Social Media

Adult Staff Execs
1

Hi,

I’m always looking of ways to develop the ACO’s social media presence & policy.

It would be good to read your comments on the following points:

  1. Recent experiences/comments/suggestions/concerns

  2. Operation of squadron social media presence e.g. a facebook page or group.

  3. Benefit / internal & external engagement / squadron communication? How do you use it?

  4. Social media policy - suggestions for development / issues etc.

Your comments will allow me to develop and gain a better insight into any issues or experiences.

Happy to answer any questions via this thread or by dm.

Thanks,

Adam
Special Projects Officer (Social Media)

2

Hi Adam,

The only thing I have noticed is squadrons in my local area are reluctant to have a squadron Facebook page as we have all been lead to believe that this is forbidden or indeed is more hassle than its worth. I’ll admit I have limited knowledge RE the corps media policy (I just keep myself right by not having a Facebook at all) but perhaps stronger clarification would be welcomed?

Other than that I find that corps media tends to focus more on the activities of cadets and squadrons south of the border. Perhaps there could be more mentioned about the activities in S&NI Region?

Keep up the good work!

3

[quote=“barber”]Hi,

It would be good to read your comments on the following points:

  1. Recent experiences/comments/suggestions/concerns[/quote]
    I am beginning to think that our squadron website may become increasly-irrelevant because of Facebook, or perhaps just slimmed-down version to become a signpost to our Facebook page(s)

Our closed Squadron Facebook page is an extremely-effective mode for communicating with existing Cadets and Parents. However, there is an ageing-in aspect, in that it’s been quite common to find that younger Cadets tend not to use Facebook, and are sometimes under some degree of parental pressure not to use it when they join the Organisation. Although 13 is the minimum official age to have an independant Facebook account, it’s interesting to note that parents clearly consider a child having their own Facebook account as being a real coming-of-age event (completely-different from them using Bebo or Blackberry). There are totally obvious reasons for this i.e. the universal footprint of Facebook

[quote=“barber”]3) Benefit / internal & external engagement / squadron communication? How do you use it?[/quote] The benefits of using closed social for internal communication cannot be underestimated, but I still feel that Cadets taking away hard-copy training programmes to stick on the fridge is essential. Similarly, I will still send global SMS text reminders to either the entire squadron, or sub-groups, with reminders/updates/amendments/cancellations, as although a lot of Cadets/Parents do have access to Facebook/email via mobile devices, there is an unavoidable-effectiveness in sending SMS texts that beats phonecalls and Facebook (especially if it includes a demand for a text-back).

The squadron website is definitely the local corporate front-end of the squadron. I’m of the opinion that having simple, sharp URLs, placed in the right locations, is a very effective approach for squadron recruitment. A killer combination that seems to really hit the spot with Parents/Grandparents/other family of Potential Recruits is the placing of squadron website URLs in another medium (does this make sense?). By this, if a squadron recruitment drive is done via a small-ad in a local paper that includes the squadron website, it seems to generate a much-bigger response for an open day. I’m not convinced that these attendees/Recruits actually check the content in detail before attending, it’s just something that seems to validate the local organisation

It’s finding/defining what the best combination is. Some things scare me completely, such as any suggestion that training could take place on-line, or the whole idea of blurring the boundary so as to routinely allow Cadets to sit Ultilearn assessments at home and provide two-way feedback via social media. To me, that would be a very ill-advised combination, and I speak from real experience of this outwith the ACO. Unless it’s for some kind of exceptional health-related stay-at-home reason, I think this should be avoided at all costs.

Whilst remembering that we must never over-sell the product, for me there is a simple, hugely-effective way in which the RAF Air Cadets can market itself: if that, for a range of reasons, is what it must do…

And it’s through a traditional medium with huge reach: and that it at the movies. Seriously.

If an agreement could be reached, perhaps via the sector of patronage provided by the mobile communications companies, or a citizenship sponsorship appeal to Pearl and Dean, for a series of savvy ads that were honest, targeted and addictive, the benefits to the Organisation could be huge. And having seen the brilliant skills of many of the Cadets and Staff up and down the country, a production could be obtained that would be cost-effective yet very professional.

