Are the effects of social media on command for good or ill?

2015-01-08T21:16:15-05:00

Social media and the birth of the “WTF Moments” Army…

Social media has altered the dynamics of command in ways that no officer wearing stars today could have even conceived in their wildest imaginations when they pinned on gold bars. An excellent positive example of this was found in COL Joseph Simonelli, former Garrison Commander of Ft. Bliss, TX. His “COL Joe wants to know” Facebook page put the garrison commander at the fingertips of the community. During this period the 1st Armored Division was taking over the installation from the Air Defense School and an entire culture change was underway with a massive expansion of post services. He was able to quickly identify where ‘roadblocks’ among services were piling up and clear them while also saying, “that is really an issue for your chain of command,” for the issues outside his preview. The quality of customer service during his time in command improved an order of magnitude due to this page.

Then there are the negative examples, for example: During ‘snowmageddon’ in Feb 2011, spouses were upset about a brigade still training in the field, also at Ft. Bliss. They were venting on Facebook commenting soldiers were freezing and didn’t have food. Of course, the local press noticed it. The CG had them pick a unit and got some nice b-roll of soldiers cooking burgers and playing cards in a tent. The spouses looked quite foolish but the entire thing was an exercise in foolishness.

Then there is the issue of the 1SG Moerk receiving an ARCOM for policing trolls. The SMA has come out in support of the 1SG, which as the head of the NCO Corps he must. A tidal onslaught of Memes have flooded military social media using the 1SG's visage. This is still a fractious issue within the Army's culture. This is obviously an extreme cause, but via social media when leaders make poor decisions it can now be said, "I'll make ya famous...." The downside of course is that the meme might flow long after the depicted service member has taken off the uniform.

We also have our proud WTF Nation of Army WTF Moments on Facebook. When leaders make very ill-advised decisions they have a tendency to end up broadcast on the page and thus the entire Army is aware of their stupidity. Here is where I reach the point of the post:

This obviously will have an effect on the exercising of leadership in the future. Do you think this for good or ill? Why?

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 12 at 2015 3:38 PM

2015-01-12T15:38:37-05:00

Me being the administrator and content manager for the website and social media accounts of my unit. I can voucher that social media is a great tool to leaders and units when managed properly. Especially, if you have an audience of 35 nations.

Response by SSG Kevin McCulley made Jan 13 at 2015 1:32 AM

2015-01-13T01:32:22-05:00

And then.. of course, there is this.

SMA defends 1SGT's actions that earned her an ARCOM

Sergeant Major of the Army Ray Chandler stepped up to defend an NCO's online on-the-spot correction of soldiers, who berated her online.