Oh yeah, that’s right, at first glance, thousands of my followers don’t appear to care about the military. So what? Believe it or not, when I write a post on Twitter calling for support to an organization like SoldiersAngels.org - those same Twitters will retweet that story to show their support. Twitter is a great community of military supporters, and I'm grateful for each of my followers.
And in my opinion, Twitter is undeniably the best marketing and PR tool online. Why? You can write something on Twitter that can easily go viral. It doesn’t matter if you are marketing cardboard boxes or the next weight loss gimmick: if you’re trying to spread the word about the military, it’s a great PR tool. I mean, really, I’d rather pour steaming hot coffee on my face than use MySpace. Seriously, no offense to MySpace or Facebook because they’re great for personal networking. But literally every time I view a MySpace page I feel sick. In fact, I’m not sure what’s worse: food poisoning or MySpace. It’s a toss up.
Now, I’m not here to criticize or anything, because it took me a long time to get on Twitter. I speak to military bloggers and military webmasters every week on email and by the phone. Some who invest all their free time, working 15 hours a day on their website. What’s my point? If you’re a military blogger or military webmaster looking to increase traffic, you need to be on Twitter. Let’s be frank, unless you pay for advertising or unless some heavy hitter website backlinks to one of your stories (which happens less often these days), it’s a challenge to build traffic especially in the military blog niche.
Let me tell you, when I started blogging from Afghanistan in 2004, I had no intention of making money. Like most military bloggers from the frontlines who get their start, I just wanted an easier way of telling my story. But seriously, if you’ve been able to sell a website, publish a book, monetize your traffic – that’s awesome. Don’t let others tell you there’s something wrong with that, just because you write a military blog. Now, if you’re on the frontlines or homefront, and your only reason for running a blog is tell your personal story to family and friends, this post doesn’t necessarily apply to you [particularly, the monetizing stuff]. Plus, when you’re active duty, there are do’s and don’ts.
But if you spend several hours a night on your website, there are plenty of ways to increase traffic and monetize it. With the exception of picking your nose and putting it on Dominos food (Yes, True story), a good free way to get attention is to get a Twitter account. It doesn’t matter if your site only gets 10 visitors a day or 1,000. It’s the easiest, quickest, and most importantly, the cheapest way to build and grow your online presence. You know how I know this is true? Because I did it in less than 8 weeks, and when I post a link on Twitter the traffic back to my website increases substantially.
Let’s face it, we all need to pay the bills. So for those of you who criticize me for writing about monetizing your website, I have no idea why. I don’t get it. There’s nothing wrong with taking your blog or website to the next level.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at milblogging@gmail.com
Update, On a related note, my wife said I can only Tweet 1 hour a day from now on. Something about me spending too much time on the computer and signing birthday and other cards with @Milblogging instead of my real name.
I’m not sure what she’s talking about. Twitter has had no impact on me at all *starts shaking…calling phone company now to get unlimited texting [she didn’t say anything about the phone*
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From March 2004 to January 2005, Spc. Jason Stinnett wrote a weekly "Soldier's Diary" while deployed with the Alabama National Guard's 279th Signal Battalion.
From January 2008 until he was injured in a convoy accident in October, Army Capt. Matthew Curtis of Madison gave us an inside look at his job monitoring the border between Iraq and Syria.
Read the entire story here.
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We'll have MG Oates from 1:00 - 1:30.
I'll update the agenda to reflect the addition soon, and I'll also be posting some additional information in the next day or two as the conference is almost here.
Read the entire story here.
Thanks to the super awesome Andi for the tip.
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A few days ago I spoke with Lindy Kyzer, a Public Affairs Specialist with the Online and Social Media Division within the Department of the Army. Our conversation was around the launch of the official U.S. Army blog [public launch was yesterday]. I also asked Lindy a few questions --- her responses are below.
JP, Milblogging.com Host: Please tell me more about what your Group [the Online and Social Media Divison] is responsible for.
Lindy: The Army began engaging online and social media to an increased extent in the spring of 2008. In March of 2008 the Secretary of the Army did the first of several blogger's roundtables on key topics. He had begun to realize the power of the blogosphere, and encouraged other Army leaders to open themselves up to interview opportunities with the milblog community. From that spring up through today our engagement with bloggers and social media has steadily increased. We have had a great deal of support from senior leaders to include the Secretary of the Army, Chief of Staff of the Army and Vice Chief of Staff, as well as our Chief of Public Affairs. They understand that in today's world, an increasing number of young people are getting their news online. That said, in January of 2008 Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, our current Chief of Public Affairs and a GO who really "gets" it, launched the Army's Online and Social Media Division. We have a LTC Division chief, an Army civilian working policy and an Army civilian managing the Army.mil Web team. I'm in charge of outreach - everything from blogger's roundtables to being a spokesperson on Twitter and fulfilling the social media charter for events like the Army Birthday and the Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium.
