The Army gets it -- Social Media (Tom Humbarger)

http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/social-media-and-the-military/

Social Media and the Military

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Tom Humbarger

I am working on a project for a digital media company and part of the project is to research the latest trends on social media in the military.  I ran across some interesting information and links, and would like to share them so others can see the progress being made by our military institutions.

All of this begs the question - if large traditional and conservative organizations like the US Army are experimenting with social media, why aren’t you?

US Army - Leading the charge for the Army’s social media initiatives is LTG William Caldwell of the Central Army Command at Fort Leavenworth.  He published a memorandum in April directed to all personnel under his command at the CAC including CAC subordinate organizations.

Interactive internet activities are an essential part of our responsibilities to provide information to the public, usher in a culture of chage within our Army’s officer Leadership, Development and Education and support military operations.  Leaders within the Army need to understand the power of the internet and leverage as many communications as a means as possible to community what the CAC is doing, and more importantly to “Share the Story” of those serving in uniform and highlight the incredible sacrifices they and their families are making.

In addition, the Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren, spoke at the 3rd annual MilBloggers conference last month.  I have copied the quote below which sums up his thoughts on social media:

We’ve got to embrace every form of media, and this new medium - and particularly blogging, for many people - has replaced traditional media as a way to get news.  And not only to get news, but to educate themselves, the back and forth that blogs offer. So I see it as an addition of what we’re doing, and a mechanism to reach some people who you don’t reach at all through so-called traditional media.

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US Coast Guard - My nephew Zeke is in the Coast Guard and he sent me a link to the new Facebook page set up by the Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen last month.  In his opening comments on September 28th, Thad mentions:

Today we activated several new social utilities to help the Coast Guard as an organization, and myself as the Service Chief, to better communicate and collaborate, both amongst ourselves and with the many publics we proudly serve.

Included in the Coast Guard social media initiative are the following sites.

• Commandant’s Corner 2.0 (CC 2.0) — www.uscg.mil/comdt
• iCommandant — a blog/journal like feature on the new CC 2.0
• A Coast Guard Facebook page
  
• US Coast Guard Press Flickr page
  
• Another Coast Guard Flickr page

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US Navy Website for Heroes - Taking a different angle, the US Navy has created a website called Websites for Heros that allows for deployed Navy and Marine personnel to maintain close family ties with their loved ones beyond the occasional phone call or e-mail.  The Department of Defense blocked many popular social networking sites last year to protect internet bandwidth for mission-critical functions, so this site fills the void to keep families connected.

More on the program is available from this press release.

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US Military Academy at West Point and CCL - While following links, I ran across an article that discussed the efforts of Lt. Col. Tony Burgess and Lt. Col. Pete Kilner who oversee a family of password-protected, Army-sanctioned, Web-based forums that connect officers all over the world.  Their “Center for Company-level Leaders” or CCL is based at West Point.  From the FAQs on the public part of their website, the CCL is described as follows:

One way that leaders are connecting in conversation is through online professional forums (aka online communities) like the Company Command (CC) and Platoon Leader (PL) forums. These forums bring together leaders from across the Army to share ideas and experiences and to improve our collective effectiveness. The PL forum specifically also gives cadets at West Point and in ROTC unprecedented access to the ongoing conversation of the profession they are preparing to join.

The program sounds like a great way to share important information with up-and-coming military leaders.

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Milblogging - Finally, there is a website called Milblogging that serves as an index of more than 2000 blogs written by military personnel from around the world. If you are looking to read personal accounts of what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, this is a great place to start.

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I am sure there are other initiatives in the military, but these are the ones that crossed my path in the last week.  If you know of others, please add them in the comment section.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: blogging, CCL, center for command-level leadership, coast guard, commandant thad allen, facebook, flickr, icommandant, milblogger, military, social media, us army, west point, william caldwell

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