and family members on OPSEC, and PII.

Basic tips for social media include:

-Don’t friend anyone you don’t know on Facebook or social networking platforms

-Don’t post deployment information, when you’re going on vacation or when your spouse/parent will be away.

-Know how to set your privacy settings, and use them.

Social Media: Tips, tricks, and answers to “what in the heck

is this stuff and WHY do I have to care about it?”

What we’re doing and why1. Be present and relevant.2. Adapt our culture to accept social media as an enduring

and effective source of information and place to communicate (access at work, real time, broad involvement at all levels).

3. Integrate social media into our training and education programs:

• DINFOS, CGSC, SSC, SMA, PCC, EXCOM• Officer and NCO education system• Unit level training and education for Servicemembers.

4. Establish the institutional organizations and resourcing to sustain our effort and compete at meaningful speeds and scales.

What IS social media?

The glossarySocial Networking:

– Facebook– MySpace– Friendster

Content sharing: -You Tube -Flickr -Vimeo -Photobucket

Collaborating/ knowledge sharing: -Wikis -Message boards -Forums-Podcasts

Blogging: -Blogger -Wordpress -Tumblr -Twitter (micro-blogging)

What’s in a NUMBER?

Over 80 percent of Americans use social media tools and Web sites monthly

Social networking is now the #1 activity on the web

Twitter: 27 Million users in October 2009Facebook: 400 million usersYou Tube: 924 million unique visitors each year

•American teens sent an average of 3,146 texts a month in 2010

•That’s 10 text messages per hour they are not in school or sleeping, according to research by The Nielsen Company.

Fort HoodSocial Media became a key place to correct the record and provide information. Fort Hood was the most blogged and tweeted about topic of the week

Updates were posted to the Army’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, resulting in over 20,000 responses and interactions.

A Wikipedia entry entitled “Fort Hood shooting” was up within 2 hours

Policy

Education We need to educate our Servicemembers about the appropriate use of social networking sites.

RegulationThe two policies that apply to social networking today are Operations Security, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice

vs.

Social Media across DoDServices Social Media Comparison

Army Marines Air Force Coast Guard Navy DoDPentagon Channel

Facebook 336,035 fans

84,118 fans

92,890fans

19,388fans

158,909fans

38,051fans

You Tube 286,136channel

views

14,258channel

views

112,690channel

views

284,082channel

views

17,985channel

views

37,102 channel

views

Flickr 5,381images

1,874images

1,558 images

803images

4,582 images

2,649images

Twitter 33,606 followers

13,855followers

5,658 followers

5,010followers

11,811followers

8,488followers

As of 15 July 2010

WikipediaA “free, online encyclopedia”

‘Anyone’ can make edits or changes – but you must register for an account

WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

The power of Wikipedia: search engine optimization

According to an investigation by Nature magazine, you’ll find the same number of errors in the Encyclopedia Britannica

BloggingWWW.DODLIVE.MIL

A blog is a conversational web site, typically offering news or opinion on a certain topic.

Blogs should be written conversationally, and should be short – think op-ed length and e-mail tone.

Determine how you’re already being talked about in the blogosphere before you engage yourself.

TRADOC Blog

TRADOC Uses the DoD Live blog platform, a free service available to all commands interested in blogging.

AAFES Blog

Posts from across AAFES; links to other social media products.

DoD Live Bloggers’ Roundtables

Blogger’s Roundtables are phone interviews with bloggers and subject-matter experts.

Why engage blogger’s? Because 70 percent of reporters now say they use blogs for story ideas.

Bloggers can sign up to participate in roundtables here or email bloggeroutreach@dma.mil.

Going Viral

Blog Response

TwitterWWW.TWITTER.COM

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that updates in 140 characters or less.

Updates are referred to as “Tweets.”

The U.S. contingent of HQ ARRC is implementing the use of Twitter as a tool to keep FRG members informed of key events and activities and to establish a system by which information can be quickly disseminated and “pulled” by FRG members as required. The intent is to make the FRG Twitter site a real-time info exchange page with data file postings to the US National page on the JHQ ARRC website.

