Social Media Use in the Irish Defence Forces Defence Forces Public Relations Branch PRESENTED BY...

Social Media Use in the Irish Defence

ForcesDefence Forces Public Relations Branch

PRESENTED BY

Commandant Denis Hanly

Outline

• Why bother• Where are we• Planning• Lessons learned & examples• Dangers• Take aways

Why do we bother?

• Restrained budgets but increased need for good PR… Social media fits the bill.

• It forms part of full spectrum PR & complementary part of our communications mix.

• Our audiences include diverse demographics– You go to where they are– The medium is the message

Why do we bother?• Social media replaces nothing & is not the magic bullet but

augments/complements existing PR platforms

• If you are not there the conversation will take place without you i.e. it is much harder to change an agenda than to set it

• We use a mix of operational updates and more generic posts to connect

• It’s our responsibility to explain what we do and why we do it to the Citizen through ALL means

• Facebook – Irish Defence Forces (30k), Air Corps (6k), Navy (5k), DFTC (2K), Recruitment(5k)

• Twitter - @defenceforces (6.2k) , @dfpo (2k), @ dfarchives (850)

Where are we

• Flickr - 7974 photos, 5,672,000 views, 552 views average, most popular Blue Whales (12,918 views)

• YouTube - 150 videos, 1,515,500 views, most popular LTAV (254,650 views)

Where are we

De-conflict traditional media and social media but one can lead to the other (social to traditional)

Lessons Learned & Examples

Lessons Learned & Examples

Mirror 13/09/12

Lessons Learned & Examples

Lessons Learned & Examples

Sun 03/01/2013

Lessons Learned & Examples

Lessons Learned & Examples

Indo 18/12/2012

Lessons Learned & Examples

Social Media Planning

• A strategy that identifies targets:– Families, recruits, media, local population,

international partners• Identify targets and engage on their terms• Different content depending on platform• Treat as seriously as a press release but…• Community manager must be authentic• It takes a lot of time!

• Identify the type of content each audience wants

• Produce content that gives your key message in the format your audience wants

• Post that content where your audience is• Engage, moderate, assess, refine, engage

Social Media Planning

Troops and Overseas

• “I missed you so much Daddy !”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww3IouNuhMc

• As in war – Timing is everything

• Leverage other events, dates, holidays to get attention

Lessons Learned & Examples

8pm Christmas Eve 2012

6.30 pm Christmas Day 2012

Christmas 2012 Overseas

DF Flickr X Mas Overseas Sets – Western Sahara, Bosnia & Congo

St Patricks Day 2012

Children's Referendum 2012

Times 09/11/2013

Star 09/11/2013

E Echo 10 /11/2013

Childrens Referendum 2012