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