Twitter as a Family Readiness Group outreach tool

Members of Congress on TwitterU.S. SenateBarbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Sam Brownback (R-KS) Susan Collins (R-Maine) John Cornyn (R-Texas) Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) John Ensign (R-Nev.) Russ Feingold (D-WI) Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) Kay Hagan (D-NC) Orrin Hatch (R-UT) Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) John McCain (R-Ariz.) Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Ben Nelson (D-NE) Bill Nelson (D-FL) Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) Arlen Specter (D-PA) John Thune (R-SD) Mark Udall (D-Colo.) Tom Udall (D-N.M.) David Vitter (R-LA) Mark Warner (D-Va.) Roger Wicker (R-Ms.) Dick Lugar (R-IN) U.S. House of RepresentativesNeil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) Steve Austria (R-OH) Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.) John Barrow (D-GA) Joe Barton (R-TX) Judy Biggert (R-IL) Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) John Boehner (R-Ohio) John Boozman (R-Ark.) Leonard Boswell (D-IA) Kevin Brady (R-TX) Paul Broun (R-GA) Vern Buchanan (R-FL) Michael Burgess (R-Texas) Dan Burton (R-Ind.) Eric Cantor (R-Va.) Judge John Carter (R-TX) Mike Castle (R-DE) Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) Ander Crenshaw (R-FL) John Culberson (R-Texas) Artur Davis (D-AL) Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) Mary Fallin (R-OK) Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) John Fleming (R-LA) Randy Forbes (R-Va.) Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) Trent Frakes (R-AZ) Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) Phil Gingrey (R-GA) Gregg Harper (R-MS) Dean Heller (R-NV) Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) Mike Honda (D-Calif.) Duncan Hunter (R-CA) Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) Steve Israel (D-NY) Darrell Issa (R-CA) Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) Hank Johnson (D-GA) Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) Mark Kirk (R-IL) Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.) Tom Latham (R-Iowa) Bob Latta (R-Ohio) Chris Lee (R-NY) Sandy Levin (D-MI) Cynthia Loomis (R-WY) Ben Lujan (D-N.M.) Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) Dan Manzullo (R-Ill.) Ken Marchant (R-TX) Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) Buck McKeon (R-CA) Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA) Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) Gregory Meeks (D-NY) Mike Michaud (D-ME) John Yarmuth (D-KY) Candice Miller (R-Mich.) George Miller (D-Calif.) Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) Gwen Moore (D-WI) Glenn Nye (D-VA) Jim Oberstar (D-MN) Pete Olson (R-TX) Frank Pallone (D-NJ) Erik Paulsen (R-MN) Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Mike Pence (R-IN) Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) Tom Perriello (D-VA) Chellie Pingrie (D-ME) Jared Polis (D-Colo.) Tom Price (R-GA) George Radanovich (R-Calif.) Charles Rangel (D-NY) Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) Dave Reichert (R-WA) Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) Tom Rooney (R-FL) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) Peter Roskam (R-IL) Paul Ryan (R-WI) Tim Ryan (D-OH) Aaron Schock (R-IL) Kurt Schrader (D-OR) Joe Sestak (D-PA) John Shimkus (R-IL) Bill Shuster (R-PA) John Sullivan (R-OK) Lee Terry (R-NE) Glenn Thompson (R-PA Zach Wamp (R-TN) Joe Wilson (R-SC) Rob Wittman (R-VA)

YouTube is the #1 most popular video-sharing Web site

Watch, comment and share video clips

You Tube is the 2nd largest search engine, next to Google.

YouTube - video sharingWWW.YOUTUBE.COM

Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. George Casey spends a few minutes in an informal video chat with Soldiers. Gen. Casey has done nearly two dozen episodes, labeled, “Chief Cams.”

Flickr - photo sharingWWW.FLICKR.COM

• Flickr is an online photo management sharing application

• A community of about 5,762 photos uploaded per minute

• View, comment, favorite, share and upload your photos

• Allows individuals to use and share official DoD images

More than 400 million active users

Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

Largest demographic: 18-24

Fastest growing demographic: 35-54

Facebook- connect & share WWW.FACEBOOK.COM

Social Media for Command Information

Resources• Department of Defense on slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/DepartmentofDefense

• CGSC social media 101 video series: http://www.youtube.com/user/USArmyCGSC