http://mashable.com/2010/11/11/veterans-services-social-media/
How Social Media Is Making Veteran Service Organizations Better
Nov 11, 2010
(snip)
Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have completely changed the way the VA and traditional veterans’ service organizations reach the new generation of veterans home from Iraq and Afghanistan -– and they’re finding that an increasing number of older veterans are connecting through social media, too.
“For years there’s been this stereotype, whether it’s deserved or not, that VA is made up of a bunch of faceless, nameless bureaucrats who sit around and don’t do anything,” said Brandon Friedman, the VA’s director of new media. “So in my view, the way to combat that is to put names and faces on everything. Not just so you can personalize it, but so there’s accountability — and people appreciate that.”
(snip)
VA Builds a Strategy
It’s a challenge that Friedman is well aware of as he monitors the VA’s sites each day and analyzes the statistics. By watching web traffic for the various VA websites, for example, Friedman decided it would be best to create a separate Facebook Page and Twitter feed for each of the 153 VA medical centers around the U.S., since people were searching for information at the local level.
“As a veteran myself, I understand why this is,” Friedman said. “When you live in like Texas or Nebraska or wherever, and you think of VA, you don’t think of VA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. You think of that big building on the other side of town.”
So local centers started joining the popular social networking sites last spring, after proving they had the staff and knowledge to do it properly. It’s Friedman’s goal to get all 153 up within a year, and they’re about a third of the way there with more than 50 on Facebook and nearly 30 on Twitter. Two or three new profiles launch each week, Friedman said. The demand is definitely there — a common complaint posted on the main VA Facebook Page is that a veteran’s local VA center doesn’t yet have a page.
With the main sites he manages, Friedman has been setting the standard for how VA employees can break through the long tradition of bureaucratic anonymity. He signs everything he posts, and each update on Facebook generates dozens of scattershot comments ranging from enthusiastic support to bitter grievances. Many of them are addressed personally to him:
“Thanks Brandon, where do we mail the form to?”
“Ya see how ANGRY so many Vets on here are Brandon?? WHY ya think that is??”
“Brandon, sounds like some good news for a change. Thanks for posting it! :-)”
“Brandon, you’ve taken on a big task …”
Friedman admits having his name out there so prominently is a double-edged sword, and it’s been harder to get other VA employees to identify themselves so personally. “I haven’t pushed it really hard because I can tell they’re very uncomfortable with it,” he said. “But they’re also falling behind, because we’re doing it, and it’s clearly a driver of subscribers and participation.”
Everyone involved says it’s too early to tell how much social media will help the new generation of veterans to get the care they need and benefits they deserve in the long run, but Friedman is confident that social media can create a cycle of accountability and confidence because everyone can see the conversation.
“They feel like they’re being listened to, they’re being responded to,” he said. “So whenever you help somebody, it doesn’t just help that one person — it helps build trust in your organization with everyone else who sees you helping.”
NPR - VA Still Under Pressure To Reduce Disability Claim Backlog
August 21, 2013
EXCERPT
BRANDON FRIEDMAN: The backlog has actually shrunk by over 21 percent since March. It’s very clearly a downward trend.
LAWRENCE: Brandon Friedman is a combat vet and former VA employee.
FRIEDMAN: Now, the problem is not fixed yet, but, you know, there’s no doubt that it’s on the right path. I think the aircraft carrier has really begun to turn itself around.
COUNTDOWN for June 11, 2008
MSNBC - Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Show: COUNTDOWN
Author: Keith Olbermann ; Richard Wolffe ; Eugene Robinson
EXCERPT
OLBERMANN: Four thousand and ninety-five American troops are dead, nearly 30,000 more wounded, 40,000 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder — all since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Our fourth story on the Countdown: And John McCain says it’s not too important when the others finally come home. To add insult upon their injuries, today, McCain and his dogsbody, Senator Lieberman, insinuated that his own status as a Vietnam vet somehow justifies his contention that the young men and women fighting for our country now should stay there indefinitely.
MCCAIN CLIP #1: My friends, veterans hate war more than anyone else.
MCCAIN CLIP #2: I know that it has caused great heartache and pain because I visited with families and I know them. But I also want to tell you that I believe that in the conflict in Iraq, with this new strategy, we are succeeding.
OLBERMANN: We are joined now by Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org. He himself served in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Thank you again for your time tonight, sir.
BRANDON FRIEDMAN, VOTEVETS.ORG: Thanks for having me on, Keith. Glad to be here.
OLBERMANN: How do veterans, how do veterans’ families feel when they hear that the man who wants to be the next commander-in-chief does not think it’s too important when they come home?
FRIEDMAN: Keith, this is a morale crusher. You know, if you can imagine, say a sergeant, who’s on his third tour and he’s in the 14th month of that tour and he hears the potential President saying something like this, it kills morale. You know, the troops are over there and, you know, I’ve been there, I’ve had to deal with this. But the troops over there hang on every word they hear from a leader, you know, especially the commander-in-chief, but also someone who could be the commander-in-chief. And when they hear something like this, you know, it really kills them on the inside because, you know, their families want them home. They want to come home, you know, or focus on the real global war on terror elsewhere. But this is really a killer when you hear something like this.
OLBERMANN: What I hear when I hear from servicemen or I talk to vets, more than anything else, is their astonishment when generals or veterans like McCain or the brass, just to use the general term there, don’t get it. That of all people, these are the ones they naively thought would understand risk and sacrifice. Does it, does it matter more that they are abandoned by a John McCain who did serve as opposed to a George Bush who did not?
FRIEDMAN: Absolutely, Keith. You know, we’ve come to not expect a whole lot from George W. Bush. But when you have a veteran like John McCain who has gone through so much in Vietnam, you really expect a lot more out of him because the way you see it as a soldier or a Marine or an airman or whatever, is that John McCain should know better, you know. He’s been in our shoes. He’s had it worst than most of us, you know. He should know better. And, you know, for those of us who’ve been there and who’ve lived through this, we just would expect a lot more, and it really saddens us, you know, to see this happen because there are thousands and thousands of veterans who’d just disagree with him on this.
OLBERMANN: And the Lieberman reaction or the reaction to his reaction, where basically he referenced McCain’s status as a veteran, as POW, as war hero, as carte blanche for the excuse for this, as if McCain is immune to military criticism simply because he was a POW, that the merits can’t even be discussed. Then, that reminds me of every bit of Army red tape I`ve ever heard of or every bit of censorship that a military sometimes invokes in times of war relative to its own personnel.
FRIEDMAN: Absolutely. You know, we all respect John McCain’s service. But he’s not the only person who suffered in war. We have troops coming back from this war who are quadriplegics, who’ve been maimed, who’ve had to go through so much. And, you know, it doesn’t give him a carte blanche reason to say something like that. He doesn’t it get a free pass. You know, we’ve been over there, too. We’ve been in war too. And we know what it’s like. And he doesn’t get a free pass, especially from us, because we hold him to a higher standard. And, you know, all I can say is that we respect John McCain’s service. All we ask in return is that he respects ours. And for many of the people I talked to, who are on active duty, or who’ve just come off active duty but who have served over there, we don’t feel like we’re getting that a lot of the time.
OLBERMANN: Brandon Friedman, veteran of the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, now at VoteVets.org. Thank you, Brandon.
FRIEDMAN: Thanks for having me.