Everyone's a blogger?

Sorry for the delay on responding to this -the short answer is, "no." We wouldn't expect everyone in an organization to clear buildings - or fly aircraft - or fight fires. So why would we expect everyone to do something as important as strategic communications? Its especially important not to make this forced because it's so painfully apparent when you have people going online who are uncomfortable with it. Go onto the CGSC blogs and look at some of the posts from the Army Majors going through ILE. You can readily tell the ones who ahve a passion for online engagement versus the ones who are doing it because it's a course requirement.

This is an interesting initiative. Are you collaborating through CHIRP? Lots of good discussion on SNS.

Only if you have a "Message" or A Thing too Tell,that not an another "million" ;) Pages. A Blog must have a SOUL. A Spirit so Visitors come Back . And good Morning from the Remstal Valley East of you ;) ::: Have you seen the purple bunny the killer bunny of estern I hear peps talking about there is some in the gerlingen area ;) TAKE CARE WATCH OUT ;)

I don't think it is a bad idea to encourage those who "want" to blog or tweet about there day to day experience, I know a lot of people that would love to know more about our men & women in uniform, what is better than to hear it directly from them. I worked with quite a few corporate CEO's that uses the same argument like Gary B "This could very well encourage a lot of confusion, skepticism, and lose credibility with those receiving the message."! I think they do understand the power of this new tool,but are too scared to have it used by others (then them) to communicate with the public. I always ask them to support there argument with a research, report or any doc, but there is none. I am all for the effort that the U.S military is doing to reach out for people like us by allowing anyone who "wants" to use social media to use it. Kristi, keep up the good work. cheers, Ahmed

I am a fairly regular blogger and a big proponent of balancing my offline communication with my online engagements. As a member of the Armed Forces, it is absolutely critical to know and understand the communication environment in order to develop an effective communication strategy. During the past 10 months as Student at the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, my seminar designed a strategic communication concept that any organization can utilize for learning about the communication environment and find ways to develop effective an communication strategy for success. My role a the 'Social Media Guru' focused on the idea of balancing online/offline identities, building trust, branding, and developing effective communication techniques and strategies in today's collaborative, online, communication environment. To help my learning, I created my own consulting business online. It all started with blogging. It was a way for me to share my interests in home theater, helping others make decisions on personal electronic purchases and providing tech information to a variety of audiences. In just six months, I've been able to develop a Facebook fan base of nearly 1000 followers, average 15-20 daily views of my video blogs, and garnered interest from all over the globe. I am truly amazed at how effective my approach has been in such a short period of time. However, it has taken a lot of work in preparing my blogs and designing content that is not only entertaining but also educational. My goals are simple: build and maintain trust with my followers, balance an online image that is consistent with my offline image, and most of all....be someone who is willing to reach out and develop effective, professional relationships. If you are interested in seeing the fruits of my labor, you can visit my site at heathaplexvision.com. Additionally, here is a link to the Design Concept for Strategic Communication I helped developed this past year at SAM

Gary, This is where I think we'll have to agree to disagree. It's not about choosing that one person to communicate. I could do this all day long, but I KNOW folks would get bored hearing from me. I want to encourage our troops to come forward and tell their story, their unit's story. We all do the same thing here at European Command. There won't be different messages that will confuse people, rather different ways to tell the story. Each of us has a part in building partnerships throughout Europe and Eurasia. Each of us chose the military as our way of life. Each of us works hard everyday to defend our freedom and our homeland forward. For European Command, it's about transparency and reaching out farther than we've ever been able to before. We're aware of operational security and yes, social media adds a level of risk. But the good far outweighs the risk which is why the Department of Defense made the critical move to open up the social media sites throughout the DOD. Communication and information is essential in this day and age and if we, the DOD, aren't communicating in this realm, then we are messing up. Simply put, this is just one more tool that we, and now the troops, can use to tell our story and to get great feedback like yours. Thank you! Kristi

Ray, Thanks for the comment on this one. We want to encourage those who "want" to blog. It will definitely not be a requirement. However, there are many out there who have a passion for writing/reporting as you can see from CNN iReport. European Command has more than 100 thousand in our command and we would love to hear from so many of them. Hopefully there aren't people out there who have to blog because it's a "course requirement." It should be about extending the writer's pen out there to so many who never have the chance. Take care! Kristi

Having everyone on the front lines tell their story could come back to bite you, and the military, in the arse. First off, what do you mean by "everyone on the front lines of Afghanistan?" I understand, from Marine friends of mine over there, none of them have access to social media or non-embedded media for that matter. Air Force front lines (rear echelon) is likely much different than U.S. Marine or Army front lines. I'm sure you can handle the OpSec part of this though, so I'll end with that. Blogging is nothing more than an extension of traditional marketing efforts in any industry or type of organization. Communication is the key word here and in deciding who and when to blog should first start off with the intended results that one wishes to obtain. Once you've determined what the mission is, then figure out who the best person would be to communicate with the rest of the world. Like anywhere else, your ranks are filled with varying levels of experience, education, and communication skills. If everyone gets a shot at telling the world about the U.S. European Command then you must anticipate that the message being broadcast is going to be just as varying and unique and the person broadcasting it. This could very well encourage a lot of confusion, skepticism, and lose credibility with those receiving the message. I'm a corporate sales and marketing professional in Silicon Valley, and would caution you to encourage feedback, communication, and an exchange of ideas from your officer and enlisted ranks but leave the outbound communications to a designated professional or a committee. We in the corporate world and general public would rather hear the official, correct, word than a bunch of scuttlebutt from varying, and unreliable, resources. Semper Fi