Defence IQ's Social Media in Defence Report 2012 shows the industry's perception on the use of social media and how certain companies use these platforms to their advantage. For more information, please visit http://www.defenceiq.com.

2. Table of contents
Content Page
ABOUT THE RESEARCH…………………………………………………………………………….…. 3
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA? WHAT DOES ONLINE PRESENCE MEAN?................. 5
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING … SOCIAL MEDIA SAAVY………………………………... 7
THE BENEFITS………………………………………………………………………………………….….. 8
THE CHALLENGES……………………………………………………………………………………….. 13
How not to become a ‘nexus of hatred’…………………………….. 15
Which other industries face similar challenges?.................... 16
WHICH PLATFORM IS MOST EFFECTIVE?.......................................................... 17
Dispelling myths about the word ‘social’…………………………... 19
Breaking news…………………………………………………………………… 22
DEFENCE CONTRACTORS RATED…………………………………………………………………. 23
Listening: An alternative role for social media…………………... 29
Counting the cost………………………………………………………………. 30
Getting it right……………………………………………………………………. 31
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OPPORTUNITIES…………………………………………….…….. 33
APPENDIX A………………………………………………………………………………………………… 35
APPENDIX B………………………………………………………………………………………………… 36
APPENDIX C………………………………………………………………………………………………… 37
APPENDIX D………………………………………………………………………………………….…….. 38
ABOUT DEFENCE IQ…………………………………………………………………………….………. 39
DISCLAIMER………………………………………………………………………………………….…….. 40
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3. About the research
This report explores the use of social media The majority of survey respondents were
in the defence industry. It is primarily from the commercial sector, accounting for
focused on the commercial sector, 68% of total responses (Figure 1). This
considering what benefits, if any, social includes representatives from government
media offers to defence contractors and organisations and prime contractors, 2nd and
organisations. Based on a survey of defence 3rd tier suppliers and other defence-related
professionals, the report also examines the agencies. Defence media professionals
use of social media within a wider context, (22%) and ‘other’ respondents (10%)
looking at how the defence media and complete the grouping of those surveyed.
journalists are utilising social media as a tool
to learn more about the industry and
engage with suppliers.
The analysis of the survey data has been
supplemented with proprietary interviews
and desktop research.
Figure 1:
Overview of respondent by type
Commercial Media Other
10%
22%
68%
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4. Looking at Figure 2 (the data for which can respondents with the remaining 29%
been seen in Appendix A, page 35), the sourced from around the globe, including
United States had the highest Canada, Israel, India, Australia, Singapore
representation in the survey (30%) followed and South Africa.
closely by the UK (29%). Other European
nations – Germany (5%) and Sweden (4%) –
account for a significant portion of
Figure 2:
Illustration of respondent by country
Data: Appendix A
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5. What is social media? What does
online presence mean?
Before we consider the role social media According to the open source
plays in the defence industry, perhaps a encyclopaedia, social media is defined as
short introduction to the concept is required “media for social interaction, using highly
first. accessible and scalable communication
techniques. Social media is the use of web-
What is social media, and how do you define based and mobile technologies to turn
it? Can you define it? communication into interactive dialogue.”
A dictionary reference is usually prescient in Social media platforms will not replace
these cases, but not here; there is no customer service centres or usher in the
dictionary reference. Instead, and death of the telephonic conversation. They
somewhat appropriately in this instance, we won’t replace face-to-face networking
must rely on Wikipedia. meetings and nor will they offer an
alternative to lead generation. In a
commercial context, using social media does
not mean that marketing teams are
permitted to talk to their friends all day.
Social media tools allow users to create and
converse in online interactive dialogues.
Social media: “Media for social
interaction, using highly accessible
and scalable communication
techniques. Social media is the use of
web-based and mobile technologies
to turn communication into
interactive dialogue.”
Wikipedia,
The social encyclopaedia
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6. For the purposes of this report, social media
platforms can include, but are not exclusive
to, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and
Pinterest.
An ‘online presence’ can be considered
within a wider framework outside of and in
addition to social media. Keeping a blog
updated with timely and relevant content
can help establish an effective online
presence. So too can producing technical
whitepapers, participating in topic-specific
webinars and being open to interviews with
relevant industry publications.
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7. The importance of being…
social media savvy
The majority (62%) of respondents believe companies in the industry. The advantages
that it is very important, if not critical, that and challenges of this new media will be
defence contractors improve their online explored in greater detail later in this report,
and social media presence over the next five but it’s clear that Figure 3 demonstrates the
years (Figure 3). defence industry is aware of social media’s
growing significance as a real-world business
Just under 1 in 10 respondents failed to tool as well as the need to embrace it more
appreciate that social media could benefit fully in future.
