By Jim Wenzel, WTC Stratcom
The AW2 Facebook page is a source of timely and accurate information for the Army’s severely wounded, ill, and injured Soldiers, Veterans, and their Families.
Members of the AW2 community receive information a variety of ways, such as the AW2 blog, Warrior Transition Command website, or straight from their AW2 Advocate. For the 560 or so people who have already “liked” the AW2 Facebook page, these individuals are getting their information right alongside their updates from friends and Family on Facebook.
As AW2’s presence on Facebook has grown over the past two months, we’ve gotten a number of questions from AW2 Soldiers, Veterans, Family members, and Advocates about security and privacy.
- Can someone who sees me post on the AW2 Facebook page click on my name and see my location?
- Will people on the AW2 Facebook page be able to look through my photos without my knowledge?
- Will AW2 Headquarters be able to see what I post on my Facebook wall?
These are all great questions and it’s important that all AW2 Facebook users understand the key answer to all of these questions: Yes or no, depending on your privacy settings. Everyone has a right to as much or as little privacy as they want while using Facebook. Some users want everyone to see everything, while others (like me) desire that only their chosen friends be able to look at their posted content.
If you haven’t been to the privacy settings page of your Facebook profile, then it is time for your to take a look right now. Click on the “Account” link in the upper right hand corner of your Facebook page and on the drop down menu, click the “Privacy Settings” link. This will take you to a page that lists various options that help you control how you connect to, share with, and block other Facebook users.
Personally most of my “Sharing on Facebook” settings are set to “Friends Only” because I don’t want some of the 250,000 individuals on Facebook to gain access to my address, pictures of my children, personal biographical information, place of work, or status updates. By managing my settings in this way, everyone can see me “like” the AW2 page without being able to see any of the private information I don’t want to share. Even the other AW2 Facebook moderators cannot see my personal Facebook profile because of the settings I control. As you can imagine, this feature comes in handy when you become a fan of your place of employment or just in general when surfing on Facebook. You can learn more about social media best practices by reviewing the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command’s Online Social Media Training.
Privacy and security are a concern we must all take seriously by scrolling through our privacy settings and fixing any discrepancies. Once the appropriate settings are in place, users can confidently navigate to organizational pages with far less risk of losing desired privacy.
AW2 has a powerful story to tell about Soldiers, Veterans, and Families who have shared in the sacrifice of both the call to duty and the suffering of severe wounds, illnesses, and injuries. Daily program updates and information are posted on the wall of our Facebook page and the reach of our message continues to grow with the number of individuals who like the AW2 Facebook page. Help us advocate for the program by sharing the AW2 Facebook page with other AW2 Soldiers, Veterans, Families, and friends. You can help give a stronger voice to AW2 by being a part of the conversation.