Straighten up and share right

The Air Force Guide to Effective Social Media Use

With so many marketers claiming to be social media experts it’s hard to figure out who to trust. Many companies publish guides to social media, but most are too simple or too obvious (you already know how to create a Facebook or Twitter profile, right?).

Since hospitals are mixed government- and corporate-entities, I figured I’d look to the government sector to see if they fare any better with social media guidance. The CDC has a great guide as mentioned in a recent blog post. Now the US Air Force is reporting for duty.

In March 2012, the Air Force Public Affairs Agency published The Air Force Guide to Effective Social Media Use, a guide from their emerging new technologies division that I think can offer us 20/20 perspective on how to run a special op like social media inside of a hospital.

This guide comes complete with advice on new media, how to blog, industry best practices, top blogs to watch, examples of the Air Force using blogs for mass communication, social media products in use by the Air Force, measuring and evaluating your efforts.

“There is a paradigm shift taking place now with more communication becoming a two-way street instead of a message pushing process.” Page 23

Link to download the guide here.