social media roundup - 5 ways to highlight veterans day on social media

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Social Media Roundup 5 ways to highlight Veterans Day using social media

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This week’s Social Media Roundup offers 5 ways that social media can help generate awareness and discussion about Veterans Day.

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Page 1: Social Media Roundup - 5 ways to highlight Veterans Day on social media

Social Media Roundup

5 ways to highlight Veterans Day using social media

Page 2: Social Media Roundup - 5 ways to highlight Veterans Day on social media

Social Media Roundup

AgendaThis week’s Social Media Roundup offers 5 ways that social media can help generate awareness and discussion about Veterans Day.

Introduction #1. Branding #2. Feature user content #3. Link to outside content #4. Flickr photo albums #5. Twitter and hashtags

Page 3: Social Media Roundup - 5 ways to highlight Veterans Day on social media

Social Media Roundup

Introduction Veterans Day is an annual United States holiday honoring military Veterans. It’s an

important holiday for both service members and military supporters alike. Veterans Day represents an excellent opportunity for social media teams and Army organizations to connect with their various audiences.

By asking for photos and stories, posting questions and driving the conversation, social media can help give this important day the attention it deserves.

Here are a few ways the Army plans to generate buzz about Veterans Day using social media. These tips can easily be applied in small or large social media teams.

Page 4: Social Media Roundup - 5 ways to highlight Veterans Day on social media

Social Media Roundup

#1. Branding Throughout the year, the Army will alter its social

media branding to reflect an important event or time of year. As it has done in past years, the Army will change its branding on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to celebrate Veterans Day.

The Army plans to change its social media branding on Nov. 5 in front of the Nov. 11 holiday. Part of that branding change will include altering the Facebook icon. But the Army will do more than simply change its icon, it will encourage all its Facebook followers to do the same.

The Army produced dozens of downloadable Facebook icons that read “Veteran’s Dad,” “Veteran’s Spouse,” “Veteran’s Mom,” etc. so that Soldiers and Army supports can show their support on Facebook.

Page 5: Social Media Roundup - 5 ways to highlight Veterans Day on social media

Social Media Roundup

#2. Feature user content Veterans Day presents an opportunity for Soldiers and military supporters to share

their stories. The Army works to provide a social media forum for these individuals to post their images and share their unique stories. You can do the same.

On Oct. 25, the Army reached out to Army Veterans and supporters asking for photos of Veterans. These photos will appear in an album the Online and Social Media Division (OSMD) will publish Nov. 11 on Facebook. OSMD will also ask engagement questions like, “What is your definition of a Veteran?” In addition to asking for photos and asking engagement questions, the Army will encourage people to share their stories on http://armystrongstories.com/tell-your-story.

On your organization’s Facebook Page, you can ask for Veteran photos from your unit or installation or ask engagement questions that relate directly to your specific audience.

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Social Media Roundup

#3. Link to outside content On Veterans Day, the Army plans to link

to the Army.mil Veterans Day page, www.army.mil/veterans/. If your unit is producing Veterans Day content, make sure to load it to CORE at www.army.mil/create and then tag it with "target_veterans" (without quotes) in the keyword box so it will be included on Veterans Day website.

In addition to linking to the Veterans Day website, the Army will also share videos, stories and other content from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and various other websites.

Don’t forget to tag other organizations on Facebook if you share their content.

The Army.mil Veterans Microsite: http://www.army.mil/veterans/ (shown above) is one of the many external links your organization can post on Veterans Day.

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Social Media Roundup

#4. Flickr photo albums Veterans Day often links the

Veteran of today with the Veteran of yesterday. Veterans Day is an opportunity for people to look back and reflect on the sacrifices made by service members throughout the years.

The Army plans to highlight this sacrifice by creating a photo album on Flickr with images of Soldiers who defended our country in the past.

The Army will then link to this photo set on both Facebook and Twitter on Veterans Day.

Historical Army images can be found at the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center websites.

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Social Media Roundup

#5. Twitter and hashtags On Twitter, your approach to Veterans Day can be relatively simple and straight

forward. The Army will promote the #ArmyVeteran hashtag and encourage other organizations to use it when Tweeting about Veterans Day.

Twitter is a great way to promote and maintain a larger conversation, but it is much easier to track the conversation if everyone uses the #ArmyVeteran hashtag.

In addition to the #ArmyVeteran hashtag, make sure you tag other organizations in Tweets and also use other related hashtags like #USArmy, #WoundedWarrior, etc.

Since Veterans Day falls on a Friday, make sure to tag Veterans organizations like @DeptVetAffairs, @VA_OEF_OIF, @VANatCemeteries and @DCVAMC in a “Follow Friday” (#FF) Tweet.

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Social Media Roundup

Contact informationHave questions? Please feel free to reach out to us at the Online and Social Media Division

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF PUBLIC AFFAIRSPENTAGON

11/2/2011

Email:[email protected]

To review and download past editions of the Social Media Roundup, visit our Slideshare site at: http://www.slideshare.net/usarmysocialmedia. If you do not have access to Slideshare, they can also be found on AKO at: https://www.us.army.mil/suite/page/505262. All Social Media Roundups are authorized to be distributed to a broader audience.