Launching ideas at the U.S. Air Force

I recently spent the day at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ to meet with public affairs officers and senior leaders of 12th Air Force / Air Forces Southern Air Combat Command.

In this video, I ask my friend Capt. Nathan Broshear about his current role as Director of Public Affairs, how he uses social media, and a little about his 6 months in Baghdad working in public affairs in a war zone.

Capt. Broshear says of his work: "We're not launching missiles, we're launching ideas."

While mainstream media is critical for launching ideas such as the 60 Minutes story that Capt. Broshear worked on with Lara Logan reporting On The Increasing Use Of Drones In The Battlefield, he frequently uses social media to get the word out.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a fan of what the hard-working public affairs officers at the U.S. Air Force are doing with social media. Here are some other posts on the topic:

The US Air Force: Armed with social media

U.S. Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment

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

Free social media ebook and video: New Media and the Air Force

Comments

[Anonymous]

David,

I don't know in what kind of world are you living, but your book (The New rules of Marketing & PR) is the most crappy thing I have ever read.

I certainly understand the power of Blogs, but that book was all about that only.

I felt I was going through the answer sheet of a 5th grader who tries to repeat things in order to give their answer a detailed answer's look.

I am MD of a $500 million India based company, and I am not mentioning this to show you my stature but just to let know that we people have started the Digital Marketing practices around 6 months ago and we thoroughly understand what Digital Media is all about.

And having that knowledge on the subject, I must advice you do not write a book ever again.

[stumped single guy]

I listened to you on yesterday's Vocus Webinar. I heard you reference the Air Force story.

Two things you impressed upon me -
Ask ourselves the question, "What do you want your buyers to believe about you?" You are right - I think in terms of our product or service - rut thinking!

And at the end, you talked about managing fear. Controlling my irrational fear about the New Rules is a big hurdle, but after you named it, I understood everyone must go through it. Nice to know I am not alone.

Looking very much to finishing your book. Thanks for doing the webinar. Without it, I would not have heard of you.

[David Meerman Scott]

@Anonymous

Sorry you didn't like my book. It was about a lot more than blogs, but maybe you didn't read those parts. It is too bad that you were reluctant to use your name and affiliation in your comment.

David

[Bianca]

Hi David,

your book arrived Germany and me :) I read this now and like to reflect some things:
First, it´s true: We have to change our thinking about marketing and PR. Your book is good for an innovation thinking and while reading this you´re always worked with ideas and how they implement. On the other side I was missing some concrete strategy tipps like an example of how to analyze concretly customers-personas. There are a lot of company examples but what I sometimes need is a tool-tip for doing kind of analytics.

I´m very glad to be in the position to integrate social media in my company. I´m excited how it´ll works :)

Bianca

[David Meerman Scott]

@Bianca - Great. I am excited that the German edition has released. I wish you luck implementing the ideas. David

[Chris Ryan]

David,

By coincidence, my son, who is a brand new Air Force 2nd Lieutenant, will be stationed at Mothan AF Base in Tucson. Glad to hear that the AF public affairs officers are embracing the social media principles you espouse.

[David Meerman Scott]

@Chris - the leadership at DM AFB is great.