Given the fact that I’ve always considered the Air Force and the other military organizations as being pretty conservative, the fact that the Air Force has a well organized policy for social media interaction is totally impressive.

Not only do they have a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and Wigets and Podcasts as well as having Airmen proactively “counter-blog”, which is what they refer to replying to bloggers. They’ve got a complete, strategic flow chart for response, and of course have to be careful about what they reveal online.

I first found this through friends, but David Merman Scott also wrote about it - and had an interview with Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology at the Air Force Public Affairs Agency in the Pentagon.

Capt. Faggard told David that the Airforce has 330,000 communicators, because their goal is to have every airman act as a communicator. Their mission is to use current and developing Web 2.0 applications as a way to actively engage conversations between Airmen and the general public. It’s amazing to me, and to David, considering that so many private companies are so very gun-shy about all this new fangled technology stuff.

I’m thinking that the private companies should take a page from Capt. Faggard’s playbook and engage a little. It’s easy guys, I promise.

Check out David’s interview with Capt. Faggard and check out the blogger chart here. 

You’d think that the crushing defeat that Obama delivered McCain recently, partially using the power of social networking, would have been taken as an example to other politicians on how to run a successful campaign using social media.

Apparently, local politicians in Vancouver’s civic election didn’t get the memo.

Vancouver is electing a new mayor and city council on November 15th, and the Vision Vancouver candidate, Gregor Robertson’s camp began to “spoof”his opponent, Peter Ladner on Twitter.

A quote from Robertson’s spokesman claimed Vision Vancouver wasn’t trying to pass off the account as Peter Ladner.

“Clearly, it is a spoof,” Ian Baillie said. “I don’t want people to think we are trying to impersonate him because we are not. We are trying to point out in a funny, humorous way some of the ridiculous things he has said.” [source]

Once the Vancouver Sun article landed, and the spoof came to light in the heavily-campaigned-at local Tech Community, there was a flurry of activity and controversy on local twitterstreams. Unfortunately, the outrage didn’t have a tag, but you can see the search string, and watch the drama unfold here.

There’s a fairly well defined protocol for spoofs on Twitter: @fakeNAME, like @fakesarahpalin, @fakejohnmccain. By hijacking his opponent’s name, Robertson crossed many protocol lines and undid almost all of the campaigning he had done in the tech community.

After a little exploration, it looks like the Vision Vancouver camp still hasn’t learned their lesson. They have created a new  twitter account at @fakepeterladner. Ok, so fine, yes, you followed “the rules” but it’s still not good politics or campaigning to take pot shots at your opponent. You want to bring light to some of the things your opponent has said? Fine. Do it in a debate, when he’s got an opportunity to respond. Debate the merits of your platform, and tell me why I should vote for you, not what the other guy has done “wrong”.

The lessons to take out of this? Register your name and your company name in all of the social marketing sites right away. Not owning your own name could come with serious consequences. And, if you’re trying to get people to choose you over another option, don’t try to win that vote by point out what the other guy is doing wrong.  In this age of transparency and honesty, you just look petty and childish.

We just had a (somewhat pointless) federal election in Canada yesterday. There’s generally supposed to be a blackout ban on televising or broadcasting the results  until all of the polls across the country are closed. Because of our geographic spread, polls in Newfoundland closed more than 3 hours before those in Vancouver had. In fact, when the polls closed in Newfoundland, I still hadn’t voted in Vancouver.

The CBC is reporting today that the broadcast blackout was “broken” by the use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Canadians with an internet connection were among those who could find their way around that particular election rule Tuesday night.

Several blogs and social networking sites that are available across the country posted comments and information about results in Eastern Canada while voters in western regions were still heading to the polls.

And satellite TV beamed Atlantic Canada’s results to the West well before the law permits.

Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act bans the transmission of election results from any electoral district where polls have closed to districts where the polls are still open. [source]

CBC reporter Susan Ormistan, who was tracking the election results, said that while it was expected that social networking sites would break Section 329, there was nothing done to counter that.

Canada is going to have to look at this “new technology” in time for the next election to prevent this from happening again, or it’s going to need to look at that Section and see how it can be updated. And the States, with their upcoming Federal election, better have a good idea on how to handle this too.  (image source, screenshot by me)

First there was Janet and the Exxon Mobile twitter debacle, and now, Tim Walker uncovered the fact that the American Airlines twitter account was a fake as well. AA is aware of the situation and is taking care of it.

So, is Twitter, which is primarily a tool for individuals, right for brands? Some brands are doing it right, for sure. Zappos definitely is. Jetblue is out there and so is the New York Times. But I wonder if before brands jump into the Twitter arena with both feet whether it’s really the best place for them. Are they spending time as people, just being in the community?

Twitter is the simultaneously most difficult to explain and coolest social communications platform ever, but brands need to tread carefully when signing up. Think about what your goals are where your Twitter account is concerned and make sure you really join the community rather than just use it as a bullhorn.

I was reading Social Media Today, and Jennifer A. Jones posted about the new Ben & Jerry’s “community” site. She wasn’t very impressed about it, and frankly, neither am I.

The site, called Support Whirled Peace, is intended to support both a new flavour and Peace Day on September 21st, which is an annual event marked by the member states of the United Nations as an official day of “global ceasefire and non-violence.”

Jennifer’s post made me want to take a look at the site, and like her, I’m just not impressed. It’s cool looking, but it’s essentially just a glorified billboard. People post messages about their own brand of peace, but beyond that – there’s no interaction. There’s no…. social, in this social network site.

With all of the environmental causes that Ben & Jerry support, there’s a ton of things that they could be doing from a social media perspective. Not only that but the brand fans are so insanely loyal, they’re probably clamouring to participate, but they have to be given something to participate in.

(image source: screenshot by me)

The following is a guest post from David Mullings of Realvibez Media and Co-Founder of StartupToons.

Social networking is all the rage right now, and yet many business people are not totally sold on the idea or can’t figure out how they can leverage these networks for their businesses.

It’s vital to think of these networks as additional tools in your box of tactics rather than anything big and scary. I set out to build my personal thought leadership brand via Facebook because I believe that personal brands can fuel corporate brands. Since the age of 15 I have been working to become a positive role model for young people around the world and I saw an opportunity to continue this.

I joined Facebook in June 2007 and to date I have managed to accomplish the following:

• Asked to endorse a book on entrepreneurship by a frequent contributor to CNBC’s The Big Idea
• Been introduced to a venture capital firm
• Received an introduction to an angel investor who is now an advisor
• Interviewed for a book by an Inc. Magazine Contributing Editor about Gen-Y entrepreneurs
• Interviewed about effectively using Facebook to network for business
• Paid speaking engagement at Boston College to present to the Entrepreneur Society and major article in school paper
• Landing a mention for a new venture on Inc. magazine’s staff blog on the day of launch
• Asked for quotes for a major magazine article on social media and the Caribbean
• A feature on CollegeMogul.com, a popular blog focused on gen-y ventures
• Built a fan page for the country of Jamaica that has hit 1600 fans in less than 3 months with no money spent

So, how, within just under a year, did I accomplish this?

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