You have been Friended by the U.S. Military; Using Social Networking Services for IO Messaging

摘要

Social Networking Services (SNS) have achieved a salience in today's society. Facebook has over 500 million active users worldwide. SNS has been used by companies to advertise and communicate with their customers. Politicians and government officials have created Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep in touch with constituents. They use these tools for campaigns, to gather feedback, and for strategic communications. The perceived effect of these tools to influence populations has prompted countries such as Iran and China to enact policies to limit access to these websites. The Department of Defense (DoD) is using some of these tools for public affairs and strategic communications, but the use of these tools for the purpose of planned influence operations has not been exploited. Currently, SNS are used extensively in the private business and political sector. Studying the private sector's use of SNS could yield some insights for the DoD and influence campaigns. The purpose of this study is to determine if U.S. Information Operations (IO) professionals should develop Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) for the use of SNS in order to conduct IO. This work will research the successful use of SNS by marketing and political campaign professionals in order to identify the best uses of SNS for the IO community within the DoD.