Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 28
Media emphasis
Heavy3
Horizontal
Vertical
Horizontal
Medium2
Vertical
Planning
Light1
None
0
Horizontal
Horizontal
Vertical
Vertical
Vertical and
Horizontal
Time 0
Time 1
Horizontal (social)
Time 2
Time 3
Vertical (traditional)
Time 4
Time 5
Combined
Figure 7. Sample Communication Strategy Lines of Effort over Time
represents a sort of social thermometer. The leader’s
goal would be a comfortable “temperature” (correlational agreement on issues across military ranks) of
about .68 to .72. This would indicate stable support of
the institution by the audience but would also allow for
innovation and diversity of topics over time.
To achieve a comfortable agendamelding temperature among the troop formations, their dependents,
and Army supporters, Army leaders might consider
these five broad recommendations:
Recommendation 1. Use media platforms that
target audience use in ways individuals and their social
communities do. Social media have become important to all members of the Army, but especially to the
younger members. Even on battlefields, soldiers often
stay in touch (when possible) with their families and
friends via e-mail, cellphone, or other social media.
Arthur Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times,
is well known for saying that the Times is “platform
agnostic” in terms of the way he prefers his publication
to be delivered to the paying audience—just as long as
it is delivered.29 This is a realistic perspective.
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Recommendation 2. Devote significant resources to
ongoing monitoring of the social media usage of members of the organization, including all levels and demographics (this would be a good staff job). Those who send
organizational messages should understand their members’ use of social media. Should the message be sent by
social in addition to traditional media? Or perhaps the
message should be sent by social media only.
Recommendation 3. Include traditional news
media and social media platforms in strategic thinking.
Technology is constantly changing. Businesses are using
different media to target audiences.30 Businesses are,
essentially, platform agnostic, motivated by profits and
market share. The military, of course, has public service
motivations and is scarcely agnostic in core commitments or beliefs. Nevertheless, the military can be as
flexible in communication approaches as it is in combat
operational planning.
Recommendation 4. Do not rely only on a select
few media platforms for all messages. When in doubt,
reach for appropriate platforms, traditional and social.
Be flexible in the selection of platforms from topic
November-December 2015 MILITARY REVIEW