JP: What are the goals of the Army by using social media tools like Twitter?
Lindy: Our Army.mil team has done a great job of taking the presence we already have on the web and making it available in the social media sphere. It's simply a fact that these days when folks are looking for a particular video, they're most likely to visit You Tube and search for it rather than saying, 'hey, I bet www.army.mil has a great video about that.' So, it's important for us to be in those spaces, and that's what we do - bring Army news and information to the spaces and places our Soldiers and young people are already engaging. Our goal is the same in social media as it is in any place - to effectively and accurately tell the Army story. In social media transparency is always an issue so we're always clear on who we are and who we represent. Twitter has been a really value-added tool for us, and has given us the opportunity to really do what social media is all about - build a community. I'm on Twitter @LindyKyzer, and we also operate @USArmy. When we operate a social media engagement strategy for an individual event, of course, our goals are different, and the individual goals motivating the hundreds of Army public affairs officers across the globe differ based on their command's unique mission.
The Army blog, http://armylive.dodlive.mil which we officially launch tomorrow will be yet another way to reach out and build community. I think the Army really benefits from the fact that we've gotten connected with the milblogging community. We know the importance of military bloggers like CJ Grisham at www.soldiersperspective.us and John Donovan at Castle Argghhh! As much as possible we try to include the military blogging community in key topics and events. Seeing the success of that community is one of the reasons we're excited to launch Army LIVE. We want that vibrant conversation and comments section, and look forward to building a new community in the blogosphere through Army LIVE. We know that social media is all about conversation, and we're really excited to be able to communicate with the American Public about their U.S. Army.
JP: What are some of the benefits you’ve seen by using social networking tools?
Lindy: We've benefited from seeing the successful blogs out there, and we know that getting our community engaged and interacting in that space is key. The benefits have been amazing. The value-added feedback we receive from social media far outweighs the time it takes to engage. Social media is just that - social. It affords and opportunity to connect and build relationships in a way you don't always get with traditional outreach forms. When we conduct a blogger's roundtable, we don't just get questions, we get pointed feedback that drives the conversation into another direction. When we post videos or photos to social networking sites, we received value-added feedback that helps us to improve our future outreach efforts. Most of all we're able to form real relationships with our constituency of active duty Soldiers, family members, veterans and concerned citizens.
We're increasingly a Web world. As traditional news agencies increasingly look online for their news, it's an area we have to put more resources into. The majority of our Soldiers are young, and statistics show they're just about as likely to get their news from Facebook as they are the 5 o'clock news. If we want to remain viable we have to reach out through online and social media channels. We have to stay up to the latest developments rather than years behind. As we launch http://armylive.dodlive.mil, we want it to be a home base for our future engagement in online media. From the site we link to our other social networking sites, as well as the other official blogs that are being hosted by commanders and offices across the Army. The blogosphere is a powerful space and it's important for us to be there not just so we can join in the conversation, but so we better communicate to the public affairs officers across the Army the value of the blogosphere.
Note, Thanks to my readers who made it this far down the blog post. I typically keep my stories short, but this information is worth sharing. I’m not going to get into specifics, but my attention is usually...*oh look, a pretty butterfly*.
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We need a few volunteers to:
Meet at the conference site on April 24 at 10:00 a.m. to stuff attendee gift bags. This should take approximately an hour and a half.
Man the registration tables from 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. on April 25 at the cocktail reception.
Man the registration tables from 8:30 - 9:15 a.m. on April 25 at the conference.
If you can help, please leave your name in the comment section [here], along with the dates/times you can help, or click here to send an email with "volunteer" in the subject line.
Thanks in advance to those of you who will be volunteering to help. It's much appreciated.
Stay updated here.
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Several weeks ago we ran a poll asking respondents if we should accept Twitter Micro blogs, and the answer was: Yes.
At present, we have over 2,000 military blogs indexed on Milblogging.com, and now we’ll be indexing all of the Military Twitter micro blogs from the frontlines and the home front. Whether you are a military spouse, military supporter, military veteran, active duty, embedded reporter, a military parent or any one of the eligible branches listed here – you can now submit your Twitter micro blog to our index.
There are no major changes between submitting a regular military blog or a Twitter micro blog. The only format change is that for Military Twitter micro blogs, please enter the “Title” as your Twitter name such as @Milblogging.
