With more than 300,000 personnel operating nearly 300 ships and more than 3,500 aircraft, the U.S. Navy is a massive organization. The fact that they can quickly and effectively communicate anything — in any form — to all of these individuals is amazing, which makes their social-media program all the more impressive.
In his BlogWell San Diego case study presentation, “Social Media Integration & Strategy,” the Navy’s director of emerging media integration, Scott McIlnay, explained how they’re engaging and managing all of their social-media stakeholders.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
- Decentralized organizations need help collaborating on social media. Like many big brands, lots of individuals and teams within the Navy use social media to the benefit of the larger organization. Scott and his team use weekly e-mails and collaborative wikis to keep stakeholders up-to-date on relevant social-media developments.
- Social media isn’t just for brand-to-consumer conversations. Through their NavyForMoms network, the Navy is fostering conversations between mothers of kids in the Navy and moms who have questions about Navy life for their kids.
- Basic guidelines are helpful while you’re building your formal policy. While they’re finalizing their training program, they’re guiding everyone to be safe and smart with social media through the simple reminder “Loose tweets sink fleets.”
And if you dig this presentation, you might check out our upcoming BlogWell events in Cincinnati (April 7) and Seattle (May 5).