The Foreign Service Journal, September 2017

12 SEPTEMBER 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL as it was timely. Social media platforms are designed to enhance and maintain existing relationships with people and institutions, not just push out U.S. gov- ernment messages. I commend her for a thoughtful, constructive and proactive article. Sometimes I also feel like I have trav- eled back in time when I am working on social media. Ms. Shaw is right to point out that the State Department is behind the times; after all, we’re being dumped by Research in Motion. Notwithstanding this unfortunate reality, our Service has made a lot of progress since my first association with the department in spring 2007. Our videos are shorter, our tweets snappier and our photos sharper; and this trend is something that each officer can support and even accelerate. Ms. Shaw is right to highlight the importance of training, but her focus is too narrow because the economic officer of today may be a public diplomacy officer tomorrow. All officers should con- sider taking digital diplomacy courses like PY360 (available on OpenNet only). If FSI training is not possible, officers can enroll in the Hootsuite Academy or the Salford Business School’s social media massive open online course (MOOC). Both are free. Because raters are now required to incorporate how their ratees facilitate the professional development of their subordinates (as appropriate), manag- ers also have a key role in enhancing our Service’s social media capabilities and capacity as directed by 15 STATE 87964. Senior managers need to hold their mid-level managers accountable for “embrac[ing] disruptive technologies” like social media and “devis[ing] strate- gies to integrate new technologies into the workplace,” as stated in the current “Decision Criteria for Tenure and Pro- motion in the Foreign Service.” Mid-level managers need to ensure that their officers, locally employed (LE) staff and eligible family members (EFM) all look for ways to incorporate social media into diplomacy before every meeting or event, to make sure there is sufficient time to take that compelling photo, record an interesting statement on video or prepare a pithy tweet. Jay Gullish, a former EFM employed under the Expanded Professional Asso- ciates Program at Embassy New Delhi, helped persuade our front office to institutionalize this by adding a box to briefing memos and scheduling memos. Finally, the department can promote the enhancement of digital diplomacy capabilities by incorporating employees’ access to Adobe’s Home Use Program at the appropriate time. Ms. Shaw calls for the creation of a cache for best practices to drive social media development within our Service. Fortunately, we already have such a platform: Corridor. While underused, this platform can facilitate dynamic, open and informal conversations among officers involved in public diplo- macy. I invite like-minded officers, LE staff and EFMs to consider joining the Outreach and Social Media community (available on OpenNet only) so that we can learn from each other. Enhancing our social media capa- bilities will not be easy, but it is impera- tive we do so because corporations, governments (at all levels) and leaders are increasingly using social media to communicate with their audiences. If we want people to consider what the U.S. government has to say, we need to con- sider these platforms (and the tools to