I’m playing catch up here but there are lots and lots of posts on FS blogs regarding blogging and anonymity and where to draw the line on what to post. I’m a huge proponent of social media (with certain caveats, of course). Web development and new media is practically all I’ve done in the last five years and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. As a “producer” instead of a “consumer”, it’s interesting to hear the back and forth arguments about how far the State Dept should delve into new media.
Whenever clients have asked me about social communities and tips for success, I focused a lot on “control”. For political candidates, the campaign team tries to control the message as much as possible, which means controlling the medium. Handing over the reins to passionate supporters scares many campaign managers. If anything goes wrong, it can easily be a PR mess, which is understandable.
But a movement won’t really go anywhere unless you let your biggest supporters take control of the steering wheel from time to time. An excellent example of this is President Obama’s presidential campaign. By allowing supporters to create networks down to the local level, more Americans were able to have some type of connection with the campaign. It was no longer just on TV – now, it was in their own neighborhood.
What does this have to do with the Foreign Service? I’ve said before that until last year, I didn’t even know what the Foreign Service was. If the State Department was to let FS families take control of the steering wheel from time to time, more Americans would not only know of the Foreign Service’s existence, but they’d appreciate it more, as well. The FS blogs linked to the right provide personal connections, anecdotes, photos. A human touch is needed for people to understand why diplomacy is so critical. Even more bureaucracy, a closed message in the most open of media, in no way can help advance some of the goals of the State Dept.