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The U.S. Air Force on Social Media; Is social media relevant to you now?

The US Air Force recently published a free ebook on how social media is being used by Airmen. The free ebook, titled New Media and The Air Force , is a guide for Airmen to use in communicating the Air Force story to a broader community on the web. The guide teaches Airmen about entry level web 2.0 tools that can be used for purposes of engaging in blogs, social networking sites and other new media sites to communicate about topics within the areas of their expertise. Perhaps the most crucial purpose, among many cited by the Air Force, for training Airmen to use social media is that of ensuring truthful representation of the Air Force is conveyed online. In their words, "If the Air Force does not tell its own story, someone else will."

In addition to the free ebook, the Air Force also posted the video below to discuss its use of social media. The video, titled Air Force New Media , begins with the 2007 audio clip of Secretary of Defense Gates saying "It is just plain embarrassing that Al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the internet than America." The clip continues as Gates tells of a prior conversation with a foreign diplomat, in which he was asked how "one man in a cave managed to out communicate the world's greatest communications society?"

The Air Force video goes on to discuss the ways in which new and social media are being used to counter enemy propaganda, saying that these media outlets help to deliver the truth. The Air Force sees social media as a venue to make the entire Department of Defense more accessible and transparent for internet audiences in what they call a "communications platform plagued with misinformation, enemy propaganda and negative messages." Watch below for more about the Air Force and its use of social media.

In addition to these self posted Air Force resources, I want to share an interview conducted by my favorite new media guru, David Meerman Scott. In Scott's blog post, titled Launching Ideas at the U.S. Air Force, he interviews Capt. Nathan Broshear, Director of Public Affairs at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ. You can watch David's interview with Nathan below to hear more about the Air Force's Public Affairs and insight on their use of social media.

Find more stories from David Meerman Scott about the Air Force and new media on his blog, WebInkNow or read his story about finding the Air Force on twitter here. 

Before you watch the following video, one last thought...Is social media Relevant to you now?

Capt Nathan Broshear, Director of Public Affairs, US Air Force speaks with David Meerman Scott from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

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Twitter Utilized in Hurricane Evacuations; Is social media relevant to you now?

The Mississippi Department of Transformation (MDOT)'s use of twitter is a perfect example of how social media can serve as more than just a means for brand recognition and SEO (search engine optimization).

In early April, the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT), announced separate twitter feeds for each of its six evacuation routes. The feeds will supply evacuees with real-time information pertaining to traffic delays, contraflow, fuel availability and roadway openings.

Executive Director of MDOT, Larry L. "Butch" Brown said he is excited about utilizing twitter, citing its use as a "necessary tool providing information in a timely manner that is needed during hurricane evacuations."

Followers can also choose to receive SMS text updates to their cell phones. This will undoubtedly help residents plan evacuation routes and can only aid in a smoother evacuation system in general. You can read the full release here.

The MDOT twitter profiles are @mdot_i55, @mdot_i59, @mdot_us49, @mdot_us98, @mdot_i10, @mdot_i20

Is social media relevant to you now?

PR and Marketing: Different Minds for Different Times?

Through a social media marketing group on LinkedIn, Yasmin Ben-Dror, Vice President of Affect Strategies and owner of Marketing Matters Consulting, posted this discussion from her blog: Five Tips on Finding the Right Social Media Advisor or Agency for Your Company, by fellow blogger and colleague, Sandra Fathi. I found Sandra's tips to be pretty straight forward and I try to hold myself to those same standards as a PR professional who produces social media for clients. But it was actually a comment on Yasmin’s discussion that sparked this post. Read Yasmin and Sandra's blog here.

Ben jamin Waxman is a marketing strategy consultant and owner of Benjamin Waxman Communications. Benjamin’s comment:

 

Yasmin, I agree with many of your points and yet the odd thing about this and other posts I've seen to help firms evaluate social media options is this sense that everyone should go in whole hog. A couple examples from traditional marketing: just because you have advertising budget doesn't mean you put up the largest hi-tech billboard in Times Square or advertise in the WSJ. Just because you have a trade show budget doesn't mean you exhibit at your industry's biggest show.

Social media is a new tool in the range of marketing options available. If you want to be successful with any marketing tool, you use it the way that fits your firm, your goals, your budget. If creating a more robust online presence and using a few social media elements can help you meet your goals that's great. But just because it exists does not mean you have to enter the field; just because it exists does not mean you have to enter the entire field.

