Going Viral: DoD's New Media Tactics for the Troops

Going Viral: DoD's New Media Tactics for the Troops

This year marked the fourth annual Department of Defense America Supports You (ASY) National Freedom Walk in Washington D.C.  The ASY Freedom Walk is an opportunity to reflect on the lives lost on September 11, 2001 at the Pentagon and remember the sacrifices of our veterans past and present.

Employing new media tactics to communicate to the public about DoD policy and programs is an important part of the Department of Defense's public affairs mission, and letting folks know about the ASY Freedom Walk is no exception. This year, for the first time, we incorporated viral marketing and new media tactics to increase awareness about the opportunity to walk in the DC area, which led to great walker registration and turn out. We also experimented with new media tactics the day of the event, understanding that these components are an important way to connect with our audiences.  

A central part of our new media campaign was the creation of an America Supports You Freedom Walk widget. The widget displayed a countdown to the day of the national walk and tallied the number of local walks being organized around the country. The widget also provided links through which participants could register and spread the word about the event. Milbloggers, military spouse bloggers and online publications could post the widget on their sites. Then, during the ASY Freedom Walk, we enabled participants to send text messages honoring our troops and the lives lost on the day of the event. The messages scrolled through the widget after the event.

In terms of viral outreach, we relied largely on cross-promotion from the ASY homefront groups, military support organizations and partner government agencies. GovDelivery sent our viral e-mail to its own subscription lists and partnered us with their other subscribers. Here at DoD, we placed e-mail footers at the bottom of our news articles. Other organizations, including DisabilityInfo.gov and USA.gov, were instrumental in helping us get the word out to their subscribers through similar tactics.

The viral outreach campaign also incorporated online video components. The DoD New Media team created a video blog, or "vlog," to share information with communities about opportunities to start local walks in their area. The video was showcased on the DoD "video on demand" Web site, DoD VClips, along with many other DoD videos centering around September 11^th. This year's ASY Freedom walk and recognition of September 11^th was particularly important due to the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial, and viral video was an important part of telling this story. 

Overall, thousands of participants participated in the ASY Freedom Walk. This event provided a good opportunity to experiment with viral notification and new media tactics.

We have a host of other new media ideas that we hope to develop as well. At DoD, we are constantly experimenting with new ways of delivering information, realizing that the way the public consumes information is constantly evolving.