As a warfighting communicator, you will manage the DoD's reputation and relationship with its social media audiences. This means you will deal with opinions, misinformation and disinformation originating from bots, trolls, influencers, disgruntled audiences and adversaries. While operating in the digital environment, your messaging can become misconstrued, whether intentionally or unintentionally. As a result, messages can quickly go viral or spiral out of control.
Timing is critical. You need to stay alert and have a plan to control the narrative. Hundreds of engagements can occur on your post in a single day, amplifying a message across the internet without the help of media outlets.
Let's look at a fictitious scenario below.
One of the gates to a local military base was temporarily closed for routine maintenance, meaning all traffic through this gate was rerouted to another gate. Resource and supply delays led to an extension of the gate closure by several days. As a result, military personnel and civilian employees were late for work, and the backup at the gate encroached into the surrounding community, causing traffic delays for those individuals who simply needed to drive past the base.
The base released a public service announcement on their X account to communicate the continuation of the gate closure. Rising tempers and frustration over the traffic and delays led disgruntled audience members to respond negatively on the base's post.
The local unit's response was inappropriate because they did not exude a timely or professional reply – they addressed the messenger instead of the message.
Don’t React. Respond.
Your responsibilities as a communication strategy officer or PA professional require directly engaging with the public. In your communication with the audience, exude timeliness, professionalism and transparency, without singling out an audience member. When you respond this way, you respond to the message rather than the messenger, allowing you to better control narratives and reaffirm the DoD's principles.
Below is an appropriate response by Local Unit B52 to the disgruntled audience members due to on-base gate closures. Notice how the response does not directly call out any one audience member and is posted on the same day as the audience comments. The professional response addresses the message while upholding the DoD's values and principles.
Follow these strategies and concepts to help craft powerful, appropriate social media responses.
Taking the risk to join a conversation in motion, even if a conversation is heated, can significantly extend the reach and range of your message. However, it can create a narrative counter to the intent if done poorly. Never mention or directly tag the messenger and refrain from posting videos or graphics that combine acts of violence or weapons with humor.
Instead:
- Address the message by staying on topic and showcasing your organization's values.
- Divert the conversation out of the public social media space.
- Respond with "send us an email" or use direct messaging to remove the spectacle of an online argument and allow you to directly address the issue(s).
In a digital media strategy,
social media monitoring and listening is the strategic process of tracking the information environment and extracting key insights about your social media performance. You must actively listen to the audience's responses and interpret issues to help with future or follow-up messages.
To do this:
- Seek opportunities to leverage trending social media conversations and hashtags on platforms to inject the DoD's message and extend its reach.
- Use available metrics like reposts, quotes and likes to make sound, data-based decisions.
- Avoid commenting if the volume of conversation is low in some cases.
Transparency on social media is the act of maintaining open and honest communication with audience members. In accordance with Joint Publication 3-61, Appendix F, Section C, only remove content or take a page offline if there is a specific violation of operational security or published business rules. Additionally, you must never remove social media content from official DoD accounts unless there is a factual or typographical error; a violation of a law, policy, term of service or user agreement; or an operations or information security concern.
If you do remove content from social media, it should be publicly acknowledged and communicated to audiences to provide context and appropriate clarification for the removal. It should also be documented and kept in accordance with the records management procedures in Department of Defense Instruction 5400.17, Section 7. You must monitor, communicate and, where appropriate, responsively engage with users regarding removing content. Removing content can unintentionally discredit the DoD if the action appears to:
- Avoid embarrassment.
- Stifle or silence discussion about a controversial topic.
- Mislead users to believe an issue is inconsequential or of minor significance.
A unit's brand is the combined components of its character that make the unit identifiable.
DoDD 5535.09 defines branding as
"a program or process of creating awareness, public goodwill, and a positive image for the DoD and its Components through the marketing and promotion of its marks."
You must understand how your local command and leaders are represented online, professionally and personally. It is essential for individual leader accounts to be active and "in the moment" to provide facts and context and project the DoD's values on social media. To help understand your brand, ask yourself:
- How is your organization represented online?
- Who is releasing information on the brand's behalf?
- What information is available about you personally?
- What steps can be taken to mitigate risk?
Remember, personal accounts are not part of your unit's brand and should remain completely separate. Clearly identify personal accounts as personal and avoid misrepresenting yourself as an official DoD spokesperson on your personal account in accordance with DoDI 5400.17, Section 7. Additionally, avoid using DoD titles, insignia, uniforms or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of the content on your account.
All official correspondence using DoD resources must be done using government technology – not personal devices – and registered with the DoD. Official DoD and personal accounts must be distinctly separate. A personal account cannot be converted to an official account, and an official account cannot be converted to a personal account.
Interactions with the public via social media must always remain respectful, responsive and genuine and exercise a high standard of professional ethics. Therefore, you must always exercise careful consideration when engaging with the public.
All official social media content reflects the DoD; therefore, exercise special consideration when commenting and replying to other accounts and their content. When commenting on others' posts, speak as the DoD and not as an individual, using first-person plural pronouns "we," "us" and "ours" instead of singular first-person pronouns "I" and "me."
Never release content that could be reasonably construed as offensive, inappropriate or unbecoming. Content should inspire, engage and always uphold the DoD's efforts to remain a good steward of the public trust.
When disseminating information, it is critical to understand the political context of that information. Your unit should always focus on showing bipartisanship. In accordance with the Hatch Act of 1939, you must refrain from engaging in political conversations and not offer any form of endorsement such as shares, likes or other reactions to political statements, posts and graphics.
Additionally, Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 provides service members with policies on political activities. Service members on active duty should not engage in partisan political activity. Service members not on active duty should refrain from inferences that their political activities imply or appear to imply official sponsorship, approval or endorsement.
Before social media messaging even has the chance to get misconstrued, it is crucial to have a plan on how to handle the situation and communicate. A social media strategy sets the rules for your unit on social media. This strategy can include:
- Content standards
- Archive policies
- Comment procedures
- Crisis management
When the intent of your messaging gets misconstrued, it can be laborious to manage and can quickly lead to the spread of disinformation and misinformation. If this begins to happen, remember to:
- Consider the source of the material.
- Read beyond the headline for critical details.
- Check the author and analyze their track record.
- Verify the references and quotes to ensure they are from valid sources.
- Determine if other mainstream news sources are discussing the narrative and compare.
- Consult subject matter experts and fact-checkers.
- Obtain and maintain an understanding of the issue's political context or elements to avoid the appearance of partisanship.