US Embassy Baghdad is on Facebook!

Our US Embassy in Baghdad has joined the now world and finally got on Facebook. The page is here if you want to fan it. Sorry folks – no Twitter, YouTube or blog for you right now. And yes, the embassy’s Baghdad Press Office still does not return email inquiries even as a courtesy. The email address BaghdadPressOffice@state.gov is up there for a purpose but I can’t tell you what it is for. The embassy website also does not include a link to its Facebook page. It does have a recruitment page that you might find interesting:

Mission Iraq Recruitment

• USAJOBS. iraq


• Facebook


• Yahoo! Groups


• Baghdad Anne

The new Facebook page has a brief welcome video with Ambassador Chris Hill.  As of this writing, the page has approximately 1,100 fans.  It has an English Language Center (Do you know the expression “once in a blue moon?”) and about a dozen photos (no, not thumbprint size photos). It looks like it was set up in late November; contains sporadic posts and links to the White House and the mother ship, but not much locally generated content from its administrators. So—don’t get your hopes up!

Window hours and consular services are included, as well as a list of holidays in the info tab.  It does not look like this is run by Public Affairs or by IRC but by the Consular Section.   I thought I’d waste some more of my time and send an email to the press office for confirmation.  (Makes a difference who’s running it!).  Of course the only one who broke my record of non-response from State’s Public Affairs shop is that one Press Officer in Kabul. Tee-Hee!   

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• US Embassy Seeks Facebook Friends (cbsnews.com)

Quickie: Public Diplomacy 2.0: Where the USG Meets "New Media"

Helle C. Dale has a research article up in the Heritage Foundation website on public diplomacy (Public Diplomacy 2.0: Where the U.S. Government Meets "New Media" | December 8, 2009). The writer is a Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a Division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation. Quick excerpts below:

“U.S. embassies have seen the potential of social Web sites for facilitating public diplomacy. Embassies in Pakistan and Indonesia both have Facebook pages, offering information about the United States and American culture to an audience roughly 13 to 26 years of age. Degrees of success vary wildly, however. The U.S. embassy in Indonesia boasts 19,640 "fans" as of December 1. Its Web site bears an official U.S. government seal, and has a professional look that lives up to its diplomatic purpose. By contrast, the U.S. embassy in Pakistan has 539 Facebook "fans," and is more difficult to identify as an official group -- the site has no official seal, no State Department e-mail address, and a casual homemade look. This highlights the very pertinent question of official policy guidelines regulating U.S. government use of online social networking.”

As a side note -- in October, Secretary Clinton, in response to a question during the Dean Acheson lecture said that “a new team going in to Pakistan” and that “We have adopted a new approach, which is we do not leave any misstatement or inaccuracy unanswered.”

The US Embassy Pakistan’s Facebook page was created in late October, four days before Secretary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan. It has 627 fans and about a couple dozen photos online as of this writing. Odd thing though -- there is no link from the official embassy website to its Facebook page; so you’ve got to know what you’re looking for. Since November 4, US Embassy Islamabad’s press office has also issued seven Corrections for the Record statements ranging from the US Embassy construction to “suspected Blackwater house.” But other than these, it’s hard to tell how much this rapid response team has done so far.

"New media" as "game changer?" More excerpts:

The challenges the U.S. government faces in harnessing social media are numerous. While it is essential that government have a coordinated message, the "grassroots" nature of social media makes it both difficult and somewhat undesirable to control them. The appeal of social media is precisely its feeling of intimacy and informality, and the government runs the risk of diminishing, even destroying, this appeal of social media through regulation. The content on social-networking sites should be both interesting and pertinent to individuals -- people, not formal information, are the essence of social interaction.[…]The U. S. government, traditional media, and the public often view "new media" as a magic tool, portending a revolution in the way the U.S. government conducts public diplomacy and addresses the world. In time, it may indeed be the "game changer" that Undersecretary McHale talked about in her confirmation hearing, and new media does make it possible to connect with previously unreached and under-engaged populations. However, to realize this advantage, the strengths, limitations, and risks of each media tool must be properly understood, and technologies must be wisely used to their respective comparative advantage. This is why the framework of a National Communications Strategy is desperately needed in order for U.S. public diplomacy to rise above mere strategy and tactics.

In her confirmation testimony before Congress, Judith McHale spoke of the need for just such a strategy. While Twitter, for instance, is excellent at providing small, timely bits of essential information, it is fatiguing and ineffective for routine updates. The U.S. government, in the person of the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, must provide agencies engaging in outbound communication with guidelines and metrics to establish that their use of new media is on message, recognizable as official, and wisely deployed in order to avoid destroying the intrinsic appeal of a given media to the target audience. Lastly, the government must realize that there are new media that are valuable tools, and others that are a distracting waste of time and taxpayer resources.

