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At a time when Facebook has 500 million users and Twitter is closing in on 200 million, the Pentagon no longer has a single person guiding its communications shop on how to use social media to get the military’s message out....   >>>

At a time when Facebook has 500 million users and Twitter is closing in on 200 million, the Pentagon no longer has a single person guiding its communications shop on how to use social media to get the military’s message out.



Gone are communication pro Price Floyd and technology exec Sumit Agarwal, the two men brought in during the past two years to get the Pentagon comfortable with online interaction in the 21st century. Floyd, a relentless tweeter, decamped in August to join defense giant BAE Systems.



Agarwal, a former Google manager, now works on cybersecurity issues in the Pentagon policy directorate. Their old boss, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs Douglas Wilson, decided not to replace Agarwal, who left in November.



Instead, now that the Facebook pages and Twitter feeds they set up are in place, Wilson says using social media ought to be the responsibility of the approximately 100 people he oversees. “I was increasingly concerned our approach to social media was a stovepiped professional area,” he tells Danger Room.



“It’s important for people in press operations, community and public outreach and communications and planning to be able to know how to use and access Facebook, Twitter and the other social media tools, rather than just have a single unit or single person do nothing but social media.”





Time will tell if Pentagon Social Media 2.0 is an actual upgrade. For one thing, it doesn’t make policy on servicemembers’ access to YouTube or Facebook, — a deeply controversial topic in certain military circles.



Excerpt is taken from the wired article, 'Unfollowed: Pentagon Deletes Social Media Office' by Spencer Ackerman. Click on the link below to read more.