By indexing Twitter micro blogs, this will allow our visitors to easily discover other Military Tweeters who tweet from the frontlines (such as @DeployedTeacher & @Scott_Kesterson) and the homefront (such as @mailourmilitary & @bouhammer), and increase traffic/followers to your own Twitter account.
If you have any questions, please send an email to milblogging@gmail.com
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Here's the Twitter conversation I had early yesterday with other Tweeters online when I ran a poll:
imagefusionDFW @milblogging That is what SEALS were made for ... let em go to work
DJChillWill @milblogging That is my sentiment exactly...That is the NAVY's job to keep the sealanes open...Someone's overthinking this too much!
NoReinsGirl @milblogging Agreed on the Seals. Delta could help too. Plus a few others. That would rock.
danseto @milblogging Agreed. Wondering what's taking so long. Waiting until they are so tired they go to sleep?
Shannan79 @milblogging go with navy seals
Mnmissy @milblogging I agree... Let the Navy Seals handle the Pirates. Isn't that part of their specialty!
TracyBrinkmann @milblogging Ditto - let the Seals handle their business|
ErnieMannix @milblogging If the sea gets calm: snipers.
dshiggins @milblogging agree - POTUS is letting the mil decide (I think) good choice; SEALS are the way to go
Stevenot @milblogging It would be over with already.
And here's the official news. Navy Seals are completely badass:
(FOX) Captain Richard Phillips is now safe and healthy aboard the USS Boxer after Navy Seals launched a rescue attempt that ended when snipers killed three pirates in three shots, all direct hits to the head.
Read entire story here.
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So it's refreshing to read a study on "Social Software and National Security," out of the Pentagon-sponsored National Defense University, that actually makes sense. Written by Mark Drapeau and former Pentagon CIO Lin Wells, the upcoming paper takes a clear-eyed view of what these new apps can do -- and makes some smart, if basic, suggestions for how government types might uses the tools. For once, there's no awful advice (covertly hire blogwhores, anyone?), no attempts to treat social media as "therapy" or spy-fodder, and no convoluted counter-blog flowcharts. Phew.
Read the entire story here.
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Here’s a look at the official schedule:
2009 Conference Registration: $50
Hotel Room 1 Night: $300 (depending on where you're staying)
Generous Donations from Attendees and Sponsors: $13,000
Somehow believing that you'll be sober and make it to breakfast by 7:45am on Saturday: priceless
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For more information about the 2009 MilBlog Conference (April 24-25 near Washington, D.C.), visit: http://conference.milblogging.com/
Read the entire story here and thank you to GreatAmericans.com for all their support.
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The 2009 Milblog conference website was recently updated.
Addition to the Agenda – Troy from Bouhammer.com and SOG Media will be hosting a screening of Scott Kesterson’s film At War. Troy has more information about the screening and fundraising for the film here. Also, he'll be personally hosting the screening and he'll be on-site to answer any questions. He's also hoping to have Scott call in live from Afghanistan at the very start of the screening to do an introduction of the movie.
Panels – If you’d like to see a breakdown of all the panels, go here.
Don’t forget to register – There are still some seats open, so if you need to register for the conference, go here.
Note, Seriously though, having the Milblog Conference back in the D.C. area is great. Because, let's face it, D.C. is the perfect venue for the military and media. Gambling aside, Vegas? Not so much.
Thankfully the only bet I'll be placing at this year's Conference is that I won't pass out before 8 PM at Friday night's festivities. Whaa? You've never drank so much that your spouse finds you eating catfood out of a dumpster? No? Pffftt.
Then you haven't lived my friend.
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Over the last several weeks I’ve been an avid user of Twitter - the popular micro blogging tool with millions of users. It’s actually a really freaking cool social networking tool. And in my opinion, it’s the best social networking tool available on the internet because of it’s ease-of-use, ability to reach a mass audience, and it’s simple design. Plus, you can tweet directly from a mobile device like a BlackBerry. My first mobile tweeting experience was several weeks ago at the National Press Club while attending the pre-screening of Brothers at War.
If you haven’t signed up yet, I recommend you give it a shot. Especially if you want to extend the reach of your military blog online. I’m nearing the 10,000 follower milestone *wiping away tears from face*, and not only have I been able to spread the word of Military Blogs to a whole new audience and have conversations with people from all over the world, but the amount of traffic back to my website has significantly increased. Even more interesting, there are hundreds of military folks who tweet from the frontline (for example @scott_kesterson) and from the homefront. In fact, many of those who tweet don’t even have an online blog, but just a micro blog.
