Harnessing Social Media to Build Cohesion at Brigade and Below

Young adults increasingly turn to the Internet and social media as their primary source of information and communication. Facebook surpassed Google in 2010 as the most visited Website in the United States, accounting for 8.93 percent of all Internet visits.1 Recognizing this trend, the Army embraced social media as a means to communicate with a force where about 50 percent of its Soldiers are under age 24.2 The importance the Army places on using these platforms for strategic communication is evident by the official presence of the Army Chief of Staff and Sergeant Major of the Army on Facebook. The statistics and leader presence alone indicate the debate is no longer “if” Army units should be on these sites, but “how” they should use them most effectively. For organizations with limited Public Affairs staff at the brigade level and below, the nine strategic-communication principles in the Commander’s Handbook for Strategic Communication and Communication Strategy (Version 3.0) provide a solid framework for developing an online presence.3 All nine principles apply. Army units should use the principles of being responsive, fostering dialogue and maintaining unity of effort to concentrate their outreach on building unit cohesion. Using these principles, Army units can focus on promoting a two-way conversation with Soldiers and families, and minimizing the labor burden of these online endeavors. (Editor’s note: While it is true that brigades and below have limited PA staff, there is often a supporting Public Affairs Office that has overall responsibility for Web-based content. For example, the Maneuver Center of Excellence PAO is charged by the MCoE commanding general with oversight of all Websites coming under the jurisdiction of the MCoE – including units that are part of the Infantry and Armor schools. ARMOR’s recommendation is not to assume that you are responsible for your own PA work if the size of your unit is brigade and below, as there are often policy and regulatory constraints, but to ask about your supporting PAO.) Being responsive To begin, the principle of being responsive promotes using platforms such as Facebook and Flickr as a tool to build unit cohesion. The Commander’s Handbook defines the principle of being responsive as reaching the right audience, with a customized message, in a timely manner and at the right place.4 The natural audience for a brigade’son-line activities is individuals in the unit and members of the family-readiness group. Soldiers and families who are already invested in the organization are most likely to seek out news and information about it. The key is posting unique and interesting content like photos, videoclips and brief updates that both inform and entertain. By focusing online content on unit activities, training events and personal-interest stories, organizations can reconnect with families weary from multiple deployments. These social-media connections not only increase unit cohesion but also improve information dissemination throughout the command. Also, the principle of responsiveness implies focusing your energy and efforts on doing a few sites well as opposed to multiple platforms poorly. Since there are countless social-media platforms and communicating effectively on all of them is not feasible, Facebook and Flickr provide a good starting point. Based on the age demographics of the Army alone, units will find a large portion of their internal audience already using these currently popular sites, representing the “right place.” For example, Facebook currently has more than 500 million users and the official Army Facebook page has 740,000 fans.5 Similarly, Flickr allows the unit to upload photos from events, training and daily activities for Soldiers and families to easily view and download.6 Photos on the official Army site receive thousands of views and link easily with Facebook for sharing photo content. It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and photos generally are the most viewed content on any Internet site. The combination of Facebook and Flickr provide a unit with the ability to produce personal, customized messages for its internal audience in a place where its members are already spending a good portion of their free time. To get started, the Army’s 2011 Social Media Handbook provides more considerations for properly creating, registering and managing a unit’son-line presence.7 Fostering dialogue The second principle of fostering dialogue centers on using the platforms mentioned above to generate a two-way conversation Harnessing Social Media to Build Cohesion at Brigade and Below by MAJ Kevin Bradley 34 that promotes understanding and leads to increased trust with Soldiers and families.8 By its nature, social media encourages conversations between users and demands a certain level of online interaction. If a unit follows the principle of being responsive and provides timely, customized content on Facebook and Flickr, the comments, questions and conversations will begin. The difficult part is responding to these questions in away that fosters conversation vs. stifling it. Establishing basic ground rules for appropriate language and comments is a good place to start. Making commanders, sergeant majors and other key leaders available to answer questions on the site represents another effective technique. Leader involvement and