Information overload? How about ‘survey’ overload

So this is going to be a bit of a gripe post, but I have had enough of the DoD surveys!  I get survey’s every day for just about everything. I recently had a short 5 minute visit to the base medical clinic, and received a survey asking me how I thought my visit went. I dont want to sign the paper log-in sheets at the front desks anymore out of fear that I will receive another email survey.

This past PCS I received 3 different surveys, with multiple email and phone follow-up requests for each survey. I attempted to do the first one, but after deciphering the lengthy email instructions just on how to start the survey, and attempting to go through creating a NEW account specifically for that survey, with yet again another new login and password (with minimum 10 characters including 2 special, 2 uppercase, 2 lowercase, etc etc), I have turned them off, and I know I’m not the only one.

Surveys are good for research and establishing baselines of information, but not for feedback on regular customer service. So here is my recommendation – make sure there is an easy way to provide feedback at the user’s prerogative and move away from the death-by-survey tactic. My AKO inbox is full, I can’t remember anymore login/passwords, and I just don’t want to take the time to fill out a questionnaire for something that was and should be business as usual.

Check out Apture’s toolbar

I found out about Apture via a Twittter post from Neville Hobson (@jangles). Neville also has a blog post about it here. Apture has made a popup toolbar that runs across the top of your screen when people scroll down your site. It makes sure that the top of the screen has your sites name as well as Facebook, Twitter and email links. Better than trying to explain via text, just take a look.

So if you’re accessing this post via Facebook or some other cross-posted forum, go to www.46alpha.com and scroll down the page to see what it does. It’s just a simple snipet of code inserted into the blog. It’s still in beta but obviously works great, and its free.

Take a look at the Army's Social Media Best Practices

Finding that communication 'Sweet Spot'

Since I got my iPhone, I’ve been experimenting with some new things. Im trying to be a bit more mobile-friendly and see just what I can do via the phone. Im also thinking more about ‘streams’. Because of that, I’ve been tweaking some things.

So first thing is I’ve tweaked my blog theme a bit. The previous theme was aesthetically really nice, but the flash-based top 3 stories located at the top gave me trouble – especially from a phone. With the current theme, I can continue to post at home, or I have the option to post while on the go. WordPress has a nice iPhone app that lets me do updates as well as delete all the SPAM that I’ve been getting recently. This theme is also a bit easier to read on a small screen.

Second thing is communication streams. Steve Rubel is someone who is big on lifestreaming and communicating in streams. I thought I might change my blog to be more like a Tumblr site, or a lifestreaming site, with every Twitter post/Delicious link/status update aggregated onto it, but I think its a bit too much for my home page. I’ve had some test-post blogs and tweets today and will continue to tweak until I find that communication sweet spot..

The other thing I’m still wrestling with is the 46alpha Facebook Fanpage. Im having to separate some posts into professional, some into personal, and I have some that just overlap into both. It would be easier to have just one, but Im not sure if I want to flood all my personal friend/family contacts with a large number of communication and professional-type posts. I don’t mind merging my personal and professional life at all, I’ve just been trying to be courteous to those who are digitally connected to me.

So if you see some test-posts, commo checks, etc over the next few days, just bare with me. Im just trying to find the best solution.

Image downloaded here.

Should we have PAO's dedicated to regions?

Foreign Area Officers (FAO) receive region training and language qualification. Civil Affairs does the same thing. Why not Public Affairs?

I say ‘yes’, and here are a couple reasons why.

Part of the new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy is developing a ‘seasoned corps of expert officers‘, giving them language and cultural training and them assigning them to the area for up to 5 years. I know we have at least one Army PAO in the program and likely a few more to come down the road. We all know the reasons why, because it was recognized that continuity and experience in one area are needed in the long-term.

But this is especially important to PAO’s because of media relations. One of the things I picked up while working at Allied Command Transformation, and working with primarily U.S. Navy Public Affairs personnel, is the fact that the senior Navy PAO’s had developed great working relationships with the media. Why? One reason is because many of the Public Affairs positions are in one of their several large naval bases – Norfolk, San Diego, Hawaii, etc. Yes, they have lots of smaller bases, but they have a few very large bases where one could theoretically spend an entire career at (similar to a Ft Hood or Ft Bragg for us Army-folks). Because you have senior officers with long periods of time spent in one of several hubs, they have over the years developed great relationships with the local media. Many of the local media representatives, for the most part, have stayed in the area.

One of the Army PAO challenges is that we have many more bases all over the world. All of us jump from position to position, doing a PCS every 24 months (+/-), rarely developing great working relationship with the local media. And a media relationship, like any other relationship, takes time to develop.

On top of the media relationship aspect, you not only have local knowledge, but also command knowledge and command continuity. Every commander likes to have that one guy/gal who has been in or around the unit for a long time, why not let it be the PAO? (This is sometimes covered down on by our great civilian PAO corps, but there are times/places that a uniform is needed).

Finally look at the media themselves – they all have a ‘beat’ or a specialty based off of either geography or subject. You have the Middle East correspondent, the Asia correspondent, the Technology correspondent or the local military correspondent.

So my solution is: create a similar program to the Afghanistan/Pakistan program for Public Affairs but do it for all our main regions and open it up to volunteers. There are probably a few of us who would love to get some language and culture training, and then spend a large amount of time in one area. A PAO in Korea, who speaks Korean, knows the commands and because of time can develop relationships with the Korean press would be a good thing. Same goes for Europe, Middle East, etc.

I would say ‘volunteers’ because some of us joined the military so we could move around, experience new places and new cultures, but having a few subject matter experts in our various areas of operation would be a good thing. And just like the Afgh-Pak program, you really need people that want to do this, not forced to do this.

It would also help the other PAO’s that find themselves assigned to the given area by having a fellow green-suiter that possess some local knowledge, language ability and has developed some working relationships. And finally I say stick to geography first because the system of language and culture training is already in place for many of our other functional areas.

What say you?

Photo was taken during my first deployment to ISAF in 2004 of the weekly ISAF press conference.

"Look to the future…"

My kids are on a ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ kick lately, so I’ve watched it several (hundred) times over the past month. I get a good laugh out of the greedy Mayor, voiced by Bruce Campbell, who is always ‘looking to the future’. He tries to find ways to increase the status of his sardine-focused town, and more importantly to him his own personal status, and does so by “not consulting with anyone” and spending the entire town budget on a tourist attraction called Sardine-Land.

So as I look to the future, I’ve been considering where I think my blogposts will go over the next 12 months, and it is likely that they will be less about social media, and more about, dare I say ‘strategic communication’. Im thinking this because of where I am – the Command and General Staff College. In the first 2 weeks, I’ve already received about 50 books to read with plenty more to come. The topics that are going to be covered in class this year are big picture, strategic decision-making type topics. It’s only natural that as we cover many of these topics, Im also going to be looking at how some of these concepts apply to Public Affairs.

The other thing is that ‘social media’ (or collaborative media) has now become more of the norm.  Since Im going to be zooming back a bit and looking at the bigger picture, it is likely that many of the discussions I get in this year will be about how PA applies all of the available tools, including social media, to achieve communication goals.

So in January 2011 I’ll take a look back and see what I actually wrote about over the course of this year, and Im sure the topics will be varied, but that is my best guess as to where the majority of my posts will be headed over the next 12 months.