Last week, our Association for Social Media in Higher Education hosted its inaugural event, Trust and Authenticity in Social Media: The Case of the U.S. Military (check out the video). Instead of writing a “normal” recap of the event, I decided to do something different. I spent the entire event live-tweeting under my Twitter handle @JulieG, so I thought it would be interesting to look back on the event through the frame of Twitter, following the tweets — and retweets (with a few grammatical and syntactical changes, and a few explanatory notes).

To make it easy to follow the conversations, here’s my “cheat sheet” of Twitter handles — including some of the people in the audience and watching online:

• @talan – Scott Talan, our moderator. Talan is the director of communications at the National Association Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University.
• @LindyKyzer – Lindy Kyzer, a panelist who also tweets under the handle @USArmy. Kyzer is public affairs specialist at the U.S. Army.
• @fieldsteven – Steve Field, a panelist. Field is a former spokesman at the Pentagon and blogs at The D-Ring: Where the Military and New Media Collide.
• @nicoleschwegman – Nicole Schwegman, a panelist. Schwegman is a former Navy Public Affairs Officer.
• @lovoles – Lorraine Voles, an audience member. Voles is the Vice President of External Relations at George Washington University.
• @imjamesdavis – an attendee.
• @tjohns06 – an attendee.
• @NavyNews – listening to the conversation.

@talan asked his first question: when did you join twitter and what was your first reaction?
@nicoleschwegman responded that her use of social media came out of necessity — connecting to peers at the Naval Academy on Facebook (they didn’t have any phones in their dorm rooms) and later connecting to friends and family when she was out to sea.
@lyndykyzer stressed the trends involved in social media, not platforms. The trend is microblogging. The platform right now, is Twitter. Platforms change, but the trend can have a longer-term impact.
@lyndykyzer continued that as a platform, Twitter is only a secondary response mechanism for the Army. “Unless media relations responds, Twitter will not respond. We don’t want it to be our official form of communication.”
@lovoles asks the first question: “Does new media put more pressure on military to get information out in the context of the recent Ft. Hood shooting?”
@lindykyzer answered. “Putting out accurate data an hour later was more important than being the first on Twitter.” When it comes to reporting official information, social media has to be concurrent with tradtional press releases. Her department fact checks everything before publishing it — whether it’s a press release or a tweet.
@talan: asked, “With the decrease in mainstream media, do you see an increase in citizen media covering the military?”
@nicoleswegman answered that military reporters want information now to beat their competitors — which includes bloggers and new media. Because it’s a race to get information first, reporters online and offline aren’t always careful in their reporting and fact checking.
An audience member asked, “Can’t bureaocratic processes get in the way of rapid response to disinformation online?
@lindykyzer answered “There are multiple layers of chain of command between me and my general. Welcome to the Army.” She continues to discuss the need for speed and delegation of authority — with some guidelines. All social media posts must be “Public Affairs Ready” before they are released.
@lindykyzer continued with the thought that the military should push the authority to tweet down to the lowest level, but make sure people at that level are trained and qualified. She says, “You want to get info that is unclassified into the field quickly – single biggest multiplier there is.”
An audience member commented that the Fort Hood shootings and the misinformation spread on social media made a lot of people question social media as an effective medium.
@talan said, “Facts have no perspective.”
@fieldsteven said that in the future, official communications channels need to get the facts right, but they shouldn’t ignore social media. It can build trusted connections between service members and the public.
@lindykyzer concurred, “Our best spokespeople are servicemembers. We need those authentic voices. Not every day is a great day to be in Army. When we lose 13 service members in their home, that’s a bad day for the Army. ” We can’t just have PR flaks and policy people talking. If we send out corporate crap, we’ll get flamed for it.
@lindykyzer continued, “Soldiers are not dumb. We can give them training and let them communicate online. They speak in honest voices.”
@nicoleschwegman said, “In the end, the web prevails. If you say something wrong, people will discover it.”
@fieldsteven said, “A blog with no negative comments is suspect. Good organizations learn from mistakes.”
@nicoleschwegman said, “We’re trained not to go too far out on our own to break the news, but the Navy relies on sailors to get the news out there to friends and family.”
An audience member asks, “how are different branches of the military using social media to talk to service members? Is it cleared through a Public Affairs Officer first?
@lindykyzer answers that social media has been a great medium for feedback to the Army on institutional issues. Service members and their families engage in a lot of back-and-forth on issues like a potential smoking ban.
@fieldsteven added that there is a ton of risks and costs for not engaging in social media. Most executives and leaders understand this.
@tjohns06 tweets some of the ways the military is engaging in social media: “See@navynews and @mcponpao fb page for great #Navy examples!!”
@lindykyzer agrees with @fieldsteven. “It’s not as difficult as you think to convince military leaders of need to use socmedia – they just don’t think it’s fun – yet.”
@NavyNews tweets that there are up to 186 Navy social media sites so far.