Case Summary

Faced with a coming "revolution" in information management and social networking, the U.S. Coast Guard, under Commandant Thad Allen, began "social media" initiative to utilize technologies such as YouTube, Facebook, and blogs, to adapt to accelerating change and improve communication processes within the service.

Business Challenge

Commandant Thad Allen, viewing what he terms a "revolution in information management and social networking," issued a challenge to the U.S. Coast Guard to adapt to the changing patterns of communication and social interaction in a Web 2.0 world. Similar to other organizations, the Coast Guard is facing a generational shift toward more technology-centric millennials, who are beginning to fill the ranks of the service. Commandant Allen's challenge came as part of a general initiative reorganize and transform the Coast Guard into a more change-centric service.

Approach Taken

Since the initiative was announced in August 2008, the Coast Guard has branched into existing social media platforms on the Internet, including creating a "celebrity" page for the Commandant and Coast Guard page on Facebook; launching a Coast Guard channel on YouTube to post videos and responses from service members; posting photos from Coast Guard events on Flickr; and offering news and opinions through podcasts. All these platforms are updated very frequently, sometimes daily.

The Commandant also manages his own blog (iCommandant Journal), where service members can post messages and directly access Commandant Allen. The initiative has been made a central feature of the Commandant's Corner 2.0 page.

The Coast Guard also has plans to launch in December 2008 more extensive internal tools, including a new "Coast Guard Central" platform with blogging and wiki capability.

Results Achieved

The success of the social media initiative has been measured primarily by hits and visits to the various sites it operates.

• As of October 2008, Commandant Allen's blog had received about 2,000 visitors (500 visits per week) and many responses to the posts made daily by the Commandant and others.
• As of February 2009, the Commandant's Facebook page logged nearly 2,000 fans, up from 800 just 4 months before.
• As of February 2009, the Coast Guard's YouTube site logged features 375 videos from a wide variety of contributors, over 1700 subscribers, and 109 "friends".

Lessons Learned

The Coast Guard's social media initiative has been very successful in a short amount of time mainly due to the emphasis placed on the effort by the service's leadership. While the initiative has seen a great response, there still is anxiety in the service about information control and integrity. There is also some degree of discomfort among lower level staff in regard to communicating directly with senior leadership, which clearly is a factor of the service's structure this initiative attempts to change.