1. #PRSA_USMC

3. Colonel Bryan Salas
@sharethecourage
Director
Public Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps

18. Social Media Challenges
• Accuracy • Legal
• Appropriateness • Personal information/ Privacy
• Ethics regulations Act
• Personal conduct • Terms of Service
• Operational/Industrial security • Defamatory, libelous,
• Counter intelligence obscene, abusive, threatening,
racially hateful, or otherwise
• Network security- malware, offensive material.
viruses, password strength
• Copyright infringement
• Cyber criminals - Social
engineered attacks • Inappropriate release of
official information.
• Political endorsement
• Review daily

19. The Marines & Social Media
• Overview of the Marine Corps
• Planning/Framework
• Lessons Learned
• Daily Practices
• Recruiting & Social Media

20. Major Carrie Batson
Strategic Communication
Public Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps

21. Global Internet Use
Total worldwide: 1.6 billion users
Internet User Growth 2000 – 2009
Middle East
Europe +1360%
+283% 48M
North America 402M Asia
+132% Latin America
Africa +513%
252M +873% 701M
+1321%
176M
64M
Oceania/Australia
+173%
174M
Source: Internet stats; UM Wave 4 Study, July 2008 21

22. Marine Corps Demographics
160,000 Millennials
40,200 Xr’s
1,800 Boomers Boomers
<1%
Gen X
19%
Gen Y Gen Y
Gen X
80% Boomers

24. Mission
Integrate social media
into broader communication efforts
IOT
build understanding, credibility, trust and
relationships with publics critical to the
Marine Corps’ success.

25. Objectives
• Increase publics' knowledge of the Marine Corps
• Increase transparency
• Protect reputation in social media space
• Improve issue identification and response capability
• Improve decision-making through feedback
• Recruit qualified individuals into the Marine Corps

26. Lieutenant Colonel Greg Reeder
• Director, Defense Media Activity Marines
• Editor-In-Chief, Marines Magazine
• Head, U.S. Marine Corps Public Web

27. Lesson Plan

28. Iwo Jima Flag Raising
• Rosenthal snaps it;
AP sends it < 17.5 hrs
• Pres. Roosevelt:
7th war bond drive; Orders Servicemen
identified, brought home. 1 picture
• Images goes “VIRAL”:
everyone in America would see this picture 5 Marines
- over and over. 1 sailor
– 7th Bond Tour raised $26 Billion
(1945 Dollars) for U.S. Treasury 17.5 hours
– Perspective:
total US Budget in 1946 was $56 Billion. $26 billion
1 million Retail Store Windows | 16,000 Movie Theaters | 15,000 Banks
200,000 Factories | 30,000 Train Stations | 5,000 Billboards

29. UPPER MANAGEMENT
Old Dogs WILL Learn New Tricks. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!

30. A social Corps – paradigm shift
• Gap between old leaders and young Marines
– Uncontrolled information; organization demands control
– Significant risk in not engaging
– Communicate in their native environment
• Internal and external communications based on formula
used since WWII: “tell” our story with maximum
disclosure and minimum delay.
• Shift from press release mindset
– Empower Marines to share their stories
– Distributed release authority
– Emphasize guidance and training

31. Accomplishing the mission
• Old Model = Tell our story
• New Reality = Share stories people want; two-way communication
• Loss of market share vs. loss of lives;
FRO VTT IA MCCS
military advantage; OPSEC OPSEC OCS
MCT FRAT O&M
SAPP
Help Marines / Communicate Worldwide:
communicate, reintegrate, operate
– Community Services One Source
– Warrior Care
– Family Readiness Officers
– Mommy Bloggers

32. Policy – working with the slippery slope
• In the absence of guidance:
do the right thing
– Administrative Message
• aka “executive memo”
– Rules of Engagement
– Policies and Process
– Basic Principles
– Terms of Service

33. BEING CUTE
Well, It Sounded Like a Good Idea at the Time

34. Take the initiative
• Try to navigate open seas
of SM
• Multiple twitter handles;
Facebook duality;
unbranded channels
• Overcome:
– No access
– limited understanding and
buy-in
– policy void
@MCNews – chaotic environment
@MarineCorpsNews
@MarinesTV • Refocus on objectives
@USMC

35. Same but Different…
• Must look at everyday as Election Day – N/A
• Awareness vs. revenue model
• Build understanding and support
– “America doesn’t need a Marine Corps, America wants a Marine
Corps”
LtGen Victor Krulak

36. You Want Answers?

37. CONTENT
It Can Be Adjusted Only So Much

38. Compelling?
• EWS students tour LOGCOM, MCA
• 3/7 wraps up training at MCMWTC with FINEX
• Caution urged during start of hunting season
• New ACE, GCE in place, ready for Fall Patrol
• Flyby:HM2HONNOLL
o Marines deliver joy to Afghan Orphanage
o Fellow Veterans show wounded warriors new way to heal
o Marines Face challenge in unstable Afghanistan
o When daddy’s gone: effects of deployment on children

39. SUPPORT
Admit It – You Can’t Always Be The Expert At Everything

40. How we’re staffed
• The Few, The Proud, did I mention the few?
• 3 Marines:
– 1 on loan
– 1 new
– 1 at school
– Dual / triple purpose
• Print, Broadcast, Online, Media Relations
– All dedicated to the mission

