The U.S. Air Force: Moving Full Scale Into Social Media

So, I started picking this up on Twitter -apologies for not remembering the original Tweeter - but certainly Global Nerdy is where I first landed. I posted before about how the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has made steps toward bringing 2.0 capabilities behind its firewall, but now it looks like it the USAF has a full-scale social media press going on. 

We'll get to the other stuff but what impresses me most is that they have a Chief of Emerging Technology at the Air Force Public Affairs Agency in the Pentagon by the name of Capt. David Faggard. That's impressive to me since I know a little bit about what it takes to billet someone into a new position - it represents a certain committment to the medium. 

The breadth of USAF's involvement also indicates a certain level of committment and awareness. There is the USAF blog, the USAF Twitter feed (does it bother me that one of the uniformed services has more followers than me? no.... ;-)), the USAF YouTube Channel, the USAF Widget, of course, the USAF Podcasts. Check out this great article from David Meerman Scott on all of USAF's activities and some addtl. military+social media acitivities. 

I also find it telling that Capt. Faggard pops up quite soon after these posts are made...one interesting note that a commenter made on David Scott's post regarded the ability of individual Airmen to access the world of social media - there is a definite asymetry in the evel of involvement coming from the PA (public affairs side) and the ability of rand-and-file to engage. I face this on a daily basis w/in my own organization. What really interests me is Capt. Faggard's response, not only acknowledging the situtation but insisting that the USAF is "completely dedicated to creating a truthful and transparent discussion on-line." Great answer.

So fair warning to Capt. Faggard...I may be reaching out to you to help me with my ongoing social media efforts w/in my own small neighborhood of the DOD.   

Comments

[Will Thalheimer]

Mark,

Tell us about the diagram. It seems to have some deep meaning, but I want to make sure I understand the intent and context before I point it out and comment.

[Capt. David Faggard]

Feel free to contact us anytime. We'd be happy to discuss Air Force outreach using New Media. Thanks for the post.

[artist]

well this is really extreme stuff for sure.