I believe that much closer links could+should be created with the UAS, and also with the RAuxAF, which would result in a real back-to-roots benefit for the Air Force family…this could extend into recruitment initiatives, but also into certain appropriate elements of social media cross-awareness (I believe the extended Air Force family is, these days, more of a stranger to itself than is healthy…especially in these times of official austerity).

wilf_san

4

[quote=“axl” post=1609]Hi Adam,

The only thing I have noticed is squadrons in my local area are reluctant to have a squadron Facebook page as we have all been lead to believe that this is forbidden or indeed is more hassle than its worth. I’ll admit I have limited knowledge RE the corps media policy (I just keep myself right by not having a Facebook at all) but perhaps stronger clarification would be welcomed?

Other than that I find that corps media tends to focus more on the activities of cadets and squadrons south of the border. Perhaps there could be more mentioned about the activities in S&NI Region?

Keep up the good work![/quote]

Hi axl,

Whereabouts in S&NI are you? It might be due to local security arrangements, but other than that, it is encouraged and squadrons benefit from it using it.

The social media policy can be read v/ sharepoint. A copy can also be obtained from your Wing or Regional Media Communications Officer.

I will forward your comments to the Deputy Head Media Comms regarding S&NI content. I’ll start sharing more S&NI content via social media.

Thanks,

Adam

5

Hi Adam,

Personally, I think the Social Media policy is pretty much spot on - and certainly a massive leap forward in that it enables squadrons to embrace technology! If anything, my only critism was the delay in publishing - but it’s here now, so we can’t complain too much!

Recent experiences - very positive. Our Facebook page & Twitter feed quickly and efficiently enable us to distribute information; but also to promote our Squadron & events. We’ve had a dabble at advertising via facebook which had good results at raising our profile amongst a targetted group of people - but had little return in terms of feet through the door.

One of my major concerns & critisms - and this is less a product of yourselves, and more a product of SharePoint and poor document management - but when you type in “Social Media Policy” into SharePoint, have a look at how many DIFFERENT versions of the policy document you get up spread across different Wings & Regions.

A potential area for development (perhaps using SharePoint positively!) would be to look into “Good Practice Guides” - these used to be available across the ACO for many different things - but they really do help hammer home the point about what works and what doesn’t work. It enables us all to learn from others, and would be really useful for those who are just breaking into the field. It need not be setup as a word/PDF download or powerpoint, but an interactive guide. Yes, this could well be cascaded through the Corps using the traditional CoC, but why not cascade and share best practice back up as well!

We’re currently using a Facebook Page (formal front end, professional presence), a Facebook Page for our alumni (a very useful tool for keeping them informed of the Squadrons progress, which can be useful in keeping our profile up in the local business community too), Twitter and a YouTube channel. We’ve also had event specific Twitter feeds and Facebook events. All work well. Across Facebook we also try - where possible - to Share releveant local, regional and national information so it shows up directly on our cadets wall.

We use generally try to limit our “Professional” squadron Facebook page & twitter feed to external engagement, although, for emergency’s, we use the other media too (but try to delete the appropriate articles once they are nul/void). We don’t have a Facebook group (closed or open) as we have an active Squadron website & forum.

However, our Wg’s AT community makes very good use of a closed group to share information, events, and promote discussion and interest across the Wing. This has been very successful in building relationships, sharing ideas and experiences and encouraging good practice. I’m also part of a couple of other ACO groups which have similar foundations in sharing information and good practice - and all have been very valuable in keeping up to speed with the information flow.

See 1. Better social media training and good practice guides. A simple, no nonsense guide so that everybody can take part in social media - not just those who have the knowledge/experience/willingness to experiment. Run correctly, a days training course could, as well as showing people why/how to use social media, but could very easily have a tangible outcome in having participants set up their own Facebook Page for their Squadron - and given them a strategy for the first year of use (publishing news articles, promoting intake evenings, promoting local events, uploading photos, enrollments, certificates etc) - coupling this strategic approach would really help squadrons keep on top of their social media - rather than setting it up and letting it only to die within a month.

