Blog Posts tagged with "U.S. Army"
From Traditional to Social Media in the Blink of an Eye
Greetings from Stuttgart, Germany! I'm Lt. Cmdr. Taylor Clark and unless you are a reporter that has called our office in the last 18 months, or read any articles in Stars & Stripes with a short quote from me, then I might seem like the new guy.
I've been the Media Chief at our EUCOM Public Affairs office for the last year and a half. I have been working with some great journalists from all over the European region and back in the States, while Maj. Kristi Beckman, our recently departed Social Media Chief, was blazing new trails for DoD in social media.
Unfortunately for us, Kristi was selected for the Air Force Air Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Alabama. So, her gain turns into a loss for us here at the EUCOM PA office and for those of you that have connected with her over the past year and have seen the great work that she has done communicating our story online. We will miss you Kristi!
The question in the office became, who will take over EUCOM Social Media?
I'm guessing our Public Affairs director, Capt. Ed Buclatin, saw me in the corner feverishly working traditional media by myself and determined it was time to untie my restraints and go social! Time to trade in my talking points and follow-up questions for tweets and Facebook updates.
I'm excited to work full time at social media! While it's not exactly new in my personal life, it is definitely new in my work life and after 18 years of military service, it is proving possible to teach this old dog some new tricks!
The use of social media within the U.S. military is booming at an amazing rate. Every week there are multiple commands around the world generating new accounts and fresh content on social media sites.
The U.S. Navy has a division within the Office of Information called Emerging Media Integration where they are reaching throughout the fleet to help Sailors communicate at a greater level. The U.S. Army has taken their online presence to the next level on mobile devices with a terrific iPhone app that is way ahead of the other services. It's on my iPhone and I highly recommend it!
Most recently, the Department of Defense started the DoD Social Media Hub, a new site that should be a great collaborative tool to help move the military together as a whole in being more communicative to those that are interested.
So, here I am. The new guy for EUCOM Social Media. But, like I said before, this isn't the first time I've done social media. I've just "graduated" from creating and posting videos, photos and blogs of my personal life to my friends and family; to creating and posting videos, photos and blogs of the EUCOM family to the rest of the world in order to show all of you the hard work that is going on by the men and women that really care about their jobs here.
Now, instead of the video of my daughter, Nellie, singing The Black Eye Peas...
or the video of my wife and I trying pet shoes on my dog, Tembo, for the upcoming German winters...
So, I'm off to a running start and I will provide more EUCOM content where these came from. I'm energized by the fact that I'm not doing this alone. I have you to communicate back to me, to let me know what you like and what you don't, and to let me know what else you would like to talk about. Please provide feedback, feedback and more feedback.
I'd also love to connect with you at:
www.facebook.com/taylorclarkpao
More soon!
Lt. Cmdr. Taylor Clark
EUCOM Social Media Chief
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A Technology Milestone in Public Affairs
History was made yesterday, to a small degree, when we FINALLY received our eight Public Affairs iPhones yesterday. My team spent most of the day synchronizing all of the handhelds with a central stand-alone desktop PC and getting familiar with the infinite number of features and functionality that the iPhone is known for. It was like playing with a new toy for countless hours (yes, I did get some sleep last night). One thing that was very apparent to the team was the iPhone's ease of navigation and its quick access speed to the 3G network here in Germany. We hope to really put our new tool and capability to the test by evaluating its functionality, as we cover our activities in other parts of Europe. In the end, I hope the iPhone will prove itself to be a powerful tool that will streamline EUCOM's two-way communication efforts across all of our PA capabilities, European partner nations and cyber communities.
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Expanding our Communications with iPhones
It's been a year since our major overhaul of the EUCOM public web site, breaking the mold of a military web site and incorporating robust Web 2.0 capabilites. In keeping with our mindset of disruptive innovation, later this week we will receive the latest addition to our EUCOM Public Affairs tool box--eight iPhones. These mobile devices will complement the stand-alone commercial DSL computers we currently use to engage our traditional and social media communities via unfettered internet access.
Comments: 4
Nice job Taylor. I particularly like the Q&A with Admiral Stavridis--very good questions with insightful answers.
Your girl is so cute. Loved the video of your daughter . . . and, well, the dog shoes is just crazazy. You realize all the other dogs that watch that video are now going to laugh at your dog at their next poker game. Poor pooch. ;-D Oh yeah, the other stuff is good. ;-D ADM Stavridis is really a "grand communicator". I'll be interested to see what he does when his Navy adventure ends some day, and how he will continue to capitalize on his command of this new medium. Keep up the good work.
Wonderful news ! Congrats Admiral ! Thank you Taylor !
OK, I don't know what's better, your sweetie singing the heck out of Boom Boom Pow - giving Fergie a run for her money, BTW, or you saying "Oh Snap" to Tembo trying on those hysterical shoes...love it! I should have put the snow video up here of Chris getting caught in the tiny snow tunnel! You're gonna rock this social media job, Taylor! Keep doing what you're doing and getting our high-speed social media Admiral out there! Our job is easy with a forward-leaning leader like him. Miss you guys too and thanks for the kind words. ;) I'm sure I'll enjoy school but it won't be half as fun as social medializing with EUCOM! As they say down here in the South, bye ya'll! Maj. Kristi Beckman