LFAA hires civilian Facebook/Twitter expert

[Jarnhamar]

Facebook pages are popular when it's a sections page or a regiments NCMs and JNCOs or a mess's page.  The higher up the chain it goes the more stale and 'army like' the pages become and the less people become interested in it.

 

[brihard]

Facebook pages are popular when it's a sections page or a regiments NCMs and JNCOs or a mess's page.  The higher up the chain it goes the more stale and 'army like' the pages become and the less people become interested in it.

Yup. As soon as content has to be sanctioned, most troops conserve their GAFF for other pursuits.

 

[Takeniteasy]

Times they are a changen!  I remember when I first started a FB page for Soldier On..(2006). Back then they had the Cause pages and I actually got it up to about 18,000 followers, I could email at any given time up to 5000 people... Thankfully for those people I did not spam them, just sent emails about once a month and kept the page up to date with links and pics.  Big part of getting the word out across Canada.   

Today there is an "official" SO page. 

Thankfully I never listened to anyone who said it was not appropriate!!

Andrew

 

[Harris]

33 CBG has an NCO who works in the PAff cell who manages the brigade Facebook site. Last I heard they got him on one of the intro level public affairs courses or some such. Why not do exactly that? Put an internet savvy reserve NCO on a three year contract, put him on a PAff course and the Target Audience Analysis course run out of PSTC and there you go. That's half an hour out of his day, and the rest of the time he does whatever other task a brigade or area HQ has in abundance for administratively competent NCOs.

Sounds like a great idea, but this Area is cutting Class B's, not creating new ones, and the Internet is not considered a priority.  I'm not saying that having a civilian consultant is necessarily the best way to do this, (I'm not saying it isn't either), but we've been tasked to use social media (and as always a new task is issued without any funding or training).  The current staff can't do it (And I'm not part of the PAO shop, but I do work closely with them), so the current solution was to hire consultants to analyze the task, recommend the best way to do it, and to educate the staff at the same time.  This isn't a full time from now on task.  It's more of a trial to see how things go.  At the end of the day it's far cheaper to hire a civi company than to employ someone to do this.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

So I see LFAA now consists of:

@LFAA_Comd (Twitter)

36 Canadian Brigade Group (Facebook)

Land Force Atlantic Area (Facebook)

only.....

 

[The Bread Guy]

....  the current solution was to hire consultants to analyze the task, recommend the best way to do it, and to educate the staff at the same time.  This isn't a full time from now on task.  It's more of a trial to see how things go ....

 

[Eye In The Sky]

There is not enough money, so Cl B reservists are being cut, but there is money to hire a civilian "socialmedia" expect to work from home.

:

If the Internet is not a priority, why are they hiring a contractor for Internet work ???

 

[George Wallace]

There is not enough money, so Cl B reservists are being cut, but there is money to hire a civilian "socialmedia" expect to work from home.

:

If the Internet is not a priority, why are they hiring a contractor for Internet work ???

So we can hire a contractor by the name of Leslie to lay off contractors.    :

 

[Eye In The Sky]

:facepalm:

 

[Harris]

OK.  I get it.  No matter what I say you guys think it's a bad idea.  Since I have no horse in this race I'll leave you guys to it.  Please bash away.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

At the end of the day it's far cheaper to hire a civi company than to employ someone to do this.

How much is this Facebook *expert* getting paid over 8 months?  Interesting to see how it compares to the Cl B wages for a Cpl, as an example.

 

[armyvern]

Interesting.

We managed to pull this off for MTTF Afghanistan using our PAO Cell to run/manage/post the accounts. (Facebook, Flickr, Youtube accounts for our mission etc etc) ...

They (PAOs) are aware of messages that need to go out, Comd intent, and determining whether or not the message is meeting it's intended audience, in an appropriate manner too, should be part and parcel of their job description already no? Communication to/from the public.  Don't know how to use it? Train 'em. It's what we have to do with Sup Techs when new systems such as DRMIS come online.  I fail to see the difficulty with that task and accomplishing it in-house.  The CF does not need consultants to do this.