Congress and the Administration should:

• Create a National Communications Strategy articulated by the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy.
• Formulate government-wide guidelines to ensure that the new media is on message, as well as standards for official use of social media, ensuring that government Web pages can be identified and differentiated from impersonators without destroying the appeal of the particular media to its audience.
• Establish a new non-governmental or semi-governmental research organization (a Corporation for Foreign Opinion Analysis)

The must-read article especially for practitioners of “new media” is here.

Web 2.0 Roundup: US Embassy Manila

From US Embassy Manila via Facebook

Last week, the US Embassy in Manila had “Twitter Week.” The occasion marked the official launch of the embassy’s twin sites in Twitter and Facebook. In announcing the new online engagement, the US Ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie Kenney writes in her blog:

"At the U.S. Embassy in Manila, we use all sorts of modern technology to stay in touch, and we want more people to have virtual access to us and our activities. We have a new U.S. Embassy Manila Facebook page, along with our Embassy website, to share stories, news and photos with you."

Ambassador Kenney is one of the very few US Ambassadors with an official blog, and the only one with a blog hosted in America.gov. As can be expected the topic she addresses in her blog are normally selective, noncontroversial and usually tied to her official events like US Navy ship visits here and here, USAID projects, the passing of President Aquino and marking 9/11. But in late September when Typhoon Ketsana caused widespread flooding in Metro Manila and nearby areas, and in the relief operation that followed, she was able to use her blog here and here, to give insight into the calamity on the ground and share online what the USG was trying to do to help. And none of it looked like boiler-plate language that you see in cables or in press releases. In one of her blog posts she writes:

“I have to start this blog entry by telling my mother, once again, that I am fine. Yes, Manila was flattened by major floods. Yes, typhoons followed the floods. Yes, many people suffered. Yes, the U.S. Embassy was flooded. But I am fine. And very lucky. Many others were not so fortunate.”

I don’t think we can realistically expect our ambassadors to write about foreign policy issues in their blogs. We certainly can’t expect Ambassador Kenney to write about the RP-US Visiting Agreement in this medium because there are other venues what would lend more effectively to the discussion of such matters. But as she has shown, a blog can be a great tool in public diplomacy; no, not as a public relations-lobbying tool but in personalizing our government’s top representative in a foreign country, and in showing empathetic engagement. Whoever works online officially as part of the public diplomacy outreach must bear in mind what Edward R. Murrow, former director of the USIA, once said: “Truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.”

Internet stats for the Republic of the Philippines below:

Population (est. 2009): 97,976,603

Internet Users (2000): 2,000,000

Internet Users (latest data): 24,000,000

Penetration: 21.1 %

User Growth (2000-2009): 932.5 %

User in Asia (%): 2.9 %

In addition to the ambassador’s blog and the mission website (that has so far evaded the fate of a canned website template), the US Embassy Manila is on Facebook and Twitter. It is also on Flickr although its extensive photo gallery has not been uploaded to it. Ambassador Kenney is on Twitter with over 700 followers (including basketball star, Chris Tiu). That’s how you know she had “dinner with embassy pals and manny pacquiao” or that she watched the Smart Gilas versus Ginebra game. As an aside, the game, that’s the basketball game -- is important. In 1898-1900s, the United States introduced basketball in the Philippines. Today, it is the most popular sport in the country.

Similar to Indonesia, I think there is an opportunity for innovative PD engagement in the Philippines that no one has grabbed unto yet. Filipino mobile phone users currently number more than 70 million out of the total population of 97 million. Its penetration rate hit 75 percent in 2008; double that of Indonesia’s. More than radios, more than the Internet, mobile phones have more reach than anything else in this country of over 7,100 islands. The Philippines is also widely called the text-messaging center of the world for a reason; they send one billion text messages a day. According to WaPo, when President Joseph Estrada was forced from office in 2001, he bitterly complained that the popular uprising against him was a "coup de text." (It was widely reported that the protest was coordinated with SMS chain letters). "This is a development for democracy," was how text messaging was described by one protest leader, five years later, organizing against Estrada’s successor. If a “coup de text” was possible, how can making this work for public diplomacy be impossible? "Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future.*" There is a way to put this to great use – find it!

See more Web 2.0 Roundup here.*James Bertrand quote

Web 2.0 Roundup: US Embassy Jakarta Wows!

Kick-off Pesta Blogger 2009and Blogshops announcement. One Spirit One NationAmbassador Hume is 3rd from the right

Tomorrow, October 24, the U.S. Embassy Jakarta is sponsoring Pesta Blogger 2009, Indonesia’s only national-level bloggers’ gathering. This is the second consecutive year that US Embassy Jakarta is sponsoring the event. Four U.S. bloggers will participate: Brian Giesen, a Digital Influence Specialist with over five years of experience with Ogilvy PR and is an Interactive Marketing Manager in Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide; Arsalan Iftikhar, international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com blog, and a contributing editor for Islamica magazine in Washington DC; Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder of BoingBoing.net and was an editor at Wired Magazine from 1993-1998 and Corvida Raven, author of SheGeeks.net, co-author of EverythingTwitter and TheSocialGeeks Podcast.

