Navy Recruiting Command Ombudsman, May 21, 2012

1. Social Media Revolution Video
Pre-load and test video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs&feature=player_detailpage

2. Social Media
• It’s communication, just like we do everyday with
e-mail, telephone, face-to-face, etc.
• It’s more than just channels like FaceBook, Twitter,
and Linked-In
– Channels are kind of like languages
– Languages can be mastered easily, but content
and conversation are what really matter
Credit: Tim Ho, Digital Strategist, Ogilvy PR, Hong Kong, http://facebook.com/timho http://twitter.com/timho

3. Today’s Environment
• Social media use among key demographics continues to grow
• Our Sailors’ preferred means of communication
• Control of social media conversation is impossible. “Avoiding
participation only protects the illusion of control”
• Effective use of social media requires even more risk
• With social media, all Navy stakeholders – Sailors, Navy civilians,
families, retirees, and others – are communicators
• Policy enables use of social media

4. Social vs. traditional media daily use
• 55 percent watch TV
• 47 percent visit Facebook
• 37 percent listen to the radio
• 22 percent read newspapers
Source: Nielsen

5. Social Media Use in the Navy
Cumulative
% % SNS Usage % Created on-line profile
35 35 Several times 93 Yes
daily 7 No
22 57 Once a day
13 70 3-5 times a week
11 82 1-2 times a week
5 86 Every few weeks
6 92 Less often
8 100 Never
82% of recruits use social networking sites at least 1-2 times a week
Only 8% have never used a social networking site
5

6. Policy & Practice
• Military’s policies encourage participation in social media
and require commands to allow access. The “default
setting” is open for social media and burden of proof is
on the command to get permission to close off access to
social media.
• Social media is a great platform for starting a
conversation, but we still need face-to-face for anything
beyond general recruiting questions.
• About 100,000 fans & 15 Facebook pages designed to
foster open dialogue and focused different recruiting
priorities and interests (Special Forces, Healthcare,
Diver, Chaplain).

7. What’s Available
• Social media is part of
broader communication plan
• Need to be familiar with
multiple tools to find the right
one
• Ask yourself these questions
in planning:
- What are your goals?
- Where are your
stakeholders?
- Can you cross-purpose?
- How will you measure
success (qualitative and/or
quantitative)?

8. Where We Are in Navy Recruiting
• Navy Recruiting Social Media Directory: http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/social_media.htm
• Navy’s directory: www.navy.mil/media/smd.asp
• Navy Chief of Information social media: www.chinfo.navy.mil/socialmedia.html

9. NavyforMoms.com
• Launched in March 2008
• More than 40,000 members today
• Averages 1,200+ new members per month
• More than 10,000 ongoing discussions
– This is the perfect venue to engage on a local level
with parents and influencers.
– Participation in local events

10. Social Media: A Critical Component to Every
Command’s Community Outreach Strategy
Tips for Getting Started:
 Know your audience
 Engage where your audience is
 Be a resource to your audience
 Encourage conversation and
sharing (comments, stories, photos,
videos, etc.)
 Listen and respond
 Connect online to enhance offline
relationships

11. Three Keys to Success
Risk - Leaders and communicators will need to
accept more risk in our communication efforts as we
engage in social and emerging media.
Control - Increasing the voices and the credibility of
our message comes with a decreasing control of the
content. Dialogue augments and, in some cases,
replaces press releases. All voices have the
opportunity to heard.
Agility - We will have to be even more agile than we
already are, but avoid the temptation to go after
every bright shiny object

12. A Day in the Life of Social Media
Pre-load and test video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iReY3W9ZkLU

13. Backup

14. Recruiting Challenges
• We’re still hiring!
– More than 40,000 Sailors needed every year.
– Only the best and brightest qualify to fill the most-
challenging careers (medical, dental, engineering,
chaplain, Navy SEAL)
• Quality of young people who join the Navy has never
been better
– 98.7% High School Diplomas in FY11
– 86.9% Highest Test Score Categories on ASVAB
• Only 1/3 of total eligible population is qualified to the
join the military.

15. Social Media…
• allows recruiters to establish more genuine relationships and be sought
after as a community resource
• enables recruiters to tell their story and share information without
making a “sales pitch”
• extends recruiters’ networks to easily reach existing contacts’ friends,
acquaintances and colleagues
• establishes a comfortable space for information gathering and Q&A
among those interested in joining the Navy
• raises recruiter awareness of local activities and interests of people
within a particular community