The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2014

38 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Unexpected Benefits Sometimes, unfolding events have a way of showing you a new benefit of a technology you’ve been using for a while. Dur- ing the government shutdown this past October, AFSA was able to make use of our social media platforms to push information, guidance and resources to our members who were blocked from accessing their work e-mail. While we diligently utilized e-mail to provide this same information to members, using Facebook and Twitter to amplify the message and ensure its reach to furloughed individuals allowed us to realize just how useful these new ways of com- munication can be. Based on feedback frommembers, AFSA was able to provide information that the foreign affairs agen- cies either could or would not provide. Social media will play an important role in any shutdowns or similar situations in the future. Partly for that reason, we are constantly monitoring social media trends to understand which emerging platforms would fit within our communications toolkit. For us to add a new medium, it will ideally hit that demographic sweet spot at which we joined Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The number of users is rising, the resources are globally available, and they attract more than just the eager, early-adopting pre-teen and teenage crowds. We are also considering joining LinkedIn, as it fits the professional profile of our membership. For the time being, we have no plans to join Pinterest, but we expect to participate in a photo-sharing social network, such as Flickr, in the near future. Another platform we have considered joining, but have rejected for the time being, is Instagram. While it is currently the fastest-growing social network, its average current user is a 16-year-old female. That’s not exactly AFSA’s target demo- graphic! We intend to keep our social media options open for the future so that we can engage our members wherever they are in significant numbers. For now, we hope you’ll join the conversation online and follow AFSA on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. n