Guaranteed the DWAN, and every other system, back here in Canada runs faster than the deployed version too (for those noting sloooowness).

 

[McG]

There is not enough money, so Cl B reservists are being cut, but there is money to hire a civilian "socialmedia" expect to work from home.

The article says services have been contracted - it does not say how much is being paid nor does it state the services are full-time work.  Perhaps the service is being contracted because the work is less than full time employment.  Employing an additional PY or paying for a Cl B reservist may be wasteful in comparison to whatever monies are going to this contract.  Based on the information provided, we cannot know.

 

[George Wallace]

Problems with these IT contractors, is that they come in and do a half ass job, collect their cash and leave without leaving any records of what programming they did.  There are numerous programs that are being used with serious problems, and no one knows how to fix them.  We get what we paid for.......Often it is a mess that will take more expenses to be spent to fix or replace it.  This is not DND/CF specific.

 

[McG]

What is the link to this thread?  This contract would appear to have nothing to do with any software programming.

 

[George Wallace]

What is the link to this thread?  This contract would appear to have nothing to do with any software programming.

Sorry.  I was using that as an example of what has happened.  If you are familiar with the construction of the barracks in Petawawa over the years, you could use them as an example of contractors building buildings, taking shortcuts and perhaps bribing inspectors to look the other way as they take the insulation out of one mod and move it to the next, etc.  Then on completion of the building they declare bankruptcy and no long intend to cover the five years of fixing flaws; only to come back the next year with a new company name to build yet another building.  CE then must go in and repair plumbing, insulation, wiring, etc. as the contractors are no longer in business (under that company name).

There are numerous examples of "Contractors" bilking the government on projects.  What guarrantees are there that they will be responsibile after their period of employment to return to fix any problems in their project?  Often, once they are gone, so is any likelihood that that will happen.

 

[Harris]

OK.  Perhaps It's my own fault for not being clearer before.

The contractor is being hired to analyze the tweets and FB page entries (I'm paraphrasing here) to see if the material the Comd and the staff put us is valid and informing/hitting the target audience, which is the Canadian public in LFAA, not necessarily the soldiers.  They are also suggesting how the messaging can be tweaked to get the best effect.

They are not running the site, they do not decide what content goes on the sites.  They are not programing/building/creating anything except reports for the PAO and his staff based on processes/software that they use to create these reports.  I'm not sure of the exact $ figure, but I do know that it is not a lot of money.  Definitely a lot less than hiring a Class B, as was suggested earlier.  This is a part time service they are performing.  LFAA HQ did not hire full time contractors to perform a duty instead of using a military person.

They are performing a service that the PAO and his staff cannot do and/or don't have the experience/trg to do.  The contract is also for less than a year and is not intended to be a long term thing.

The PAO looked at other options to achieve the same effect and this route was the cheapest way to get the best bank for the buck.  At the end of the day you can like it or not, but it was seen as the best way forward at the time.

I'll let him know this thread is here and if he wants to clarify/defend his actions he can do so, but IMO some of you are making a mountain out of a molehill.  I'd be more concerned about us contracting out to Shared Services Canada than this.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

The article says services have been contracted - it does not say how much is being paid nor does it state the services are full-time work.  Perhaps the service is being contracted because the work is less than full time employment.  Employing an additional PY or paying for a Cl B reservist may be wasteful in comparison to whatever monies are going to this contract.  Based on the information provided, we cannot know.

Agreed, which lead to my question WRT the contract amount.  However, that may not be readily known or avail.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Agreed, which lead to my question WRT the contract amount.  However, that may not be readily known or avail.

It would be if someone wanted to put up a $5.00 FOI request

 

[armyvern]

Dear person in charge of hiring consultants,

Please see video link at 1:25 to 1:31 (Way to go LFWAPAOs!!)

PM me for my banking details for my consultant fee (2 days fees to solve your problem - my earlier post pointing out PAOs, and the work today linking this post to detail what others have already figured out [in-house] for facebook, flickr, youtube, twitter ...).

http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/108459/post-1191942.html#msg1191942