If you’d like some tricks or tips for building a large following, I’ve got five words for you: Follow everyone who follows you. Some recommend against it, but it works for me. Sure, you might have some completely random followers by doing this, but in many cases some of my most unusual followers are those who re-tweet military news that I post.
Heck, I had a Twitter conversation the other day with a Mahogany Desk (can’t recall it’s name), but really good people...
Just saying, don't limit yourself if you're trying to build a following.
Anyway, drop me a line at milblogging@gmail.com or an @mention to my twitter account, especially if you have some good military blog news to share. Or if you have questions about Twitter. I’m always happy to share.
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(Haaretz) Serving in an elite combat unit makes moments of respite both brief and precious, yet Danny Brothers, an American immigrant, devotes most of his free time to his blog. In "Israeli by Day, American by Night," Brothers writes about throwing grenades and breathing in tear gas as part of his training, but also describes what it's like to celebrate holidays in the army or to miss a commander. Lengthy explanations about the brigade's inner workings take turns with tidbits about "memorable moments," such as the time a commander barked at a soldier: "Tuck in your shirt and straighten your uniform like an officer in the German army!"
Although Brothers, who immigrated at age 24 in September 2007, only had to do six months of compulsory service, he volunteered for a year and half so he could enter the Golani Brigade. He soon came to the conclusion that Anglo servicemen are much less grumpy than their native Israeli counterparts...
Read the entire story here.
Here’s a link to Danny’s military blog indexed in the Milblogging.com database.
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At 9:30am that morning names will be drawn at random for an opportunity to drive one of the armored vehicles. In order to be entered in the drawing you must RSVP to tanktour@nmaw.org and you MUST possess a valid driver’s license. Only those people who have RSVP’d in advance of the event will be eligible to win. You also have to be present when the drawing is held at 9:30am on Sunday April 26th. There will be a few opportunities for attendees to ride in these armored vehicles throughout the event, but only a handful of people will be able to drive them.
If you have any questions or want to RSVP please send an email to tanktour@nmaw.org
Those who already RSVP’d have been entered in the drawing, so there is no need to RSVP again.
Sweet, I have a valid driver’s license (even after 3 speeding tickets in the last six months) so I’m hoping to win the drawing. For the record, I got pulled over while driving a car, not a tank, so uh, I should be ok. Plus, getting a speeding ticket in a car is bush league. Pfft. I wanna get pulled over in a tank.
While I’m on the subject of speeding, I got pulled over one time while at a dead stop in traffic. *expired tags* When the officer asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, I responded: “Was I speeding, Officer?”
True story.
Learn more about the upcoming National Museum of Americans in Wartime here.
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For more information about the 2009 MilBlog Conference (April 24-25 near Washington, D.C.), visit: http://conference.milblogging.com/
At Great Americans, we're proud to share the stories of real-life American heroes that too often go ignored by today's mainstream media. To that end, we're pleased to highlight some of the likeminded bloggers who have demonstrated their support for our vision by recently posting Great Americans content for their audiences to enjoy.
Read the entire story here and check out some awesome videos at the same time.
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Fellow military blogger, freelance writer, and friend, CPT Lee Kelley is now published. His military blog Wordsmith at War has been featured everywhere since it’s beginnings in 2005, most notably in Time magazine. We spoke months ago about his upcoming book release, so I’ve been anticipating this for some time. And if his book “Fire in the Night” - a collection of creative essays – demonstrates the same exceptional storytelling abilities as his blog from Iraq, it’ll be well worth your time. I spoke with CPT Lee Kelley a few months back, when I was working with Andi to have him speak at the upcoming Milblog Conference on the “Beyond Milblogging” panel, but unfortunately he’s not able to attend in person – but word has it he’s got something planned for us at the Conference even in his absence.
Here’s more about the book:
“Already a freelance writer, Lee started a blog when he was sent to Iraq in 2005. His family and friends expected to read of his experiences, and a blog was the perfect medium. A hometown reporter visited his unit in Iraq, and Lee ended up on the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune. That's how it all began. Since then, he's been in the top 10 military blogs on milblogging.com for years, featured in TIME magazine, read some of his essays on radio shows, and even been on the local news in Salt Lake City, Utah. Through it all, readers have been very supportive of Lee's writing and he has received thousands of queries about when he might publish a book. Here are 53 of the most popular essays. They have been adapted from the blog, and writing that he's done in other forums, such as The New York Times and Doonesbury.com. All of the work in this book was either written while he was still in Iraq or as a direct result of his experiences there.”
