Army Strong Stories Weber Shandwick U.S. Army Minneapolis, Minnesota NEED/OPPORTUNITY / In October 2006, Weber Shandwick conducted an online landscape analysis to identify digital discussion about U.S. Army recruitment and life in the military. This benchmark research analyzed blogs, message boards, social networks, podcasts and multimedia sharing sites to assess the tone and scale of sentiment expressed toward the U.S. Army relating to recruitment and life in the military. Findings exhibited a high volume of discussion relevant to these topics, identified key issues, and most notably, illustrated a complete lack of engagement in the discussions by the Army itself. As a result, Weber Shandwick used a research, diagnose, treatment methodology to address the identified issues and composed a plan to help the Army engage with its online audiences. The Army Strong Stories program (www.armystrongstories.com) was conceptualized as a medium through which soldiers share candid thoughts on active military life. The goal of disseminating these perspectives was to reach the audience of potential recruits, military personnel, families and anyone else interested in Army life that is, the wide array of people who play a role in one s consideration The reason behind my blog is to give an honest, frank perspective on being in the Army. To know that you find my writing helpful means that I am meeting what I set out to do. Second Lieutenant Kayley Obermier, ArmyStrongStories.com to join the military. This program helps to close the access gap and build better understanding of what it means to be a soldier using a meaningful and authentic medium. INTENDED AUDIENCES / Today, four out of five U.S. adults socialize online, creating, reading or participating in social content at least monthly. In addition, 97 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 90 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds are active in social media. As the majority of the Army s recruiting audience (18- to 24-year-olds) continues to spend an increasing amount of time online surfing the Internet, networking and building relationships, Army Strong Stories was intended to harness the power of social communities to provide accurate perceptions regarding military recruitment. Specifically, ArmyStrongStories.com sought to meaningfully and authentically educate the Army s prospective audience about Army life. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES / The goals for the 2009 Army Strong Stories program were to: Provide potential recruits with a real-life look at what life in the military is really like so that they can make a more informed decision regarding their future. Provide soldiers with a platform to share their Army stories through blog, photo and video postings. Raise awareness of the Army Strong Stories program and position it as a resource for recruiters, influencers and prospects. Showcase the depth of Army career opportunities and benefits available. In order to meet these goals, the Army and Weber Shandwick established several measurable objectives at the outset of the campaign: 1
Revamp the look and feel of ArmyStrongStories.com to be more relevant to key audiences (the site originally launched in 2008). Increase online presence and awareness by recruiting and retaining 50 active bloggers. Establish effective communication tools to create a drumbeat of support for the Army s signature soldier blog among the internal Army family. Generate awareness within the broader military community, adding credibility to the program and enhancing the Army s online presence, through internal and external media relations. Drive site traffic by attracting an average of 26,000 monthly site visits. SOLUTION OVERVIEW / The 2009 marketing and communication plan incorporated several tactics to meet the above goals and objectives. DIGITAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Redesign and redevelop ArmyStrongStories.com to integrate with the Army s existing social mediums and provide soldiers the ability to sign up to blog directly on the site. Leverage existing online programs to promote ArmyStrongStories.com and drive site traffic. EXTERNAL MARKETING STRATEGY Promote ArmyStrongStories.com through proactive media outreach that includes relevant bloggers and mainstream media. Leverage agency activation at Army events to promote the program and recruit additional bloggers. INTERNAL MARKETING STRATEGY Educate agency partners and Army leadership about streamlining messaging and effective promotion by equipping teams with tools and marketing materials to promote the program. Leverage internal editorial opportunities to re-engage internal audiences and promote the program. Establish a weekly e-newsletter to Army Strong Stories bloggers, offering helpful blogging tips and relevant program updates. The redesign and redevelopment of ArmyStrongStories.com was the driving tactic that set the stage for program success in 2009. On 29 May, Weber Shandwick and the U.S. Army relaunched Army Strong Stories with a new site design and enhanced features, including sharing tools, live commenting, blogger profile customization and the ability for potential bloggers to sign up directly through the site. Since potential bloggers can live anywhere from Afghanistan to Alaska, making the sign-up and posting procedures as painless as possible was key to the program s success. To provide soldiers easy access to the blog, Weber Shandwick built a customized content management system (CMS) for simple content entry and access from any Army network. The customized CMS gives bloggers the tools to add and edit their own posts, providing additional ownership of the program. It also supplies the agency team with customized reporting tools and the ability to post and moderate comments as necessary. 2
