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| Source: U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area |
As we touched on last week, your chief responsibility as a military public affairs member is to report the truth. Our jobs are not focused on racking up subscriptions or increasing sales (however, in some cases, military communicators may be assigned to a marketing department for recruitment purposes).
Fortunately, in the world of military public affairs,
we as communicators do not need to vie for revenue when we post to social
media. As military communicators, we cannot accept outside payment for our
public affairs content creation. This breaks
communication laws and ethics in bribery and graft
as listed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
While countries like Australia
are demanding social media giants like Facebook to compensate news organization
for usage, military branches in the U.S. are strictly creating
content that informs the member and the greater community. We stick to facts
and facts alone. Military media members are not authorized to provide their
opinions while creating content that represents their branch of service. We
must fully identify our sources when drafting online press releases or creating
video content. Military communicators do this to ensure they avoid libel.
However, even though military content creators aren’t
“in it for the money,” we still have a mission: to abide by the storytelling
process. In order to do that in today’s society, we have to be aware of the
intricate nature of digital media.
The world’s data is growing at a rapid rate. In fact,
even back in 2011, research found that the
world's data is doubling every two years. And it’s only going to
expand even more, according to Moore’s Law (an observation
that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every 18-24 months).
How does this impact you: the current or future
military content creator?
Glade you asked!
Well, quite frankly, it means we need to catch up with
the times. If we want to get our messages across (as we established last week
in the blog, our goal is to promote our military command’s messaging), we need
to create content that will not just get sucked up in to the algorithms, never
to be seen.
So, where is content being observed the most these
days?
You probably could have guessed it quickly: your
smartphones.
Smartphones are rampaging the world’s data, largely
due to social media usages surging over the recent years. In fact, three-quarters
of the world will be using their smartphones to access the internet by 2025,
according to CNBC.
If cell phone usage is on the up, shouldn’t that mean
we as military communicators should also be jumping on the bandwagon?
Social media apps like TikTok, for example, are sky
rocking of late in popularity. Overnight, content creators can become household
names thanks to algorithms that attract massive views on content—UNIQUE content.
While TikTok
is currently banned on government devices, the premise of
the app still stands for military content creators—make a product that no one
else is making and share it with the world.
TikTok is a prevalent app that allows users to post
clips up to 10 minutes in length and also live clips. While the world’s data is
doubling rapid rate, content creators can still stay relevant and competitive
with other modern creators by uploading unique, original content to social
media apps.
For military media members, that could mean social
media tools like Instagram’s Reels feature.
Every day, 140 billion Reels are
played across Facebook and Instagram, which are partner social media
companies. When you upload a military video to Reels, don’t think of it as you
adding just another piece of content to the world’s data. Think of it as a way
for your unit or your branch as a whole to stay relevant; to maintain a digital
footprint.
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| Source: Business Insider |
Instagram has made it simply for individuals or
businesses (or even the U.S. military branches!) to upload and post concise
video content on their app with Reels. As of January 2024, statistics from Instagram
reveal that 91%
of the app’s users watch videos on the app every week. According to
internet trends researcher Pathofex, the most viewed Reel of
all time has had 1 billion views from a video created by Samsung. Further,
according to social media data insider Rival IQ,, 25% of active brands post at least 17 times per month
on average on Instagram.
Conviva, yet another social media data company, researched
how Instagram Reels impacted professional sports leagues. Their results proved
that engagement rates increased for the various professional sports leagues while
posting to Instagram Reels. For instance, the NFL had 67%
more engagement as a league after each induvial team averaged at least 9 Reels
per team.
Point being: you as military content creators can
utilize this resource to engage with the public and share the uniqueness of
your branch. While the military may be band from using TikTok, Instagram Reels
is a valuable second option that will help your unit or branch as a whole stay trendy
while also adding organic, unique content to the “clutter” of the online
universe.
However, before you can begin to even debate how you
will create and post content as a military media specialist for your branch,
you first have to understand the communication process as a whole.
While strategic communication is evolving with more
data available and more advances in technology, the core elements of
communication remain the same. If you are planning on becoming a military media
member, you will study the elements of communication at Defense Information School
in Fort Meade, Maryland.
What are the elements of communication? Glad you
asked!
There are seven key stages every communication
interaction includes.
The first is sourcing, which is the originator
of the message. This can be a person or an organization. The second is encoding,
which is the process the source uses to translate their thought or idea so it
can be perceived by consumers. Thirdly, transmitting is the process of
distributing the message, such as using Instagram Reels as a medium to display content.
The fourth stage is known as channel, which are pathways the transmitter
sends all features of the message. The fifth stage is decoding. This is
the process the receiver uses to translate the source’s thoughts and ideas to
discern the meaning. Finally, we have the receiver, which is the person
or organization that gets the message. However, there’s also what’s called feedback,
which connects back to the original source. The feedback element deals with the
receiver responding to the message with what the sender perceives as a message.
With that, we’ll pick up next week when we’ll discuss
more details on strategic communication from a mobile perspective.
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