Manipulate marketing tools to meet your goals. You don't HAVE to engage your target audience in social media conversations. That option exists, but it may have limited value based on the time and budget required. And here's the controversial kicker: I firmly believe that for some companies (think professional service firms that grow based on their referral network) social media can be a new outgoing content distribution channel that their professional audience will appreciate - without the two-way conversation tools social media offers. The new wave of social media gurus seem to bristle at this thought, but for some companies, this is the route to increased referrals with minimal time investment.

What do you think?

His comment really struck me. My first instinct: chalk it up to another long time marketing guy who isn’t able to see the full picture. But, then it really got me thinking… This might just be an example of the difference between the mindsets of PR professionals and marketing professionals. To expand on Benjamin’s comment; this is what I think:

 

Social Media is ALWAYS Relevant.

I realize that I am still young to the industry and I value all the guidance I am privileged to receive from the veterans of our field. But I feel confident in saying there is no question of whether we enter the field; the only question is HOW we enter the field.

I don't discount that social media is one of many marketing tools. And certainly there are different ways to leverage the tool based on client needs. However, (and this is where many seasoned communications gurus will want to disagree) the social media site is a medium like television, radio and newspaper. Yet the difference is that, unlike print and broadcast media, social media combines journalism, video, audio, images and (the big difference) feedback, all into one medium. And each social medium has capacity to link to another social medium or a website that can be found in one place, the internet.

Several recent studies have indicated social media has overtaken pornography as the number one use of the internet. During a senate committee hearing called to discuss the recent demise of traditional news media, Senator John F. Kerry pointed out some startling stats. Boston Globe staffer, Susan Milligan reported his prepared statements in here story, News Paper Champions vs. New Media. I pulled a few notable ones for the purposes of this blog, but you can read Susan's story here.

 

"Consider this," he said, first pointing out Google's 2008 advertising revenue of $21.7 billion. He continues his list, "YouTube has more than 100 million viewers each day and about 65,000 new videos uploaded daily. Its ad revenue reportedly totals somewhere between $120 million and $500 million a year." He goes on to compare Facebook's reported $300 million in ad revenue last year at 200 million users and growing by the hundreds of thousands daily with the New York Times paid circulation of just $1.75 million. "Ironically," he explains, "on Facebook the newspaper has 447,926 'friends.'"

 

My point here is that if there are public relations, marketing or advertising goals in mind, social media is always relevant.

 

Be the Horse’s Mouth!

Sure, we don’t have to use podcasts and video on Facebook fan pages. We don’t have to maintain a company blog for someone to blog about our products or company. But we do have to realize that whatever medium (social media included) we choose; we are still bound to end up in other forms of social media. Newspapers and news stations put content online and have comment sections under their stories, any clips from television can be posted to YouTube, (if it is effective) a billboard will probably be captured by a camera and posted online in some form or fashion and almost certainly, someone will blog about the tradeshow or post pictures from it to a social networking profile.

Social media exists whether we like it, find it credible or think it is appalling that citizen-journalism is gaining credibility. And its not just about creating a more robust presence online, although (in many cases) we probably can’t compete with SEO unless we utilize it in some fashion. It is also about managing our reputation and image. If we want control over our brand/company/name/product, we will need to utilize social media. And why not? Social media reaches a larger audience, its faster, can be targeted to certain audiences and is less expensive. Plus, we can create content in whatever form we like and get quick, measurable feedback.

One is the Loneliest Number

Finally, there is no choice on whether social media is a two-way conversation. This is even the case in the example of an outgoing content channel for a professional audience to appreciate. If we put the content out there, there will be comments, it will be shared or posted for others to read and (here is the part that increases our professional credibility) emailed to colleagues and quoted or discussed in an industry blog. The two-way conversation in social media can be a call to action or simply just a forwarding of our credible and professional content, which adds to the reputation of a company. The fact remains that if content does not spark two-way conversation, it is not effective.

Different Minds and Different Times

So, Benjamin and I probably don't think of social media in all the same ways. Call me a "new wave social media guru." Me a guru? Stop it! That is so sweet! But in all seriousness, though not a guru, I do bristle at the thought of not using the two-way conversation function of social media. I think my qualm with this technique is that if you don't anticipate the two-way conversation, you are (1.) in danger of having less control over how the content reflects on you and (2.) wasting your time with a tool that probably won't be all that effective. 

 

I also think there is a place for marketers like Benjamin in this business. He can express a very formulated understanding of all facets of marketing to a company. And I think what he would call using social media as an "outgoing content distribution channel," I would call using social media for publicity. Yet, many company decision makers are simply not ready to embrace all aspects of social media and Benjamin may just have himself a better formulated pitch for those guys.    

