Social media and NATO: it's complicated

Social Media and NATO:

It’s complicated

You don't really see

in a casual setting much discussion:

Did you see what

the Secretary General tweeted?

That said, it has been very notable

that prominent NATO officials,

the Secretary General,

Admiral Stavridis,

do have much emphasis placed

on their use of Twitter, on Facebook

and other social media platforms.

However, it'll remain to be seen

how they get the word out that

you should follow them on Twitter.

A lot of organizations

pay lip service to social media,

and social media

is something you have to do.

You can't talk about social media,

you have to do social media.

So, I'm glad to see that NATO

is creating Twitter accounts,

getting the Secretary General online,

Facebook and all those platforms.

But these are things that have

to be updated all the time, every day

to gather the following that has

a real impact on what you are doing.

If NATO has got a story to tell,

it really should place it primarily

in media that

a younger generation uses.

I don't really know

of a YouTube channel for NATO.

Video, as this module might

demonstrate, is more receptive,

more impactful to younger people.

I don't get much of a NATO branding

in places like Twitter and Facebook,

in virtual spaces where people

tend to congregate and want to.

A lot of organizations fall into

the trap of just tweeting documents

and people do not read that.

They want to know

what the Secretary General's

personal opinion is on some things.

There needs to be some soul to it.

It can be a very powerful tool.

Most people, including myself,

I use Twitter really as a news feed,

so I'm pretty much forsaking

going directly to news sites and...

I'm following news organizations,

personalities, experts in the fields

that I'm working on

and organizations like NATO as well.

It's an opportunity to connect

with young people,

but it can't be just paying lip service,

simply posting stuff on Twitter.

You have to use, maximize

and understand the medium.

Many people jump on the social net,

not knowing how to use the tools.

A lot of news is obviously

made in the big newspapers,

like The Washington Post,

The New York Times, etc.

I found success occurs when you talk

to the smaller regional papers

and some regionally

based websites, for example,

because these are outlets that have

hundreds of thousands of readers

who don't pick up a copy

of the New York Times every day.