Posted on Sep 17, 2013
What is the proper protocol for senior officers/NCOs to connect with junior officers/NCO/Soldiers in Social Media?
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As a Lieutenant Colonel, and a Battalion Commander, I often see junior members of my battalion listed for me to connect with as well as others stationed at the same post. What kind of protocol is proper for me to connect and for my responses to requests to connect?
Customs and Courtesies
RallyPoint
Protocol
Edited 10 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 44
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I personnally am not Friends on Facebook with my Soldiers or my Leaders while they are my Soldiers or Leaders. After I or they leave the unit then I accept/send the requestfor 2 reasons 1)Just to see how they are doing and progressing, and 2) in case they or I need to get in contact for assistance. I explain to my Soldiers why at the time I cannot accept their request and have not had any ramifications for the denial. Now if they request me on here then yes I will make them a connection because this is a profession growth site, but facebook can get people into trouble.
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SSG Laureano Pabon
PS: Your hat, I like it, it was worn by many SM whom were Cavalry during the NAM war and worn shortly after post NAM, I recall seeing many SM wearing it like we wore the Black Bert with a red and white full flash. History showed that during my time only Rangers wore the Black Berets, but seeing this shows some form of history coming back to the present. perhaps not just uniforms but other things as well. As an insight, in my time we where allowed to serve 20 years then retire, during the Ragan admisintration that was changed from 20 to 30 years then on your 30th year you had to wait till your in your old age to start your retirement pay. But when the war was kicked off, that went back to like it was in my earlier years. Something interesting if I may say so. Now with the down sizing I can only see history kind of repeating its self.
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SFC (Join to see)
Thank you SSG Pabon, I have been in various Cavalry units for the last 7-8 years, and I wear my Stetson and Spurs every chance I get.
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MSG Lance Kelly
SSG Pabon, wear them with pride. I have served with the 11th and 3rd ACR and earned my spurs in Desert Storm. I wish I could still wear them in uniform. The best response I got to the spurs was when I wore them for a service school graduation and someone asked me what kind of shoes I was wearing because they had never seen the spurs.
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This is an excellent question - it's good to see it being discussed here. I would not be too concerned with connecting with subordinates on RallyPoint or milBook since these are professional forums. I would take great care with Facebook, however. I should not be posting things on my Facebook page that are unprofessional so that's not my concern but there are limits to how much of my personal and family life I want all of my subordinates aware of. My personal habit has been to accept Facebook requests from my immediate subordinates while I'm serving with them and with others after we have moved on to other organizations or transitioned out of the service. I have not had any issues with doing so and the social media contact has stayed appropriate. In one case, I had connected with an NCO with whom I had served in the past. I noted an inappropriate political post on his wall, let him know about it in a private message, and he removed the post. As several have mentioned the unit Facebook page or an alternative "Government Official" or "Military Commander" page - like many of our senior leaders use - can be very effective at building and maintaining the professional relationship with the organization and their family members.
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I must agree with SPC Benjamin. Social Media is not the future anymore, it currently IS the present and most popular way to connect and network with anyone and everyone. If you feel uncomfortable connecting, don't connect, instead start a group for your unit on Facebook and communicate via the group and make yourself available via group, this will keep you from connecting to individuals while still being able to interact with them on your terms. If you decide your the sociable kind of leader you could add your own "sub group" in your friends list and give limited permissions to those people within said group. There are different options available to you. A 3rd alternative is to make a "Military Commander" only Facebook/Twitter profile separate from your personal profile and utilize that for your social media interaction with other military/subordinates/foreign national work connections.
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LTC (Join to see)
Excellent suggestions, SGT Sullivan. I've seen the Facebook group work effectively for communicating with families and keeping them updated on activities and information from the organization. I've also seen the alternative profile work to connect commanders with subordinates without using their personal Facebook profile. Before deciding what is the best approach, the leader needs to decide what he hopes to gain from using social media within his unit and between him and his subordinates. Building relationships is important and social media is one way to help with that. But enforcing and supporting the chain of command is also vital and social media can be detrimental to this if proper rules are not established. Much like when a Soldier approaches me with a problem, my first question is usually "have you talked with your squad leader about this?" Same kind of questions should be asked when discussing individual issues on social media.
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