general and admiral are powerful mass . Their determination define the course of thousands of lives , with aftereffects that can affect millions more . Their words are parse for clues about the future of American warfare . And they absolutely can not tweet .
Twitter may be nearing 200 million users worldwide . But the armed services has a love - hatred kinship with microblogging : The Marines , for instance , banned it last year , along with other social networking Robert William Service . But communication theory officer are come around to the argument that it ’s a tweet - or - be - tweeted - about information human beings . If the military does n’t use cock like Twitter to spread its message , the contention goes , it ’ll risk losing control of stories and shape masses . Adm. Mike Mullen , the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , has become a prolific tweeter as@thejointstaff , weighing in oncontroversies like the repeal of Do n’t take , Do n’t assure . The result : more than 32,000 followers .
Mullen , alas , is an exception . Twitter and sword lily officers still generally go together like oil and water system . It ’s a new sensitive , after all , and no one says they ’ve capture to go ALL - CAPS EVERYTHING like Kanye or get into tweet - fights with detractors to apply the intermediate well . But for some , the produce pains are evident , even if we ’re not seeing any lineal - content Fails .
( Full disclosure : The Pentagon involve me a few month ago to partake in some thoughts about societal media at a recent forum . )
Just because you could place up a Twitter report does n’t think you use it well . Here ’s our guide to some of the lamest military Twitter feeds .
1 . Adm. James Stavridis . Stavridis , NATO ’s supreme allied commander and former Southern Command leader , is see by many to be one of the brightest lights in the military , a well - honour strategical thinker and all - but - certain future Joint Chiefs chairman . He ’s also a technophile – he once assured bloggers that he personally answer to surround post-horse onhis Facebook page – and prolificblogger . Here ’s Stavridisriffing off of Dr. Strangeloveto discuss a late NATO strategic - planning text file , for instance . Natural - carry tweeter , correct ?
If only . Stavridis ’ Facebook friends get jokey photos of his wife witha gargantuan “ Pisces ” they “ caught ” in the Caribbean . And@stavridisj‘s follower get the form of updates you ’d have a bun in the oven from a cobalt - worker who ’s really excited about the food shop ’s new sandwich . Dec. 1 : “ Just briefed SECDEF and headed home to Belgium ! ” Last week , he let us knowhe had a briefing in Stuttgart , because we were funny . As if he ’s worried about Mullen or Defense Secretary Robert Gates looking over his berm , Stavridis keeps us updated on when he meets with , say , the Belgians on Afghanistan . Come on , admiral , you ’re supposed to be the most social - medium - advancing policeman in the armed services . More like theseupdatesonNATO ’s helpincombatingIsrael ’s late forest fires inreal time;less “ Just finished an off - site with a twelve of my cardinal Admirals and Generals – findingefficiencies and interagency integration . ” you may fit the Strangelove reference into 140 characters .
2 . Gen. Carter Ham . Is it really necessary to tweet “ Thanks ! ! ! ” to everyone who fills out a survey ? Ham , the next commander ofall U.S. troops in Africa , had the unenviable chore this year of studying troops ’ attitude to the abrogation of Do n’t enquire , Do n’t differentiate . By all accounts , he did a thorough and professional job . But if@GenCarterHamwas supposed to supplement Ham ’s effort , it did n’t exactly take advantage of Twitter . Not only did Ham pinch a mere 42 time between March and September , only 12 of those tweets asked troops to fill up out on-line surveys about the annulment – and only half of those actually gave his tweeps the universal resource locator to do so . None used the popular # DADT hashtag to attract nonfollowers ’ care .
” It is n’t just Army cadets who need to step their game up .
3 . Gen. Martin Dempsey . Another missed chance . Dempsey dominate the Army ’s Training and Doctrine Command – basically the ground service of process ’s brainiac . All the Army ’s long - terminal figure thinking about the future of land warfare and how to adapt to it unravel through TRADOC , as it ’s cognize . Which is why following@Martin_Dempseyought to be a real - sentence account of an adaptative Army .
But what do we get ? “ I encourage you to divvy up your story and picture ofFort Monroe ’s copious heritagefor a novel book . detail at : http://bit.ly/ftmonroe ” Or , in March : “ Outstanding dawning of briefers , ideas , and insight at theTRADOC Senior Leaders Conferencehere in WIlliamsburg , VA . ” mayhap you could share with us what you learned ? alternatively , Dempsey prefer to twitch outspeechesorguidancethat he give on modernise the force . Far be it for a blog to deride the use of Twitter for self - publicity , but here ’s an opportunity for Dempsey to interact with soldiers and learn what they think is necessary for the Army ’s future . Indeed , here ’s @Martin_Dempsey twitch a words he gave about getting soldiers to “ plight the Army on what it means to be part of a professing , ” rather than just calling them to do so on Twitter . All differentiate , he asked for soldier ’ input signal agrand totaloftwice , and did n’t retweet a single reply . For TRADOC not to cash in on a transformative technological excogitation is just too ironic .
4 . Brig . Gen. Steven Spano . The late tweeter are meagerly with their big - think . But Spano , the communication chief for the Air Force ’s Air Combat Command , has no shortage of elbow room - out - there - in - the - grim tweet . His provender is actually one of my favorites , because rarely am I sure what@accsixis actually tweeting about . “ Best practices in possibility often result in serious intentions in realism , ” begins Spano ’s Dec. 22 gem , “ singular variables must drive alone practices in similar business line . ” Come again ? “ If the value of information at rest greatly diminishes over sentence , should n’t oursecurity example be more flexible and adaptive ? ” If only , general ! Run with that ! start the fashion ! I promise it ’ll get you more followers .
5 . Gen. Will Fraser . Spano ’s boss at Air Combat Command seems to consider Twitter as primarily a morale booster.@ACCBossis a provender filled with you - guy - rule tweets like : “ brilliant visit to 705 CTS [ Combat Training Squadron ] at Kirtland AFB – terrific onward motion has been made with distributed mission operations . ” And : “ raise MajGen Ted Kresge to LtGen – he is off to control 13th Air Force – we bid him all the best and give thanks him for his continued service . ” All of which is cool . But this is a revolutionary mo for air combat , with remotely piloted aircraft dally therole that attack aircraft jets once played . Maybe Fraser has some Twitter - friendly perspectives on that he could share ? There ’s more to social networking thansharing a reenlistment ceremonial at the Talladega Superspeedway .
Bottom railway line , Sir : Donald Rumsfeld has a better Twitter feedthan you do right now . You going to permit that stand ?
figure : FAILWhale / Yiying Lu
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