November 12, 2009 9:09 am

Rebecca Murtagh

Recently I had the opportunity to discuss Military use of social media with U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Keven Arata at Blog World New Media Expo in Las Vegas, NV 2009. What he shared with me resonates with how marketers in the public and private sector are effectively are using Social Media around the world.

Kevin, who serves as Director of the Army’s Online and Social Media Division at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., shared the United States Army’s very deliberate, well thought out social media strategy.

Their mission is to reach out to the American people, serving, families and citizens around the world using Facebook, Twitter, Flckr and YouTube.

The U.S. Army currently considers Facebook where they have over 86,500 Facebook Fans to be their most vibrant social media forum. The Army has executed a thorough social media strategy however, which includes 20,000+ Followers on Twitter, various US Army accounts on Flckr and over 2,800 subscribers to their 1,800+ videos on YouTube.

“We recognize the importance of Social Media, we know we’ve got to be there, its important for us to get out there and we try to make it better every day.”

When asked if social media was being used predominantly for recruiting, Kevin was able to articulate the overall desire to engage and listen to interested audiences online beyond the recruiting objective. Upon visiting their various websites, you can the effort to be social and engaging…while being informative and of course, facilitating any enlistment requests.

So, what can your business learn from how the United States Army is using Social Media?

3 Key Social Media Best Practices You Can Use:

  1. Create an integrated Social Media strategy, leveraging all platforms that are relevant to your target audiences.

  2. Make a Commitment to post content regularly, creating mulitple opportunities or conversations to enhance the community dynamic of the social media profile or platform.

  3. Post, Engage and LISTEN…your audience will tell you what is important to them and how they are interested engaging you online.
  4.  

My sincere gratitude to Lt. Colonel Kevin Arata of the United States Army for his willingness to do this video interview capturing the highlights of our off-air conversation about Social Media.

My thanks to Kevin and all US men and women, for their military service, who allow US citizens to freely use platforms like social media.

About the Author

Rebecca Murtagh: Human First Futurist, CEO & Founder of Human AI Institute, winner of the Inc. Magazine Power Partner Award.

Rebecca leverages decades of experience working with Fortune 500, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Mains Street, global brands and startup entrepreneurs to help executives, their teams, and entrepreneurs leverage their genius through Human AI to improve productivity, collaboration, creativity and job satisfaction for optimum performance and long-term success.

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