What the State Department can teach you about social media
Every day more businesses realize they can use social tools to change the way they do business. But does social media have the power to change the world? Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., argues that it does, pointing to the State Department’s remarkable commitment to platforms such as Twitter. “It represents an important leap forward from traditional U.S. outreach efforts, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe,” he writes. Lugar goes on to explain that the department understands that embracing social tools means giving up a degree of control over the message, in order to empower others. “Although this means that our government will not be able to control the message as well as it might with conventional public diplomacy tools, I believe it is a risk worth taking,” he writes.
The federal government isn’t exactly known for being an agile institution — and the State Department is sometimes characterized as being especially stuffy. Yet they’re still willing to embrace social media with a remarkable degree of openness, with nothing less than war and peace on the line. So why aren’t you?
What are you doing to embrace openness today?
Image credit, bryanttravels via iStock
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Tags: diplomacy, openness, state department
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Posted by Marina on January 7th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Ask Me what’s great about America: You’re constantly striving to do what you think is best; method, direction,etc. With every administration, new history is written. If prevailing conditions are said to be fixed and not within our control, then I say your response is the only thing that counts. I wish the State Department of the United States of America under the President Barack H. Obama Administration All the Very Best in providing your precious citizenry the hope and trust for a better and brighter future.
Posted by Why Are Social Media Blog Post Titles Becoming Increasingly Ridiculous? | Mark Wanczak on February 5th, 2010 at 9:41 am
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