The U.S. Air Force and social media: A discussion with Colonel Michael Caldwell

On Wednesday I delivered a presentation at the United States Air Force World Wide Public Affairs Professional Development Conference. The Worldwide as they call it, is a chance for everyone who works in public affairs (PA) to get together to share ideas and learn what others have been doing by discussing communication techniques that run from traditional media relations, to partnerships, to Combat Camera and Defense Visual Information.

A big focus this year was New Media Tactics and you can see some of the discussions on Twitter.

Prior to my gig, I had a chance to sit down with Colonel Michael G. Caldwell, acting director of public affairs for the United States Air Force to discuss social media. Colonel Caldwell blogs at From an Air Force Colonel.

I was impressed with how deeply the smart people at the Air Force have thought about social media and how quickly they have jumped in. I hope that people from all organizations, particularly executives in large corporations who are often fearful and dismissive of social media, can learn from Colonel Caldwell and the examples here.

Colonel Michael G. Caldwell, David Meerman Scott, Capt. David Faggard

"We want 330,000 people to be in Public Affairs," says Colonel Caldwell. "Everyone has friends and peers and family and they are communicating with them online. But it is a major cultural change for the U.S. Air Force and I don't want us to get left behind. The game is changing."

Colonel Caldwell says that two years ago they weren't thinking about social media. Now social media is very much on the minds of all 350 or so public affairs officers in the Air Force.

"So far, this is much of a fact-finding exercise," Colonel Caldwell says. "We know these are a valid communication tools, but how do break in? We want to learn and understand the culture before we can really propagate."

The Air Force faces communications challenges that the vast majority of organizations don't have to think about. National security for example. And life and death. The Air Force has 15,000 networks and seven million IT devices (such as computers) and all need to be protected because national security is at stake.

Interestingly, Colonel Caldwell shared that some of the most efficient sensitive communication is in secure Twitter-like chatrooms with short messages on private channels. "You can't communicate with a fighter pilot using lots of wordy language," he says. "Airmen are already used to the sort of short communications popular in social media."

Some interesting data:
70% of Airmen use YouTube
50% of Airmen use Facebook
75% of Airmen use MySpace

What I find particularly interesting about the Air Force is the amazing possibilities for creating valuable information online. Hey, we’re talking about fast jets here! A good example is BlueTube.

Colonel Caldwell agrees: "We want to inspire leadership at all levels to embrace change and be a part of the solution," he says. "I want our guys going out there and talking about how their day went, either bad or good. The fact that young people in the Air Force are involved in multi-million dollar equipment is mind-blowing to people outside of the Air Force. And when people talk about what they are involved in on places like Facebook, it is more effective than a slick over-produced video."

Thank you Colonel Caldwell

I also had an opportunity to spend time with my friend Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology. Alert readers of this blog may recall that I interviewed Capt. Faggard late last year on this blog. I popped into Capt. Faggard's New Media Tactics and Assessment session, which was held in the "Twitter and Blogging Zone."

At his session, Capt. Faggard released a new book and video his team created, both entitled New Media and the Air Force.

The book's introduction reads: "This guide changes the way the Air Force employs social media and Web 2.0 technology, and positions the Air Force well to communicate transparently with online audiences. PA professionals can help change the way the Air Force uses these quickly developing, and evolving, trends."

A personal note:
I have been volunteering my time to work with the United States Air Force. I did not serve in the military when I was younger but have always admired those who do serve.

I am thrilled that my specialized knowledge can be put to use to help the Air Force and our country and I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with such talented and enthusiastic communicators and consider this opportunity to be an important highlight of my social media work.

Comments

[John R. Sedivy]

Very interesting. This is significant progress given that the military has historically been a closed system - and for good reason as you stated in your article. The Air Force is a great place to start as they are generally at the forefront of emerging technologies when compared to other services, although their quick adoption of social media is surprising given the transparent nature of such tools. It will interesting to see how things progress in this area and if adoption of these tools will spread to other services as well.

[Capt. David Faggard]

David, we wanted to thank you for speaking to Air Force communicators and for leading the way in social media. Your presentation was a great addition to our conference. Thanks

We posted additional details at: http://airforcelive.dodlive.mil/

[Trend Tracker]

It's terrific to see how progressive the Air Force is being with social media. It's a wonderful way to engage the talent that makes up our Armed Forces and to better provide them and their families with the support they need and deserve.

Well done.

http://Twitter.com/TrendTracker

[Account Deleted]

David:

Thanks so much for your coverage of USAF's activities in this area. I read your previous post and as a result talked to Capt. Faggard also in researching a client project on employee policies for social media participation. I find their efforts inspired and inspiring. Also, THANK YOU for volunteering your time and talent to helping them and I hope you'll keep us apprised of their progress.

I added a link to your posts at the Altimeter wiki on their social media policy pages (which, by the way also has a link to the Navy's employee policy)

Dana Theus

[Louis Provenzano]

Very interesting article. Glad to see such great progress made by the military on this front. What progress that you can share are being done with language barriers? www.louisprovenzano.com

[Chris Sukach]

Thanks so much for your insight! We really enjoyed your presentation at the conference!

[Donna St. Jean Conti]

"I want our guys going out there and talking about how their day went, either bad or good... And when people talk about what they are involved in on places like Facebook, it is more effective than a slick over-produced video."

David, this echoes what you said throughout The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Share "customer" stories. Great article. Thank you.

[Laurie Dunlop]

The U.S. Army and other military services are also using social media. I interviewed LTC Kevin Arata to see whether the growing popularity of social media conflicted with operational security (OPSEC). He said education is key. You can read the interview at http://www.netstrategies.com/blog/web-content/2009/06/when-it-comes-to-social-media-the-u-s-army-says-have-at-it-just-remember-opsec-101.