timely responses to valid concerns from Soldiers and families generate trust in the unit and ultimately build cohesion. All too often, family members express a lack of communication with their service member’s unit as a major source of frustration and dissatisfaction with the military. Using these platforms to conduct virtual FRG meetings, explain upcoming events and reach out to incoming Soldiers are all ways to mitigate these frustrations. Actively listening to the questions and concerns posted on the unit’s social media sites also informs leaders about misperceptions and potential problems they need to address. Ultimately, the dialogue created among the unit, Soldiers and their families should generate cohesion and foster mutual understanding between the leadership and the rest of the command. Maintaining unity of effort Finally, by focusing on unity of effort, an organization can repurpose existing unit and Army products to minimize the amount of labor necessary to run its social-media outreach programs. The Commander’s Handbook defines unity of effort as integrated vertically from the strategic down to the tactical level and coordinated horizontally across stakeholders. Unity of effort is important because social-media platforms reside on the public domain. It requires leaders to ensure they understand the Army position on certain topics and to speak with one voice on contentious issues that impact more than just their command. Similarly, exercising unity of effort by reposting stories, videos and photos produced on other Army entities reduces the burden of creating new content. Adapting holiday messages from commanders, safety bulletins, FRG newsletters and videotaping award ceremonies represent a few ways of coordinating across the organization to use existing processes and products. When embarking on a social-media outreach plan, the goal should be to minimize the labor requirements of building and maintaining the sites to a level that is sustainable for the future. As with any endeavor, the amount of resources available limits a unit’s ability to execute this mission effectively. By exercising unity of effort, leaders can effectively limit the manpower requirements of engaging in social media while providing responsive platforms that promote dialogue. Army organizations at the brigade level and below can harness social media to build cohesion and generate healthy conversations without creating unsustainable workloads by adhering to the strategic-communication principles of being responsive, fostering dialogue and maintaining unity of effort. While the popularity of specific social-media platforms will change with time, their application remains the same as any other type of media. Each of the nine principles of strategic communication provides insight as a unit develops an online presence, but the three principles outlined here help focus units with limited manpower resources. Leveraged correctly, social-media platforms are ultimately another set of tools for commanders to forge stronger units and more resilient families. MAJ Kevin Bradley serves as executive officer for 1-38 Infantry, 4-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Joint Base Lewis McChord, WA. His previous assignments include congressional liaison to the House of Representatives, Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison, Washington, DC; joint staff intern in the Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DC; commander, Troop C, 6-9 Cavalry, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Muqdadiya, Iraq, and Fort Hood, TX; 302nd Iraqi Army military training team chief, 3rd HBCT, 1st Cav Division, Baghdad, Iraq; and tank platoon leader, Company C, 1-63 Armor, 3rd HBCT, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany. His military schooling includes Intermediate Level Education, Fort Belvoir, VA; Ranger School, Fort Benning, GA; Combined Arms and Services Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, KS; Infantry Career Captain’s Course, Fort Benning; Armor Officer Basic Course, Fort Knox, KY; and Airborne School, Fort Benning. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree from the U. S. Military Academy in civil engineering and a master’s of arts degree from Georgetown University in public-policy management. Notes 1 Experian Hitwise Website, “Facebook was the top search term in 2010 for second straight year” (Hitwise Pty. Ltd, 2011), online at http://www. hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/facebook-was-the-top-search-term-in-2010-for-sec, accessed May 21, 2011. 2 Deputy Chief of Staff, Army G-1, Army Profile FY05 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, September 2005), Page 4. 3 Joint Forces Command, Commander’s Handbook for Strategic Communication and Communication Strategy (Suffolk, VA: Joint Warfighting Center, June 2010), Page A-1. 4 Ibid. Page A-3. 5 U. S. Army’s official page on Facebook, online at http://www.facebook. com/USarmy, accessed on May 20, 2011. 6 U. S. Army’s photostream on Flickr, online at http://www.flickr.com/people/soldiersmediacenter/, accessed May 21, 2011. 7 U. S. Army Slideshare Site, Army Social Media Handbook 2011, online at http://www.slideshare.net/USArmySocialMedia/army-social-media-handbook-2011, accessed May 18, 2011. 8 Commander’s Handbook for Strategic Communication and Communication Strategy, Page A-2. Acronym Quick-Scan HBCT – heavy brigade combat team 35