Va Social Media

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) Use of Social Media

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Thesis Statement: To discuss the VA’s use of social media to interact with veterans and display some of their social media sites in class

I. Introduction

a. History of VA’s social media involvement

b. VA’s VAntage Point blog

II. VA Policy Directive 6515: Use of Web-Based Collaboration Technologies

a. Purpose

b. Guidelines

c. Goals

III. Conclusion

a. VA – Leader in the Field

b. Examples of VA’s social media sites

V. Bibliography

Introduction

In 2009, the VA launched a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel, and a Flickr photo site. In 2010, the VA Medical Centers started to add Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. On Veterans Day in 2010, the VA launched a blog entitled, VAntage Point. In February 2011, the VA entered a second phase of social media operations involving feedback and acting on it. The VA has not had a vehicle by which they could get feedback from the veterans. The VA used Facebook to solicit comments for their official web sites, and had positive feedback for them.

Prior to the policy directive release on August 16, 2011, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs did not have a concrete policy for using the social media sites available to the public on the Internet. These popular sites are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The Govt. Accounting Office (GAO) published a report in June 2011 stating that most government agencies were using social media sites (United States Government Accounting Office). On May 31, 2011, the VA concurred with this report that they would ensure that the appropriate record management and privacy measures were in place when social media sites were being used (United States Government Accounting Office).

TheVAntage Point, the official blog of the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs was started in 2010. Traditionally,...