With the national unemployment rate lingering at 9.5 percent in June, social-savvy marketers should know that Uncle Sam may want you to work in social media management for the U.S. government. Multiple reports indicate that federal offices are now looking to boost their social media interactions with the public, and tech-savvy marketers could fit the bill.
For example, Express Night Out, a publication of the Washington Post, reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce recently created a position for a director of media. Twenty-six-year-old Neil Sroka is now in charge of communicating with the department’s constituency via Facebook and Twitter.
Sroka considers himself a sort of translator between various departments within the federal agency and “the people” via the web. On a given day, he “might send e-mails for the fundraising department, or put together a blog post or a video for the communications department.”
The U.S. Army is also now communicating with the public via social platforms. Lindy Kyzer, 26, is in charge of the tweets for the @USArmy Twitter Feed. The source reports that Kyzer was responsible for addressing the Fort Hood shootings in real-time through social media.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. The State Department has announced a new effort to bring “diplomacy into the digital age” by incorporating social platforms into its diplomatic broadcasts. While it seems young staff members with social chops are currently paving the way in this arena, federal leaders may soon be looking to bring in marketers with expertise in social communications.
As Express Night Out put it, Twitter and Facebook are the “Wild West” of corporate communications for the Administration, and marketers who make their skills known could lead U.S. government communications into the new frontier.
