Relevance of Twitter for military members. Useful or a waste?

2013-12-14T15:30:10-05:00

Over the last year, I've noticed a great deal of military units and senior leaders joining twitter. Not only that, but I've also seen many service members linking their blogs and other personal publications. What is the consensus (pros and cons) of using twitter as a military professional?

I used to think Twitter was a pretty useless platform until I realized the advertising potential it has for small businesses to network, partner, and become noticed by millions of potential customers. Not to mention the tweet heard around the world when a Pakistani local wrote about an odd sound of helicopters overhead the night when OBL was killed.

For the advocates, I'd like to hear some examples of how it can be a powerful tool for the average military member.

For the pessimists, tell us why it doesn't add value.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 15 at 2013 4:10 PM

2013-12-15T16:10:16-05:00

I follow people like the President and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and I think it can give those who work in one of the most heirarchical organizations in the world a feeling of working in a flat organization. I vote that it is relevant to military members!

Response by PO2 Robert McNeilly made Jan 1 at 2014 8:28 AM

2014-01-01T08:28:46-05:00

New to twitter and love it! Wish I had all these great tools 25 years ago while active duty. Recommend to service members as a great way to stay in touch with home.

Response by MAJ Keith Davis made Apr 1 at 2014 8:43 PM

2014-04-01T20:43:13-04:00

We use Twitter to draw the larger group to a directed communication path/method. Twitter is only for the heads up, the full message is internal.

Response by SPC Daniel Shafer made Apr 1 at 2014 8:47 PM

2014-04-01T20:47:15-04:00

I do not personally believe Twitter has a belonging in the Military world, as with much of all regular social networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc). Also, with the rash of people posting inappropriate things while in military attire, like the girl hiding from saluting, it is turning to be more harmful then good.

Response by LT Jessica Kellogg made Apr 22 at 2014 7:07 PM

2014-04-22T19:07:51-04:00

I'm working on the social media outlets for my command.

Out of the different social media platforms, Twitter seems the least beneficial to me.

Twitter seems good for real-time events, but I have a hard time coming up with enough day-to-day content to keep an audience engaged.

I'd love to hear more about what you post on Twitter to benefit your command.

Response by LTC Dr Richard Wasserman, LTC (R) made Apr 22 at 2014 9:02 PM

2014-04-22T21:02:29-04:00

I like Linked-In. Don't have time for everything.

Response by Capt Brandon Charters made May 6 at 2014 6:31 PM

2014-05-06T18:31:12-04:00

Speaking of Twitter...RallyPoint got a nice follow today.

Response by Capt Russ Laraway made May 7 at 2014 6:03 PM

2014-05-07T18:03:16-04:00

Twitter is the only product that is all of Live, Public, & Conversational, and as such, it's considered by its 250M users to be an indispensable companion to life in the moment.

I work at Twitter, and am a former Marine. At both Google and Twitter, I've hosted veterans, active duty personnel and international fellows from the National Defense University. The sentiment among those groups when they visit Twitter is generally the same across the various groups: this is a powerful platform for real-time communication.

What we tell large brands and VITs (Very Important Tweeters) all the time is this: there is a conversation happening about and around your brand. You can choose to ignore it or participate, it's your call.

Let's be clear - your soldiers, sailors, airman, and Marines are using Twitter. As a commander or NCO, you are responsible for everything your unit does or fails to do. You are responsible for the combat effectiveness of your platoon, company, battalion, etc., which means you need to care an awful lot about the personal lives of your men and women. I would think that as a commander, you would want to use every tool at your disposal to be on top of your units. Twitter allows you to do that often, and in real time.

In all large organizations, there are translation problems between senior management and the front lines. Good managers - commanders & NCOs - are aware of this and utilize many channels to make sure the right message gets delivered to the front line troops. Why not, if you're, say, a Lt. Col / SgtMaj or above, have a Twitter account and encourage your units to Follow? It's just one more channel to keep everyone informed (Col John T Boggs, one of my battalion commanders used to say all the time, "what do you know, who are you telling about it, and what are you doing about it?"). Maybe your people are not regularly reading your ALLMARs or your blogs, but damn skippy they are on Twitter - Tweet out the key idea with a link to the longer form content.

Also in military context, news happens faster on Twitter than on TV - by a long shot, which is why so much emphasis is placed on Twitter by news people/news channels. Maybe in a forward-deployed state, you encourage your personnel to Follow in-region news outlets, diplomats, leaders, adjacent commanders, etc. to help inform everyone's context around potential future operations that will affect them. It's almost like a pre-cursor to a Warning Order. When I was on Okinawa in 1997, we were put on a brief alert for some de-stabilization in the region. Everyone flipped on TV (AFN!) to try to figure out what was happening... Twitter would have actually been more relevant (no offense AFN) and faster. ...Never mind the idea that we could have used earlier information on the typhoons that blew threw the island to better plan training around likely large weather events and been less victims of the circumstances.

Also, what about communication with groups such as Key Wives?

Twitter is broadly applicable and useful in almost any context - it's used for Hollywood stars to connect with fans... it's used by activist groups to overthrow oppressive regimes... it's used to protect freedom of speech... it's used by astronauts to bring people along in orbit... it's used to connect family and friends both nearby and over great distances, and generally to connect people to their interests.

I think the only thing limiting its applicability in a military context is lack of imagination, a certain level of "out-of-touchness", and stodgy old school attitudes about technology.

Your Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen are there. You should be, too!

Response by Capt Brandon Charters made May 8 at 2014 4:54 PM

2014-05-08T16:54:54-04:00

Russ - It's great to hear input from a Veteran actually working at Twitter. Thanks for putting your thoughts down. Awesome perspective with regard to the 'globally empowering technology' Twitter brings to the table.

There is real power in a gathering and dissemination of information like this. Like you eluded to, Twitter has the capability to take down and keep oppressive dictators from ever ruling again. It's not a political voting system, but empowers each member to share something that should be changed and tell us why in 140 characters or less.

Like Michael hits on above, how great are platforms like Twitter and RallyPoint in getting a wide sweeping pulse of the thoughts coming from your troops? A collection of mentorship, advice, knowledge, likes, dislikes, and ideas. As long as it never replaces the physical human interaction that leadership still requires, I'm all in. Because we all can't be in the same room, this is the next step of bridging the gap and sharing critical information.

Do you have any advice for the average RallyPoint member considering a twitter account? Maybe a top 3 list of things they should consider when setting up an account? I know the amount of information can be pretty overwhelming at first, but there really are a ton of resources for AD and Veterans. I've found the 'List' feature allows you to create your own digest of topics you want to read about at different times. Today, I'd like to read about what the top US Generals are saying. Tomorrow, I want to see the live updates coming from all the USAF MAJCOMs. Saturday, I want to just follow Blake Shelton and Shaq. Lot's of great personalized tools there.

Final note...Some of the most important events and quotes of our generation have been captured in your platform. How can tweets like the one attached NOT make it into history books someday?

Response by SFC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made May 14 at 2014 11:38 AM

2014-05-14T11:38:58-04:00

For intra-unit communication such as a reminder of a training event, which is better, Twitter or sending a text message to everyone? I am leaning toward the latter since not everyone has Twitter.