Whether we choose to engage or not, social media is changing the way people are communicating. Military family members are jumping on board with varying levels of enthusiasm. Some embrace the technology readily as a way of staying in touch, collecting information and building their networks. Others are a little more leery and choose not to engage at all, erring on the side of caution with regard to opsec considerations.

Speaking to a group of Air Force spouses yesterday, it was easy to see which camps people fell in. Most of the room was open to the presentation, their iPhones and Blackberries in front of them so they could surreptitiously sneak looks at e-mail and Facebook, but at the break, I found a couple of holdouts who in their own words, were never, ever going to take the plunge. My job wasn’t to change their minds; it was to provide them with another tool in their toolbox as squadron commander spouses. My goal was to let them know that whether or not they were engaged, they should have some level of understanding of how their young airmen and many of the spouses were already communicating. If they themselves came out of the presentation with a better understanding of how they could expand their own social and professional networks through the use to social media, then I would consider that the icing on the cake.

To kick things off, we showed the following video to help frame the discussion.

The spouses were amazed at the stats. Out of curiosity, I asked how many people were already on Facebook; a show of hands told me that all but 3-4 (out of approximately 35). I went down the list of other popular platforms: Twitter, Ning and LinkedIn. Only a handful of folks were familiar with Twitter. A few of them had inherited Ning networks from their predecessors and only the General’s Special Assistant and I were on LinkedIn. So, we spent the next hour and a half going through each of the platforms, how to’s and best practices. It was cool; their interest was piqued enough to ask for more information about managing their Twitter stream and synergizing all their social media.

In all fairness, I think they left a little overwhelmed, (as if they were being asked to go from 0-60 in no seconds flat), but from the initial feedback, it seems like their eyes were opened to the possibilities of social media enhancing their lives and networks as opposed to being an obligation and a drain on their time. I did reiterate that they shouldn’t abandon the tried and true – if they had a paper newsletter that was working well for them already, don’t get rid of it. Drive people to your web presence from the newsletter and vice versa. We just wanted to raise their awareness that some folks might prefer to get their information in different ways. I think that by the end, they understood, but the proof will be in the pudding; it’ll be interesting to see how many of them are using Twitter, Ning or LinkedIn within the next couple of months.

So how about you? Which platforms are you currently using and where do you go for military spouse resources and information?