The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 1 0 ing some of our main stakeholders: U.S. government offices, foreign embassies, travel agencies and uni- versity study-abroad offices. Other governments are also using Twitter to keep in touch with their citizens: the British have a main Foreign Of- fice account and numerous addi- tional Twitter pages managed by individual embassies, consulates and missions. Of the State Department’s nearly 200 Facebook pages, many have thousands of followers, and a growing number of them have more than 10,000 fans. Most of the pages are not focused exclusively on consular matters, but certainly visa, passport and overseas citizens services issues are prominent on the sites. One Facebook page that seems to work well is that of Embassy Podgorica. This relatively small post has some- how managed to attract over 3,000 fans to its site, which not only covers the busy schedule of its ambassador but also publishes items on the Diversity Visa Lottery and of- fers a “how to” video on the visa process. Other notewor- thy Facebook pages in terms of number of “fans” are our embassies in La Paz and Pretoria. The granddaddy of them all, however, is Embassy Jakarta, which boasts at least 124,000 fans. The www.travel.state.gov Web site, which scores ap- proximately 300 million visits annually, and its sister sites in embassies and consulates abroad remain the main tools for disseminating information to our citizens about travel-re- lated conditions. The Value of Feedback So why use social media? The short answer is that one should engage the public where they are. According to Walter Braunohler of State’s Office of eDiplomacy, “If we engage people where they are going naturally, we will have much better success in reaching them and getting them the information they need.” People around the world are certainly flocking to social media Web sites, with an estimated 350 million people currently on Facebook and more than 105 million users worldwide on Twitter. Another reason to utilize social media is the potential to engage the public in conversation, the characteristic that sets it apart from traditional Web sites. Bill May of the Of- fice of Innovative Engagement in the Bureau of Interna- tional Information Programs em- phasizes that this two-way commu- nication is themost important aspect of social media. With the typical “flat” Web page, May explains, “eye- balls may be looking at it, but that doesn’t mean anything happened. What is important is how much real engagement you have.” John Echard of CA’s Office of Public Affairs and Policy Coordination agrees. When he set up the bureau’s Twit- ter accounts, he realized from the outset the importance of having two-way communication. “Twitter should not be used only as a way to disseminate information— it’s a con- versation, and posts should also correspond with people tweeting at them.” I first became aware of the power of social media dur- ing a recent consular tour in the Dominican Republic, where I monitored a local Web site, www.dominicans totheusa.com . This is a forum for immigration and visa issues specifically focused on visa operations at Embassy Santo Domingo. Founded several years ago at a time when there was a huge backlog of immigrant visa appli- cations, the site spotlighted a perceived lack of trans- parency in the process. As I read the entries on the site’s forum, I was struck by how confused and angry many forum members were. Much of their frustration was over appointment wait times (which happily are now dramatically reduced). But some of it came from misunderstandings that could be bridged through better communication. Upon receiving approval for the initiative from CA, I began a monthly “Ask the Expert” column on the site in 2007, and posted periodic updates on the forum. We in- vited the site’s founder in for a “behind the scenes” tour of the consular section. The results were impressive: On the rare occasion when a forum member posted something negative, 10 others would “gang up” on him, noting how hard embassy employees were working to end the backlog. This dynamic interaction can also be extremely valu- able for feedback. In monitoring the site, I often discov- ered problems and was then able to adjust my outreach accordingly. Many times members would post comments about their interview experiences, thus providing imme- diate feedback about the consular section’s customer serv- ice. We even adopted some suggestions for procedural changes proposed by forum members. This engagement F O C U S Embassies should not just post information, but also respond to comments and inquiries.