The 2009 plan included integration with additional social media elements to promote ArmyStrongStories.com. Prominently displayed on the ArmyStrongStories.com sidebar, users can follow the ArmyStories Twitter profile and feed (http://www.twitter.com/armystories) that automatically tweets each time a new post is added to ArmyStrongStories.com, further building external awareness of the site. In addition, Weber Shandwick created and placed an Army Strong Stories banner on goarmy.com s MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/usarmy). The team also drafted and distributed two MySpace e-mail bulletins to the Army s more than 90,000 MySpace friends to drive awareness, and integrated the Army Strong Stories RSS feed with the official goarmy.com Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/goarmy) to share content with the Army s more than 27,000 Facebook fans. Following the site relaunch, Weber Shandwick and the Army employed several tactics in the execution of the Army Strong Stories program in conjunction with the site strategies to drive traffic and program awareness: Developed and distributed program collateral materials, including palm cards and flyers, at Army events and installations. Drafted and placed Army Strong Stories editorial coverage in internal and external newsletters and publications, including Recruiter Journal, Fort Benning Bayonet, ArmyGrassrootsPlaybook.com and Special Missions Brigade Newsletter. Established a weekly Army Strong Stories Blogger Newsletter containing relevant program updates and Army news that is distributed to Army Strong Stories bloggers each Monday. Created and coordinated placement of an ArmyStrongStories.com ad in Recruiter Journal and Soldiers Magazine. Drafted and distributed a memo on behalf of Lieutenant General Benjamin Freakley to General Raymond Odierno, encouraging Army Strong Stories bloggers in Iraq. Coordinated Army event activation and outreach at the 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo event in October, promoting ArmyStrongStories.com with key social media influencers. Weber Shandwick and the Army established the following core key messages for the program: The Army recognizes that social media is changing the way we communicate with recruiting audiences that it creates the opportunity to strengthen relationships, encourage participation, and foster a dialogue through shared experiences about recruiting, military service, and Army life. The Army Strong Stories program seeks to leverage the social power of the Internet, providing soldiers with a voice to share the untold stories and perspectives on Army service from military recruitment and basic training to everyday life and personal development. As U.S. Army Accessions Command s signature blog, ArmyStrongStories.com provides soldiers an online destination where they can share their experiences through unedited, unfiltered blog posts. 3
The Army Strong Stories program is an unfiltered dialogue led solely by its soldier bloggers, a proof point demonstrating the Army s thought leadership in using social media as an important recruitment tool for empowering potential recruits and their influencers to make more informed decisions when considering a path to military service. All readers are invited to participate in an open dialogue with soldiers by leaving comments, asking questions and sharing compelling posts with others. Soldiers and cadets of every rank, background, and military occupational specialty are welcome to participate on ArmyStrongStories.com as long as they adhere to operations security policy guidelines. Soldiers and cadets who would like to blog on ArmyStrongStories.com can sign up by visiting www.armystrongstories.com/signup. IMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGES / The budget for the 2009 Army Strong Stories program was US$327,000, and the campaign was executed from January 2009 through December 2009. Weber Shandwick and the Army encountered four specific challenges during the planning and execution stages of the campaign: 1. Identifying/securing soldiers with compelling stories to blog on ArmyStrongStories.com. What the U.S. Army has been doing on the social media front, in terms of recruiting and opening honest conversations with potential soldiers, is nothing short of amazing. Arik C. Hanson, Ragan.com 2. Integrating and communicating with the Army s largest online contributors so that Army Strong Stories would advance and give scale to the overall Army social networking efforts. 3. Developing a technology platform that was simple to use for any soldier on any deployment on any network. 4. Developing and executing complex campaign elements within short time frames. Through creative development, detailed time lines and protocols, and continuous internal communications, Weber Shandwick and the Army successfully overcame each challenge, producing measurable results. MEASUREMENT/EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES / ArmyStrongStories.com relaunched in May 2009 with a benchmark of 18 active bloggers, more than 250 posts, nearly 100 comments and nearly 150,000 visits accrued during the program s infancy. Following the site relaunch, the program saw a significant response, indicating strong interest from soldiers for a place to share their stories and continued momentum for the target audiences to experience the Army through authentic soldier blogs: Traffic increased 650 percent from 2008. Site traffic increased steadily each month with an average of 33,020 visits per month (January through December 2009). More than 445,000 site visits and growing. December 2009 posted the largest traffic gains since program inception, bringing in 58,776 site visits. Eighty-one bloggers strong. Bloggers represent medical, legal, band, human resources and other Army careers. In total, these bloggers have posted a collective 574 times. 4
Three hundred sixty-eight reader comments. Whether questions about Army service or expressions of gratitude for their service, the soldier bloggers continue to receive feedback from new and returning site visitors. o I d just like to say this is by far the best blog I ve found on ROTC to date, especially if you post everything you say you are planning to. I m starting my ROTC this fall, and I can t wait. Keep the blogs coming! reader comment on 17 April 2009 o I just want to thank you for writing these blogs. I randomly found your writings on the Internet, and I can t stop reading. I am currently 22 and have been thinking about the army since I was a kid. For one reason or another, I still haven t enlisted but I am currently seriously thinking about it again. My biggest problem is that I haven t been able to take the plunge. I ve talked to recruiters, talked to enlisted friends of mine, but still can t do it. The biggest reasons I guess is because I dislike commitment and am scared of the unknown. I have a whole lot of pros and only two cons...should be an easy decision, but it seems so massive. Anyways, I just wanted you to know that your writing...especially the one about basic...has seriously helped motivate me. I don t know you, but you have definitely helped me. So thank you. P.S and if I do enlist...i ll be thanking you again for helping me take that leap. reader comment on 9 October 2009 Key media placements. The program received recognition from key industry leaders, such as FastCompany.com and Ragan.com, as a leader in social media, and positive placements within prominent military blogs, including YouServed.com and Milblogging.com. Significant momentum for 2010. Based on the achievements of the 2009 program, senior Army leaders and clients recognize the opportunities for continued growth of the Army Strong Stories blogging community in 2010 with plans for further program expansion and innovation. 5