6

Hi Adam,

  1. Our recent experiences have been a little off putting in that we had staff who were IT savvy and did good stuff, but then they left suddenly and we have big problems in getting the Sqn website and twitter back under our control, as they had all the details and contact with them was not possible. That, coupled with none of us being into IT in any way, other than users, means we have no real knowledge of what is effective/useful/dangerous etc.

Our experience of Social Media policy is that it has only been seen as a stick and never a carrot and none of us are enthused to research it in detail to see what is or isnt allowed.

  1. We do have a Sqn website, but basically an electronic brochure, operated by the committee (as they fund it and have someone who could set it up) but it isnt interactive at all. Facebook pages scare us all silly due to tales (probably mainly tall) and our lack of knowledge/interest in the site in general.

3)No experience

  1. Again no direct experience

It was all so much easier with staff who knew all about IT, but one went onto different things in the organisation(!) and the other left suddenly.

Good luck with it all

Dub

7

At Squadron level, we don’t use Facebook or Twitter, however our website is heavily used by our cadets (mostly out of necessity, as we don’t have a permanent location, so even our Sqn Notice board is virtual).

At Wing level (Thames Valley), we are heavily using Facebook to publicise news on the Wing website, events, share pictures from past events (personally I think this has increased interest in activities as people see what happened at camp, road marching, etc). The only issue we have had is a small number of unacceptable comments on the pictures. So far we have dealt with this by using bans and contacting the OC of the cadet’s Sqn.

I do wonder how many cadets have actually seen the social networking policy

We use Twitter to help publicise our news stories from the wing website, but beyond this, its not hugely used. We also pool squadron Twitter feeds into one list which is displayed on the Wing site.

8

I think it would be good to have an “RAF Airman” style, semi official twitter account where a CFAV is tweeting about life as a CFAV. The stresses and the successes etc.

9

It’s this sort of banality that is ideally suited to social media.

Having in the last month acquired a FB account to keep tabs on the gigs of a couple of local bands I go to see and a couple of my mates nagged me into becoming ‘internet friends’, although we’ve been mates for over 40 years, and what a load of crap. Some of the things I’ve seen people write is mind-numbing in the extreme and at best what I would call ‘pub chat’ and given it can be seen by all your ‘friends’ , mind you it’s nothing compared to some of the stuff my kids and their mates write.

Based on this I can’t see the benefit for a squadron, as most things posted the cadets should be coming to the sqn to find out not sitting on the bog.

10
  1. Recent experiences/comments/suggestions/concerns

I’ve introduced facebook groups on my last two units, (my most recent one already had one, which we’ve recently added the staff to.) Well handled it can be very very useful as there isn’t a lot of the banal chatter that GHE2 worries about, it’s pretty business-like stuff.

  1. Operation of squadron social media presence e.g. a facebook page or group.

As I’ve mentioned, we use a group on unit to advertise activities, uniform changes and also, we use it to authorise absences. If a cadet posts that they will be absent on a squadron evening we give them an authorised absence in the register. We’ve also looked into a fan style page for the unit, to advertise for recruitment.

  1. Benefit / internal & external engagement / squadron communication? How do you use it?

The benefit is mainly internal, we don’t use twitter which is more publicly focused.

  1. Social media policy - suggestions for development / issues etc.

The biggest issue with the policy, as with many policies is the awkward state of adult cadets. I recognise the reasons for limiting activity between volunteers and cadets, but the blanket ban is less useful for those aged 18-20. Particularly in the case of staff who have recently been cadets, who have actual friends who are still 18, 19. Also, it’s a bit much for the ATC to tell adult cadets who they can and can’t be friends with. If they choose at 18, to add someone on social media, there’s not a lot to say against it.

