Tag Archives: MOD

MILITARY 2.0: How the British Army tries to make sure careless tweets don’t sink fleets

tweetsA fascinating military social media account drifted across my timeline the other day. Or should that be advanced?

The @soldieruk Twitter aims to set out military best practice for social media use both for the job but also in military personnel’s private life.

Part teacher and part digital Military Policeman the account also taps people on the shoulder to let them know they’ve strayed across the line.

It’s also fascinating to watch how they strike the balance between adopting a voice that’s somewhere between the parade ground and the water cooler. A retro profile pic and reminders that ‘careless tweets sink ships’ does this rather well.

There are more than 200,000 British servicemen and women. There’s no way the digital genie can be put back into the bottle and it’s clear that social poses a real danger to the MOD as well as opportunity. It’s not just the giving away of troop movements that’s an issue. It’s the personal data that can put individual service personnel in harms way too. The murder of a soldier in Woolwich shows this.

When one serviceman tweeted about the far right English Defence League they were met with this from @soldierUK.

 

There’s also more general messages too…

In addition, there is general advice on how to use social media and to stay safe online. It’ll be interesting to see how the account pans out. Certainly, by embracing digital the MOD stand a far better chance of knowing the risks, pitfalls and opportunities. But with so many accounts to keep an eye on is just one team enough?

SOCIAL ORDERS: How the British military can help you use social media

So, if the Army can use social media what exactly is your excuse?

Just lately I came across a rather magnificent link to the MOD’s digital guidelines.

As a starting point for beginners or for the more advanced they’re pretty handy. The US Army Social Media handbook has been around for a while and it’s good to get a British perspective too.

You can find the link right here. The MOD social media hub is here.

What do they offer?

Well, it’s basically a pretty robust framework that strikes the balance between common sense security and telling stories. Frontline staff are encouraged to go via the chain of command to tell their stories. 

As the introduction says:

UK Service and Ministry of Defence personnel are permitted to make full use of social media (such as social networking sites, blogs and other internet self-publishing), but must:

    • Follow the same high standards of conduct and behaviour online as would be expected elsewhere;
    • Always maintain personal, information and operational security, and be careful about the information you share online;
  • Get authorisation from your chain of command when appropriate, and seek advice from your chain of command if unsure.

There’s some interesting social media presences that have grown over the past few years.

The UK Forces Afghanistan Facebook page has more than 12,000 likes and has a social approach with shots of servicemen and women. There’s a big input from families which is interesting to see. The feel is upbeat and focussed on the safety of the soldiers, sailors and airmen. The cover shot of a soldier waving to the Afghan passing by is unmistakably hearts and minds territory.

The Royal Navy Facebook page has more than 160,000 likes and seems more focussed on recruitment with careers advice prominent. There’s galleries of PR shots and links to the newspages.

The British Army wordpress blog focusses on stories focussing on individual soldiers. There’s stories of soldiers. Such as a recruit looking back on his basic training from postman to soldier.

A rather good Flickr page Defence Images gives a feed for shots with creative commons licences for re-use.

The Ministry of Defence blog is a useful round-up of links as well as news updates. It also covers the deaths of service personnel.

There are two voices that come through the MOD social media pages. First is servicemen and women themselves. Second are their families. This is less of a forum to debate and question the rough edges and controversy of war and it feels like a deliberate decision for this. But as a means for the MOD to talk to people direct this is an interesting resource that will only grow.

Of course, the great thing for those in the public sector is that the fact that they are doing it at all is a battering ram to break down barriers. After all, if the Army are doing it sensibly and with rewards where’s the risk?