Last week I was surprised to learn that my unit has a Facebook page. Why? Because no one, not any FRG person, not any family readiness support official and not even my husband ever bothered to mention it.
But that’s OK, because as it turns out it’s pretty boring. There’s no information on there about upcoming, public on-post or community events. There’s no details about post resources or links to fun things for my kids to do. In fact, it’s pretty much the least helpful Facebook page I’ve ever seen. The only thing on there is some change of command pictures.
Which is confusing. I think it’s safe to assume that over 95 percent of the unit’s family members and spouses get the bulk of their daily information from Facebook. And so you would think that the unit would jump on this opportunity and, at the very least, post a message telling people to check their email for information considered too sensitive to stick on Facebook.
In the Army we have a person in each unit who is paid actual money to get information out to families. But even if she was interested in using Facebook to do so, she is at the mercy of the unit’s commander, who may not see Facebook as the important tool that it is.
In my mind, the best social media idea would be for the unit to use Facebook to point back to the information they store in the Army’s own, personal online FRG news hub called the “vFRG.” But not every unit has one of those, either.
It’s like they want families to not know what’s going on.
WHY?
One of our goals here at SpouseBuzz is helping military family professionals (as in, people who make a living off of helping you get information) get and share vital information. And we’re obviously big fans of social media. So, tell us, does your unit use Facebook, Twitter or anything else?
Take our poll below to weigh in and check back later for results.
About Amy Bushatz
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I dont have facebook but I find the VFRG page and weekly "blast" emails to be useless. They pretty much give the same info as MWR…then I get a phone call the day of the frg meeting two hours beforehand letting me know about it. I dont go. I find the FRG useless.
Our base has a facebook page that gets updated sporadically with photos of some events, mostly the same stuff we see in the base paper, which has also fallen behind the times as well. They don't even post what movie is playing on base, not even in the paper!
However, my squadron spouses page is used daily to update everyone on anything going on including our weird stuff downtown that people are wanting to know about. We are in tornado country and have issues with our water among other things, and as soon as a spouse finds out something they post it on facebook for all to see (we are all just waiting for the day we actually a boil order on our water, but according to the town "it is totally safe", whatever…) If you have a question, throw it up on our page and probably within a few minutes you will have an answer, recommendation, or whatever you were wondering about. It is how most of us get our info, because lets face, husbands are not the best at letting us in on what we consider important information. Not even my Chief, who didn't even know the 4th fireworks were going to be held at the end of our street, until I pointed out the GIANT bleachers they were putting in down there the day before.
I noticed during the Tsunamit disaster in Japan, that Misawa AFB, Force Support I think, was posting updates on their facebook page, because people with cell phones could read that, even though they didn't have power. I was glad that they were posting news and info and keeping folks up to date. And I noticed a whole lot of family from the states posting thank you's because they had not been able to get in contact with their loved ones stationed there, and the base kept posting little snippets about "all present and accounted for". They knew in Misawa they weren't in danger, but their families in the states had no idea where they were located in relation to what was happening and were thankful to be able to read about what was going on there on facebook.
Now when I'm looking for information on a base we might be moving too, my first stop is facebook, I rarely even bother with the base website or anything on af.mil. I'll get more useful stuff by searching for a spouses group page or even a base housing page.
Facebook may have its downside, but it is a fanstastic tool that bases would be wise to start using, especially since it is free, websites cost money to maintain. Until facebook starts charging for its services, it would be better to utilize it over even having a website.
I have a FB page for our squadron but no everyone is on FB which makes it kinda frustrating as I still have to e-mail and call people.