The U.S. Embassy has also sponsored a series of blogging workshops in 10 cities across Indonesia over the past three months, in order to encourage more Indonesians to blog and to impart the principles of citizen journalism. Over one thousand people participated in the programs, which were held in Malang, Semarang, Balikpapan, Samarinda, Makassar, Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, Palembang and Yogyakarta.

Sounds like fun!In June this year, I wrote about the State Department’s digital diplomacy footprint. I looked at our most important posts in terms of perceived engagement need and size and included posts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, China and Mexico. Read my original post here.

I omitted Indonesia because in Asia, there were other high flyers online that shocked my balls. Yes, Indonesia did have a user growth rate of 1,150%, but Afghanistan is the top dog with 49,900.0 % growth rate while China holds the highest number of Internet users at 48.2%. As an aside, the countries with the highest growth rates after Afghanistan (in five digit rates) are in the –stans: Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Tajikistan (US Embassy Dushanbe is on Facebook) and Uzbekistan (IRC Tashkent is on Facebook).

But I did want to write about Indonesia because among the US missions I’ve been keeping tabs on, US Embassy Jakarta’s digital outreach probably offers the most active, creative and fun engagement in the new media. Indonesia is also a sprawling country of 17,000 islands. It is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims. Indonesia’s internet stats below:

Estimated population in 2009: 240,271,522

Internet Users in 2000: 2,000,000

Internet Users (latest data): 25,000,000

Penetration: 10.4 %

User Growth (2000-2009): 1,150.0 %

% Users in Asia: 3.6 %

The US Embassy in Jakarta says that it was the first diplomatic Mission in Indonesia to create a Facebook page. Check it out at www.facebook.com/jakarta.usembassy. The page was launched in January and as of this writing, has 15,106 hard-earned fans. Its Facebook page also features unique content, including photos (see the Embassy’s resident cats and batik collection), videos and contests (FotObama, Ocean in Focus).

Ambassador Hume has posted once in DipNote but Embassy Jakarta has no regular blogger. The US Embassy Jakarta is also on YouTube and Twitter but its Facebook page is obviously its flagship engagement online.In late August, it announced its plan to organize a fans meet-up when the number reaches 10.000. Exactly a month later, it hit that impressive mark. To put that number in context, Co.Nx: See the World which is hosted by the State Department’s International Information Programs (IIP) Bureau and spans the globe has 31,993 fans. The State Department’s main Facebook page has 23,432 fans. Most US mission pages on Facebook barely breaks the thousandth mark. So 15,106 fans is a big wow! I hope that goes into somebody's EER. I also hope that the embassy can keep it up even when the current team running it rotates out to new assignments.

Just a couple more thoughts -

1) I am glad the embassy no longer plasters the embassy’s URL across its shared photos. But I am still hoping that they move their photo gallery over to Flickr not only for easier search but also to have an integrated depository of mission photographs. To date the U.S. Government has spent over US$ 8 million for the West Sumatran earthquake assistance campaign. The photos are available here but have not been posted in its Facebook page.2) I'm wondering who will venture bravely into the undiscovered country of public diplomacy via SMS? Indonesia could be a great place for PD innovators (admittedly State is not known as a great incubator for innovators, but one can hope). The total mobile subscribers in Indonesia crossed the 90 million mark in early 2008, with a 37% penetration rate. According to trendsmith, its mobile market is growing rapidly with almost 50% annual increase in subscribers over the past 7 years. Now there's an opportunity for engagement. Think about it.

Web 2.0 Roundup: US Embassy London

This one from the recent OIG report on US Embassy London:

"PAS [Public Affairs Section] is now “tweeting,” but is not yet utilizing Facebook. A first effort at a Facebook page was taken down while its use and content are being reevaluated. These new media, especially the social networks, work best when they can be personalized. While ELOs might have the right skill set to do so, they have not been keen to take on the additional workload without adjustments to their regular responsibilities. In addition, both the front office and the Department have concerns regarding the control of the message in these new media products. The Department recently issued a telegram raising the complicated issue of using and managing social media for public diplomacy. Balancing the desire to control the message against the speed at which content changes on these networks is difficult. Some proponents of social networking fear that tilting the balance too much in favor of control will render its use too sluggish."

US Embassy London has gone back to Facebook and is also on Flickr & Twitter. It is running five Blogs:

• American Citizens Services (current)
• American Culturati by FSO Rakesh Surampudi(no update since August 2009)
• Environment, Science & Technology by Environment OfficerJock Whittlesey (no update since July 2009)
• Politics blog (no update since July 2009)
• Visa Section's blog (current).

In addition, the mission has Podcasts & Multimedia, WebTV (video-casts, no update since 2008) and a YouTube channel.