Figure 3:
Analysis of how important it is for defence contractors to improve their
online and social media presence over the next 5 years
Essential Very important Somewhat important Not important
9%
21%
30%
40%
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8. The benefits
A key conclusion from the survey data But it’s not just the primes that can adopt
suggests that social media should be used as online recruitment techniques. Any recruiter
a platform to increase brand awareness and or headhunter will have a story where
for embracing outreach initiatives. It is more they’ve been bested by a shrewd employee
to do with nurturing a brand and less about at an SME (Small and Medium Enterprise)
generating new business. that advertised and recruited someone
independently through social media. Do not
The top five responses in Figure 4 highlight expect these stories to become less
this trend. All relate to brand awareness and frequent in the future.
thought leadership while the more ‘hard
sell’ factors, such as lead generation and Towards the bottom of the list of social
competitive edge, come much further down media advantages is that it allows
the priority list. companies to ‘keep tabs’ on the
competition. However, as Figure 5 on page
Thomas Guest, formerly of the UKTI Defence 14 shows, respondents felt that the risk of
& Security Organisation, said “social media is divulging too much information to
most important for improving PR and not as competitors through social media channels
a means to drive new business, that will was the key disadvantage to having an
continue to be done in tradition manners.” online presence.
One of the challenges of using social media There is a paradox here. Contactors do not
to any length is convincing the accountants generally see social media as a useful means
that there is an ROI. This can be difficult. of gaining any form of competitive edge; it is
However, one area where this distinction not an effective corporate espionage tool.
becomes clearer is when social media What we are seeing here is the unsupported
platforms are used as recruitment tools. and irrational fear of exposure being used as
an excuse for online discretion to the
A number of firms including Boeing, detriment of the company’s brand and,
Raytheon and Thales have active social ultimately, bottom line performance. The
media outreach programmes dedicated to climate of suspicion that surrounds social
recruitment. With 59% of respondents media in the defence industry does not
indicating that this is one of the key reflect the reality. If managed properly
advantages of social media it’s likely that social media platforms do not leave
others will follow this example. companies open to risks relating to IP and
corporate strategy; they do, however,
provide an excellent forum to enhance
brand awareness, as underpinned by the
survey data.
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9. Figure 4:
Overview of the advantages for defence contractors using social media
Increased brand awareness 68%
Recruitment purposes 59%
Chance to become a recognised thought leader in the market 56%
Easier and freer relationship building with journalists and the media 55%
It’s the cheapest form of marketing 46%
Lead generation 39%
Keeping tabs on the competition 38%
For collecting customer feedback 34%
To stay ahead of the competition 28%
Other 11%
There are NO advantages 5%
Data: Appendix B
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10. While only 5% of respondents noted that Up to that point, most of the people making
there are no real-world advantages to using the decisions at the corporate level had
social media, it’s still 5%. Even those that gone through the National Service
have least bought into social media would programme whereby all healthy males
be expected to have had some appreciation between the ages of 17 to 21 years were
for what benefits an online presence can signed up to the armed forces for four years.
offer, however minor. For a respondent to When a TA asked for leave from work to
underline that there are none is revealing. participate in exercises, the answer, since
most managers and directors were proud
At the Farnborough International Airshow in ex-military personnel, the answer was often
July, the Defence IQ team undertook a straw a resounding yes. With a hearty pat on the
poll to get some indicative insight on social back too.
media practice. One participant made an
interesting comparison; he explained that However, following the demise of National
social media today is much like Territorial Service in 1960 in the UK, by the time the
Army (TA) service in the 1980s. 80s came around many of these leaders
with military breeding had passed the torch
on to a new generation of company
management. The new generation didn’t
understand the need for TA’s to have quite
so much paid time off. So the ‘yes’ count
dried up.
The point is that there was a generation gap;
a fundamental change had occurred from
one generation to the next. A whole mind-
“Social media is most set had shifted.
important for
improving PR and not
as a means to drive
new business, that will
be done in tradition
manners.”
Thomas Guest,
Formerly of UKTI
Defence & Security
Organisation
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11. Likewise, when this generation of internet contractors are having difficulty
savvy children become the decision-makers transforming their cultures … the need to be
of the future, not having a robust online more open and communicative is not
presence with an engaging and spirited currently familiar territory for the defence
social media policy would be, at the very industry, but it will be.”
least, ignorant. Like it or not, in one form or
another, social media is here to stay. The As Figure 4 highlights, there are significant
platforms we use will evolve – Facebook and benefits to using social media, regardless of
Twitter may or may not be the tools of industry.*
choice ten years from now – but the concept
of connecting with more people, customers, However, there are of course challenges too
brands and businesses online is unavoidable. and the full benefit of these social platforms
cannot be realised until these hurdles are
As Douglas Burdett, a social media expert in addressed, mitigated and eradicated.
the defence industry and author of the Fire
Support blog, says: “Inertia is a powerful
force in the defence industry. Some defence
* A comparison of how other industries face similar challenges to defence is presented on page 16
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12. “The climate of suspicion that surrounds
social media in the defence industry
does not reflect the reality. If managed
properly social media platforms do not leave
companies open to risks relating to IP and
corporate strategy; they do, however, provide
an excellent forum to enhance
brand awareness.”