41. Plan of Attack
• Brand recognition
• Maintain organizational values
• Dispel misinformation – but still tell the whole story
• Provide guidance for Marines
– don’t give up terrain to adversaries
• Ensure complimentary communications, uniformity,
organization and standards

42. DATA ANALYSIS
Data: It’s Like A Bikini

43. Data trends / traffic
• Causation and Correlation more important
– Spike on Haiti earthquake - lull when Marines left Iraq
– Lull on human interest - Spike on action stories
• Aggregate traffic increased:
not a zero sum game
– More market share than existed before
– Total presence expanded vice increase in activity
• How do we tweak the dials to get a response?
– Action verbs / Context driven
Coca Cola:
When you open a Coke, 12352 bubbles are born.
Happy birthday, bubbles.
Marine Corps: Explosion, Fighting… action

44. Lessons Learned
1. Act in the absence of guidance – make informed decisions and
senior leaders will understand.
2. Follow good examples but remain true to your brand – don’t try
to full-scale copy success; improvement comes from trying.
3. Content is key, telling it in a compelling way to generate interest
is vital.
4. Support: Don’t hesitate to ask for it. None of us are the experts at
everything.
5. Data is more than the presentation of numbers – tracking trends,
causation and correlation are more important.

45. And still… a work in progress
• Plan
• Training
• Standards
• Leverage personnel
• Overall organizational policy /mandates
• Analysis
• PII
• Leaders Engagement, Buy In

46. Gunnery Sergeant C. Nuntavong
@authoriTHAI
Media Chief, Headquarters Marine Corps
&
Lead Editor, U.S. Marine Corps Social Media Team

47. How we use social media

48. Our goal
The
MARINE
CORPS
Story

49. Our audience
• Internal • External
– Servicemembers – Family
•Active – Friends
•Reserve – The Media
•Retired – Global Audience
People who are looking for news and
information about the Marine Corps

50. Content & Status Updates

54. Marines.mil

55. youtube.com/Marines

56. flickr.com/Marine_Corps

57. facebook.com/Marines

58. twitter.com/USMC

60. Major Christian Devine
@CDevine1
Public Affairs Officer
U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Command

62. Recruiting & Social Media
• The objective of MCRC’s social media program is to grow active
Marine Corps communities on a National level that engages
prospects and key influencers where they naturally congregate with
our branding message (the Longer Marine Corps Story)

63. Recruiting & Social Media
Listen Engage Measure
• Listen: Monitor conversations daily across the web and within our own
communities
• Engage: Create content experiences that leverage synergies between
community needs and business objectives
• Measure: Track performance and optimize for future posts

64. Monitoring & Moderation
• The monitoring program is used to help
shape all communications programs,
including social properties
• Daily digest of key issues
– One-page report for consumption by senior
leadership of MCRC
– Targeted to issues impacting recruiting
– Provides daily pulse for risk management
and response

65. Monitoring & Moderation
• Social networking sites are moderated daily
(including weekends)
– Ensures that community members are following
established community guidelines
– Provides a safe and interactive place for
community members to congregate and share
their experiences
– Ensures that the Marine Corps brand and
recruiting story are properly positioned
• While communities tend to be self-policing,
consistent moderation is needed to guide and
sometimes corral the discussions taking place
• Identify synergies between community needs and
business objectives
– Using that knowledge to increase engagement

66. Engagement Content Production
• GOALS
– Keep communities engaged with a cadence of
communications and content
– Grow communities by posting content that users are
likely to share forward
• STRATEGY
– Answer frequently answered questions and other
user-discussed topics
– Relevancy to Marine Corps recruiting
– Timing and frequency considerations
– Channel- and audience-specific content Paid Media
Application Development

67. facebook.com/MarineCorps
• Marine Corps Facebook page
launched in 2008
• 340,000+ fans
• Each content post garners
between 300,000 and 800,000
impressions and 1,500
comments/likes
• Top 10 for driving traffic to
MCRC websites
• Top 15 for generating lead form
submissions (predominantly
officer)

68. youtube.com/OurMarines
• Marine Corps YouTube
page launched in 2008
• 2,500,000+ video views;
4,900+ subscribers
– Discovery and spread of a
video after launch is largely
driven by cross-posts to
MCRC social media
properties, specifically
Facebook

69. myspace.com/MarineCorps
• Launched in 2006
• 70,000 friends
– Predominantly male
prospects aged 18-24,
followed by
current/former Marines
and influencers
– Large diversity audience
• Drives a considerable
amount of traffic and
lead form submissions

70. twitter.com/USMarineCorps
• Launched in
2009
• 2,300+
followers

71. Local Efforts in Social

72. Where to find us
Marines.mil/socialmedia
directory, official policies & user guidelines
Marine Corps Recruiting
• facebook.com/Marines • facebook.com/MarineCorps
• youtube.com/Marines • youtube.com/OurMarines
• twitter.com/USMC • twitter.com/USMarineCorps
• flickr.com/Marine_Corps • myspace.com/MarineCorps