Your thoughts?

Now Hiring Millennials; Required Skill: Facebook.

Sometime last year, a friend introduced me to another young professional who owns a small (one man band) PR and marketing company. Our mutual friend asked the young woman to tell me more about her company, noting that we work in the same field.  Her response, “You know, we do Facebook, MySpace and all that stuff!” I politely smiled, nodded my head and took her card, all the while thinking, “Is this chick serious?”

Here is the thing: Facebook was around during my last couple of college years. It was something my friends and I used to waste time and procrastinate from studying. MySpace surfaced a short time after and we were all eager to jump on that band wagon too. The new social networking sites were certainly exciting, especially when we were immediately reunited with Timmy from the first grade (who subsequently shed his cooties for rock hard abs and a baseball scholarship) and that group of hot guys we met in South Beach a spring break ago..  

Why did it bother me so much that she listed these same sites as services offered by her PR and marketing company? Looking back, I can probably come up with several reasons I rather not admit. Least of which is my tendency to get defensive when someone names, as a PR service, a task that any one of my figuratively challenged, left-brained friends could perform.  

It just doesn’t seem legitimate that people are paid for playing on Facebook all day and calling it PR!  

Or does it?

I was wr…I was wro…I was wronnn…Well you get the picture.

It all came full circle for me after being tasked with creating Facebook fan pages for a couple of political campaigns. I explored lots of applications (I would ridicule any friend for adding to their profile) that really made sense for the campaigns. I found the Static FBML application, which literally opens page design to any cool HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) code my geeky heart desires. Okay, maybe not any code but it does allow more functionality for the task at hand. (Now, if only my hand could create HTML code that actually works the first try.) My point is, using social networking for something other than my own social connections opened a vast world of possibility that is effective.

David Meerman Scott, Marketing strategist, entrepreneur and author of the number-one best seller, The New Rules of Marketing and PR was a huge influence in my revelations. Web InK Now is his industry blog and a great resource to find relevant information about how social media has changed the entire PR and marketing industry. Read David’s Blog here.

In his free ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing, David gives real examples of how new media provides us with a unique opportunity to get our client names and messages to a larger audience, faster and cheaper.  His ‘new rules’ include ways to capitalize on the vast network of people that is our web audience through “word-of-mouse.” David explains,

“For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online—content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues.”

David’s philosophy is that through “word-of-mouse,” we can reach larger amounts of people, faster by providing relevant content that consumers want to read/watch/follow and giving them linked access to that content. Certainly this applies to me. When I choose to visit a site or read an online article; it is because something in the content interests me. When this is the case, I am more likely to pass the link on through social networking sites, blogs and even email. It just makes sense.

You can find The New Rules of Viral Marketing and a list of all David’s free ebooks here. 

Why this is GREAT News for US!

Let’s revisit the first uses of Facebook by my friends and me. We all joined facebook for the purpose of reconnecting with friends and maintaining our connections in one place. At the time, our options were limited: invite friends, post to walls, add pictures, and create/join groups.

The first group I joined: “Students Against Jorts.”  In other words, not very relevant to anything aside from my own personal amusement…I still get a kick out of that one. 

Now, we can add status, post links, videos and articles, create fan pages, add unlimited applications and blast out messages to a targeted audience. 

From the beginning we watched and played with every terrible application (honesty box) and learned to use all the great applications (bumper sticker), one at a time. We have the advantage. Unknowingly, we were building our understanding of social media as it developed.

Now, imagine all the industry professionals and leaders who are our parent’s age. They don’t have the luxury of building upon their understanding as these sites evolve.  While the blackberry and iPhone are virtually an extension of our limbs and Facebook, Twitter and blogging joined our repertoire seamlessly, many of our parents are still grasping AIM and Outlook. Therefore, they need young professionals with a strong understanding of these emerging techniques.

Millennials For Hire!

We are in a recession people! And one of the biggest problems young professionals face today is finding an entry-level position. We know that (in many instances) more seasoned professionals are applying for job openings, traditionally filled by recent college grads. The already competitive entry level job market is flooded with an influx of more qualified and skilled competitors at bargain prices.

Yet the millennials have something they don’t! We have a valuable asset that combines advertising, marketing, PR and branding all into one skill that is more effective, faster and (depending on needs) can only cost the company the price of a yearly salary.

Most important, in order to keep client names alive in what has become a colossal cache of sources and information, some companies can’t afford not to hire us. Communications companies without a social media savvy millennial on board do so at a risk of the greatest cost: that of their clients.

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