Forces using social media to stay in touch

"Hello from Afghan, I thought it (sic) would let you all know how things are going," began volunteer Rifleman Andrew Fentiman in a message posted on his civilian company's website just after he arrived in Afghanistan.

The TA soldier's blogged letter home went on to talk about his training as he prepared to move out to a front line camp in the remote Sangin area of Helmand province:

"One of the best things out here is that cigarettes are $5 for 200!" he added.

Just days later he was shot dead while on a foot patrol.

Comments from Rifleman Fentiman's blog made it into most news reports about his death. The press seized on the line:

"We are still waiting on these new body armour and helmets that were promised to us."

Military spokesmen disputed whether alternative armour would have saved Rifleman Fentiman's life, but it was enough for the press to run headlines such as 'TA soldier died waiting for latest body
armour'.

This is just one example of the power of so-called new media - the likes of blogs and sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. Journalists are increasingly using the internet to source quotes, pictures and stories.

It has transformed the way people communicate - even soldiers in the rudimentary and grim forward operating bases of Helmand province can get online, meaning that emails and Facebook messages are replacing the traditional letter home.

Facebook groups dedicated to deployed units serve as social hubs for the soldiers and their families and friends back home.

More than 12,000 people have joined a group called 'Support the Grenadier Guards in Afghanistan on Op HERRICK 11', and the homepage is filled with well-wishing comments and discussions among Army wives about such things as how best to send parcels.

New media is giving the public fascinating glimpses of life at war. For example, YouTube clips of life on the front line in Afghanistan can be viewed online.

Some are posted through MOD's official YouTube channel, but many more are amateur videos posted by soldiers themselves.

Recognising the importance of social media and its potential for explaining Defence to the public, last summer the MOD relaxed its ban on staff and Service personnel talking about their work online:

"Banning it was unworkable and unfair," said Robin Riley, MOD's head of online engagement.

"The Armed Forces are generally young, tech-savvy people and they've almost all been using social media to stay in touch with their friends and family, especially if they're overseas."

The MOD is now actively encouraging staff to talk about Defence, albeit within guidelines:

"We know lots of our people have something good to add," said Mr Riley.

TA soldier Major Paul Smyth - a PR consultant in civilian life - is one of the first to be given special permission to use the internet to talk in more detail about what British forces are doing.

He is currently in Afghanistan as part of 11 Light Brigade's Media Operations team, and is running the Helmand Blog and Frontline Bloggers sites - collections of first-hand accounts from soldiers on operations.

He also has a YouTube channel, with video clips showing day-to-day life for British troops in Afghanistan, as well as a Facebook group and a Flickr page with comments and photos documenting life in Helmand:

"We have used the blogosphere to break stories and it has worked incredibly well," he said.

"CNN requested us to do interviews about all the films we are posting on YouTube and The Observer contacted me through Twitter to see if we could submit a comment piece."

The audience, he said, is global, with two-thirds from the UK and US:

"I even have comments posted on the blog from readers in Lashkar Gah."

Major Smyth began in 2008 when he set up a YouTube channel to share video clips showing what his Army unit, 2nd Battalion The Rifles (2 RIFLES), were doing out in Kosovo:

"I used the site to target journalists primarily but it was very useful for family and friends of 2 RIFLES to see what the Riflemen were up to," he said.

Next was Iraq and the Basra Blog, Facebook group and another YouTube channel. Now it's Afghanistan.

Twitter is a recent social networking phenomenon - a microblogging service that allows users to send and read short text messages known as 'tweets'.

These text-based posts are limited to 140 characters (slightly shorter than a standard mobile phone text message) and are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to their subscribers, also known as 'followers':

"I started it while out on the ground with GMTV one morning in March," he explained.

"They were doing live broadcasts, so, with not a great deal to do, I launched it from the front seat of a pickup with a laptop and BGAN satellite dish."

Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website or text messages from their mobile phones.

The flexibility of posting material from almost anywhere in the world, at no cost and in real-time, makes it incredibly powerful:

"New content goes up every single day. As I type this in the dark, wearing gloves and a head-torch in the middle of Helmand, I am surfing online too, looking for things to post," said Major Smyth.

The MOD realises that allowing approved tweeters and bloggers to talk about military operations will have far-reaching consequences:

"Social media changes the role of MOD," said Robin Riley.

"In the past all official online information about Defence came from MOD and our website, but increasingly that's not going to be the case.

"The sights and the sounds of what is happening in Defence are not going to come from MOD or the single Services, but from the individuals themselves, with us helping and advising them."

The new Defence Online Engagement Guidelines, published in August 2009, are designed to encourage this in a way that protects security, impartiality, reputation and privacy. There is no need to seek clearance when talking online about factual, unclassified, uncontroversial and non-operational matters.

However, anything sensitive relating to operations, or political matters, does require permission:

"Some elements of Forces' life - moving around and the need for secrecy - mean that our people can be cut off from the British public, and that's a bad thing in terms of explaining what we do and why," said Mr Riley.

"Social media is a good opportunity to reconnect the Armed Forces with the public."

Some have fears that such a relaxed policy could lead to security breaches:

"It's typically middle-ranking officers who are nervous about this," said Mr Riley.

"They could be looking after 100 guys and worry that they might be talking about operations on Facebook."

"The answer is that you can't guarantee they're not," he said.

"But, it's about training and educating and advising our people - just like you don't talk about certain things down the pub, likewise you shouldn't talk about certain things online."

See Related Links >>> for the Defence Online Engagement Guidelines.

This article is taken from the December 2009 edition of Defence Focus - the magazine for everyone in Defence.