On his website Wordsmith at War, he writes:
“To all of you who have supported me in so many ways since I was deployed in Iraq, and to all of you loyal readers who continue to follow my adventures as a single Dad and freelance writer, THANK YOU. Please stay tuned, because Wordsmith at War will have a new look and a totally re-energized approach soon ...”
Note, It’s nice to see more military bloggers going beyond just military blogging. Considering the success of CPT Lee Kelley’s blog, it’s no wonder he went down this path. I could’ve written a book about my deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq as an Infantryman, but I’m pretty sure you could get a box of rabbits and some crayons, and the rabbits could write a better book than me. The rabbits wouldn’t even have to be real. They could just be stuffed animals. Just saying...
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JP: What has been the most rewarding thing personally with blogging about your war experience?
Solomon: Finding out I had the capacity to construct a feasible outline of my recollections and then post them on my Blog. I did not know how good these postings were until reading them again after Feb.2nd of 2009. That was when I first noted the emotional values I had included in these postings.
JP: In past wars there was no internet.Was Operational Security a big deal during your wartime experience?
Solomon: The question about Operational Security was very persuasive to the new recruit. Every time he heard the expression while in Orientation referring to "The Articles of War" he was reminded of Security slacking by "death or such other punishment as a Court Martial may decide." This persisted until the Landings on France. Gradually decreasing as the Germans were in full flight and more worried about exposing their flank than where the attacking forces would strike next. Christmas of 44 the counter attack by enemy soldiers in Allied uniforms soon brought back to the most strident Security measures until May of 45.
Here are links to the previous questions he answered for an online interview:
More Q&A with with Normandy D-Day Veteran and Oldest Known Military Blogger, 86-Year Old Solomon Fein
Online Interview with Normandy D-Day Veteran and Oldest Known Military Blogger, 86-Year Old Solomon Fein
Check out his blog here.
Note, So yeah op sec + violation = death. And seriously, what better way to deter blogging than punishment by death? In all seriousness though, if I ever get deployed again, I’ll be blogging about unicorns. You know, jumping over rainbows. I wrote about unicorns and Care Bears on my last deployment, and guess what? I never got into trouble for violating op sec. Not once. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
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Tips for chronicling a deployment, @sgtdanger who runs the military blog www.sgtdanger.com kicks off his mobilization today. If you’d like to offer him some tips, he’s asking for advice on the best methods for chronicling a deployment. I personally recommend taking an HD camera and videotaping the entire experience, but hey that’s me. *sniffle* I’m still waiting on an Oscar.
New Marine Military Blog, Thanks to Robin who sent me a link to a new Marine military blog. She forgot the link in the first email she sent me, then followed it up by blaming her two teenage kids who are sucking the life force out of her. I can honestly say blaming it on my kids is not the first thing I'd think of, but then again, my little goblins are only 2 and 8.
Milblogging Discussion Boards, are getting spammed. To make matters worse, they’re not bots, but actual people going to the trouble of registering a live account, activating it by email, and more. I’ll be shutting down the discussion boards permanently in the next release of Milblogging. Thanks to Wendy and Sherri who alerted me to the spammers. And also, to my discussion board moderator. He turns 3 years old in a few weeks *less nap times*, so he should be on top of this problem soon.
Letters to Soldiers, is a wonderful organization you should be involved in if you have some free time. It’s a volunteer program that’s been around since 1999 sending letters, care packages and support to our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and a hospital in Kuwait. I’m all for this, and think letters are important, especially when they’re handwritten. Like I’ve said since 2004, “Do not send a typed written letter about your personal life to a soldier. Receiving a typed letter about your personal life is the lowest form of support known to a soldier.” Send a handwritten letter. Just saying.
Lunch w/Matt Daniels, last Friday I had an opportunity to have lunch with Matt Daniels the founder of www.GreatAmericans.com. Talk about an entrepreneur, Matt has a lot of energy and you can hear it in his voice when he talks about ordinary people, extraordinary deeds. He hopes with Great Americans to give kids idols like troops, firefighters, and law enforcement. Instead of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. I’d have to agree with him, except when it comes to the Olsen Twins. But I’m biased since I was basically raised watching Full House. That Joey, what a riot!
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The diary was written by the young soldier George Henry Scott Douglas, from Kelso, and follows his daring trip on his boat the Vampire.
He fell in love with the ship while serving with the 34th Regiment of Foot (The Border Regiment) on Corfu. He bought the boat, obtained leave from the army and set off on an exciting cruise with two of his friends.
The resulting journal is full of tales of pirates and thieves but also reveals fascinating little details about the life of a 20-year-old man in a very different age.
Read the entire story here.
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