11

[quote=“bigmalcmk” post=1635]Our recent experiences have been a little off putting in that we had staff who were IT savvy and did good stuff, but then they left suddenly and we have big problems in getting the Sqn website and twitter back under our control, as they had all the details and contact with them was not possible. That, coupled with none of us being into IT in any way, other than users, means we have no real knowledge of what is effective/useful/dangerous etc…

… It was all so much easier with staff who knew all about IT, but one went onto different things in the organisation(!) and the other left suddenly.[/quote]
Both of which highlight the training requirement to support the implementation of the policy.

[quote=“the fixer” post=1658]I think it would be good to have an “RAF Airman” style, semi official twitter account where a CFAV is tweeting about life as a CFAV. The stresses and the successes etc.[/quote]IIRC there are a couple of Wing Commanders who are “blogging” their exploits through their facebook pages - and seems to be attracting a fair amount of attention; OC Greater Manchester Wing & OC Staffs Wing. One is certainly more active than the other. There’s also the Commandant’s Facebook Page.

I would say that a regular CFAV’s page probably wouldn’t be nearly as exciting as above (and by that I’m in no way suggesting that either of the WgCdr’s nor the Commandant’s blogs are exciting!!!

12

But shouldn’t activities be advertised at the sqn and cadets attend the sqn to find out? As I say there is a danger that cadets use it to see if it’s worth coming. If the training programme is up to scratch then the cadets are told what to wear over 2/3 final parades. A cadet can phone to say they going to be absent and has worked for many, many years, prior to the invention of social media. I can’t see that they are going to be that incapacititated they or there parents could phone in and leave a message.
Is there anything people do that isn’t in reality reinventing the wheel? I get the impression that social media is, by and large, being used as an online noticeboard, not just by the Corps but by many people, surely it has to have a better use than this?

I think that in terms of the broader Corps, there should be an accpetance that being sent by an individual is an electronic signature, or use something like Acrobat to 'digitally sign" things. My company accepts these from a list of authorised signatories and speeds things up no end. There are things I still have to sign and post hard copy in the ATC.

13

Isn’t there something wrong if the cadets aren’t coming when they know what the programme is?

14

We publish the training programme around 3 months in advance by putting it on the noticeboard at the unit and uploading it to our closed FB group. Keeping the training programme secret is the symptom of a crap squadron in my book.

How they access that programme is neither here nor there: we communicate the information and they decide whether to turn up or not. It is up to us to make it as attractive as possible and we don’t do too badly out of it.

FB is handy for us making last-minute postings, warnings about ice, reminders about expected payments etc. and the ability for us to tag specific cadets means that they are more likely to see that information and be able to do something about it.

It also serves as a bit of a team-building focus as we can put photos and video up there which we would not necessarily publish on our public FB page, which is very much a publicity tool.

15

Isn’t there something wrong if the cadets aren’t coming when they know what the programme is?[/quote]
This isn’t referring to the programme per se, this referring to “advertising” activities to cadets who may not be attending, who then attend when they see something ‘interesting’. The cadets that turn up know what the programme is it’s on the wall with a “will change at the last minute” caveat and they attend or not, as has been the case for donkey’s, as the emphasis should be on cadets turning up to find things out and not being spoonfed. Don’t turn up, miss out. I think as a society we like to think that we’re too busy to bother with doing mundane things like turning up at our cadet squadron in this instance to find things out.
As for reminders about expected payments, no pay - no play in my book, if they’ve had the info sheet to take home and been reminded at the sqn, it’s down to them to remember, not for me to send them a comfy message via social media or whatever. If they miss out once, they won’t make the same mistake. Life is spikey. I don’t get a reminder before the due date from the gas/electric/phone or cedit card people once they’ve sent the bill.

The major problem with a system as some have described is that you need someone to ensure they keep on top of updates and reminders, as if you allow people to get too comfortable with an electronic nudge that means they haven’t got to think for themselves, then it stops or gets forgotten and they haven’t been told, they’ll soon moan. I’d sooner not have that rod. It’s like sqn websites, how many have started with a fanfare and a blaze of glory only to fizzle out when the instigator moves on, gets too busy, loses interest as no one else is bothered etc etc.

