The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

fter comparing the Department of State’s technological expertise with that of the now-defunct United States Information Agency on their weblog, “Whirled View” (http://whirledview.type pad.com/whirledview/ ), former FSOs Patricia Kushlis and Patricia Lee Sharpe offer the following comment: “It often seems as if the State Department is trying to make up for lost time, positioning itself precariously on the other extreme of the spectrum, as current public diplo- macy recruits fall all over themselves to prove they can out-Facebook, out-tweet and out-text the most desper- ate friend-seeker on the block.” It does seem these days that we are stumbling over each other as we “friend,” “poke” and “tweet” our way around the Web. “Social media” is the buzzword of the day, and the State Department has jumped on the band- wagon, utilizing such tools as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach our audiences. We have embraced the new technologies, with active public blogs like DipNote and countless internal blogs and forum discussions. The department also operates nearly 200 Facebook pages, 50 Twitter sites and 42 YouTube sites. Consular officers are often the literal face of the De- partment of State, touching the lives of thousands of American citizens and visa applicants around the world each day. So it should come as no surprise that the Bu- reau of Consular Affairs is using social media in novel ways. Embassy London, for example, has a YouTube chan- nel with interesting and informative “how to” videos con- cerning consular matters. My favorite is “Melissa Gets a Passport,” in the style of those goofy public service films from the 1950s, in which the cheerfully inquisitive title character is a U.S. expatriate who navigates the passport application process. (The embassy’s “Scamnet” video is pretty darn good, too, with apologies to Joe Friday.) Another example comes fromMission Mexico, whose YouTube videos include one discussing how to stay safe during spring break. And the consular section in Tel Aviv has developed an excellent video warning applicants of the consequences of engaging in fraud. CA also utilizes Twitter to disseminate travel alerts and updates on country-specific information notices. The TravelGov account boasts over 25,000 followers, includ- J U N E 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 F O C U S O N T H E C O N S U L A R F U N C T I O N “W E ’ RE ON F ACEBOOK ” A S THE FACE OF THE D EPARTMENT OF S TATE FOR COUNTLESS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD , CONSULAR STAFF USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN NOVEL WAYS . B Y W ILLIAM B ENT A William Bent is head of the Outreach Division in CA’s Of- fice of Public Affairs and Policy Coordination. A Foreign Service officer since 1992, he has served overseas in Santo Domingo, Prague and Kingston. In Washington, D.C., he has been a desk officer for Jamaica and the Bahamas and for Ireland, as well as a career development officer for the Bureau of Human Resources and chief of the Diplomatic Liaison Division of the Visa Office.