Sometimes you find resources in the most unlikely places. Here’s a flow chart produced by Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology for the US Air Force, to help Airmen deal, assess, evaluate and respond to blog posts.
It comes (in the usual roundabout way) from this fascinating investigation by David Meerman Scott into how the Air Force is developing a social media strategy. What I found interesting was the notion of arming all their personnel with these tools and skills and seeing their role in communicating the reality of their situations, whilst also protecting sensitive material, as essential to the campaign. In a way this is revolutionary but it’s really a sensible reaction to a world where most of the troops are young, internet savvy and online. Rather than shutting them down they’ve realised this is their strongest asset propaganda wise.
But what’s really lovely is how methodical and bullshit-free the flowchart is. You can apply this to pretty much any organisation that’s wanting to engage with blogs but is wary of how to deal with negative criticism. Pin it to you wall. Or better still, adapt it for your own use, specifically the Blog Response Considerations of Transparency, Tone and Influence, and pin it to your wall.
It’s an interesting chart and surprisingly reasonable but for one thing makes me a bit leery and reflects a lot my experiences with members of military and pseudo-military organizations. Jokes, ridicule and satire are lumped into the category of “ragers” proving once again that they have no sense of humour and that a well placed barb can get past body armor.
Indeed, what you put in the categories is up to you. I’m by no means suggesting everyone react to blog posts in the same way as the US military. ;)
I am surprised that the military hasn’t reacted on this one… :-)