It’s OK using technology as long as it’s not used so that people can abrogate personal responsibility or obligation, which I feel the way in which people are describing how social media seems to be used on the sqn, it is effectively doing that, as I read it.

I do wonder how I’ve managed to last the thick end of 50 years without all of this.

16
  1. Recent experiences/comments/suggestions/concerns
  • I did think the initial response was a bit knee jerk when the directive came out about not having Cadets as “Friends”, don’t misunderstand I agree with the decision but find the execution of some decisions to be a tad heavy handed.

you have always been very helpful with support requests

  1. Operation of squadron social media presence e.g. a facebook page or group.
  • we have a closed squadron members only page which is invaluable for a communication tool, we even have parents who hve requested to join it. It is proving very effective.
  1. Benefit / internal & external engagement / squadron communication? How do you use it?
  • I have found that our Facebook page has now superseded our website which is now just a window to the world, we no longer use our members area forum on the website
  1. Social media policy - suggestions for development / issues etc.

I think it is about right, the facebook page does show cadet activities, perhaps a bit more about recruitment.
I do not care to be told “how busy the commandant has been” though, I think I will be “switching off” that page

17

[quote=“397k” post=1707]I do not care to be told “how busy the commandant has been” though, I think I will be “switching off” that page[/quote]You see I have quite enjoyed having an insight into just how busy the Commandant has been - and we share this with our cadets via our Facebook page. Feedback from them has been broadly positive! Each to their own I suppose - and the joys of an unsubscribe button!

18

I think BF that there’s a chance all of this “Commandant has visited x y z unit/VGS” etc. could leave a bitter taste in the mouth, given the way that the Sharepoint sites for example, where we are really to gleam our information from, are so poorly updated. That is of course, if you are not raving mad over health and safety!

However I find the Commandant’s page to be excellent, as I do the squadron pages I see.

Our squadron has a front page only. Our internal affairs are not, and will not, be a case for Facebook. We have an intranet page in development through mysquadron.org.uk which I find is brilliant.

Anyone who queries via our page about local info, is directed to the relevant BADER address, or the post is removed.

19

[quote=“barber” post=1607]1) Recent experiences/comments/suggestions/concerns[/quote]Not much to report!

Like many units, we have a two-part social media presence:
1. a public facing one - in our case, a website, twitter account and a facebook ‘page’, geared primarily towards recruiting and profile-raising
2. An internal, administrative one - in our case a closed facebook ‘group’. It’s a fantastic tool - cadets can use it to ask basic questions (such as ‘what uniform is it?’ and have them answered pretty much immediately, as staff receive the message on their 'phone, etc. Staff can send out messages to the whole unit (eg ‘the uniform will now be No 2C on Tuesday’) and once again the dissemination is very rapid.

[quote=“barber” post=1607]3) Benefit / internal & external engagement / squadron communication? How do you use it? [/quote]As above really.

[quote=“barber” post=1607]4) Social media policy - suggestions for development / issues etc. [/quote]I think that one of the biggest problems is the blanket no staff-cadet friendships rule - as I’ve pointed out previously, you could have two 19 year old FSs, one 6 months older than the other, who are close friends; one ages out and becomes staff but they’re not going to cease being friends in ‘real life’ so why should they do so on Facebook? A simple solution would seem to be that U16 cadets can be friends with other U16 or 16-18YO cadets, 16-18YO cadets can be friends with 16-18YO cadets, U16 cadets or Staff cadets, staff cadets can be friends with 16-18YO cadets, staff cadets or staff, and staff can be friends with other staff or staff cadets.

20

Here’s a suggestion, and I know it will be tough to manage…but could “named” staff members perhaps gain access to a couple of the closed sites, to see how they operate?

I “like” a number of ATC units front-of-house pages, but I’d be fascinated to find out how the closed groups work!