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13. The challenges
Figure 5 highlights that the discreet nature Most of the top 20 defence contractors have
of the defence industry is a critical barrier active Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
for companies to utilise social media. accounts, so it’s clear that there is a ready-
made audience. However, the extent to
One third of respondents stated that a lack which these are being successfully utilised is
of an active and relevant online community explored in greater detail later in this report.
to engage with was one of the pitfalls for
defence companies using social media. But
to reframe that, 70% of respondents
inferred that there was an active and
relevant community.
“Companies from all industries face
the challenge of not divulging
proprietary ideas, direction or
corporate strategy, so defence is not
unique.”
Steven Mains, PhD
COO,
TechMIS, LLC
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14. Figure 5:
Overview of the disadvantages for
defence contractors using social media
58% Risk of divulging too much information (to competitors, enemy states etc.)
53% The discreet nature of the business
47% Limited internal understanding and lack of correct skill base
30% Inactive/irrelevant online community
30% Easy for detractors to air grievances
14% Other
There are NO significant challenges compared with other industries 10%
Data: Appendix C
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15. How not to become a ‘nexus of hatred’
Respondents indicated that social media After being open and honest in response to
tools allow the public at large to easily and reasonable and understandable comments,
coarsely air their grievances and complaints. the social media team then went on the
This is a very real issue. offensive, which is where the real success
story begins. During the blackout some
“A lot of companies set-up a Facebook page oddballs in the Twittersphere took the
and just become a nexus of hatred,” Patrick chance to send rude, unnecessary and often
Herridge, Co-Founder of corporate social illogical messages to the mobile network
media monitoring firm Social360 Ltd., said. provider. O2 responded with humour:
“Without clear social media objectives all
you’re doing is creating a public forum for
people who hate your brand.”
But this is true of any industry, not just
defence. Last month, one of the UK’s largest
mobile phone operators, O2, suffered a
blackout. All of its customers lost
connectivity – no calls, no texts, no email.
The company’s Twitter feed was awash with
complaints and criticism as hordes of
customers vented their anger – it should
have been a public relations disaster.
However, O2’s social media team were
prepared. They had a strategy to mitigate
negative complaints aired on Twitter and
managed, against all probability, to turn the It doesn’t matter that the social media team
network’s blackout into a customer relations responded with humour; the key point is
triumph. that O2 responded. It could have been with
grovelling apologies or with parent-like
How? First and foremost by being open and disdain; the way in which O2 responded is
honest. Here’s an example of the sort of less important that the simple fact that it
response O2 produced: actually responded. In doing so it exposed
the members of that community that were
uninterested in participating in a sensible
interactive dialogue and, in turn, won the
company a legion of new fans.
Developing a detailed social media strategy
is compulsory as it will be an effective tool
when faced with online detractors.
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16. Which other industries face similar challenges?
Defence contractors will possibly receive The negative perception attached to all
disparaging messages and attract unwanted these industries is what ties them together.
comments on social networks. But then so Therefore, in addition to this you might add
might any company, in any industry. legal, oil & gas, tobacco, and even the fast
food industry.
“Companies from all industries face the
challenge of not divulging proprietary ideas, One in ten respondents said there are no
direction or corporate strategy, so defence significant challenges that the defence
is not unique,” said Steven Mains, COO, industry faces that others do not (Figure 5).
TechMIS, LLC.
The nature of these industries means that
When asked to detail other industries that there will always be those that disapprove.
faced similar challenges as defence, the However, that minority should not be
most recurrent examples expressed by allowed to cloud what could be an active,
respondents included the alcohol, financial appealing and valuable social media
services, pharmaceutical and chemical strategy.
industries.
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17. Which platform is most effective?
Survey respondents from the ‘Commercial’ This is important because it shows that
sector were asked: Which online medium do thought leadership is regarded more highly
you think is most effective in increasing by defence contractors than brand
brand awareness and thought leadership? awareness is.
Whitepapers, LinkedIn, Twitter and hosted Social media tools (LinkedIn and Twitter) are
articles were identified as the key platforms seen to be very important, but creating
(Figure 6). Taking the ‘very effective’ and valuable content through whitepapers and
‘critical’ responses together from the graph articles is underlined as the most relevant
below reveals that whitepapers and hosted and effective form of online presence by
articles are seen as the most effective defence companies.
platforms, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter.
Figure 6:
Analysis of most effective platform for
brand awareness and thought leadership
Innefective Somewhat effective Very effective Critical
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Whitepapers
Linked In
Twitter
Hosted article
Company newsletter
Blogging
Webinar
Hosted videos
YouTube
Facebook
Other social media (Pinterest)
Banner ads
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18. However, this belies what the defence The conclusion is that a balance between
media think. Figure 7 shows that LinkedIn is producing informed, constructive content
the most ‘critical’ platform, while Twitter is and effective social media engagement is
the most ‘effective’. fundamental to building and maintaining a
strong brand, which is backed up by a robust
Although this report seeks to distinguish online presence.
social media from other forms of online
presence, the disparity between the data in Another critical point to understand here is
Figures 6 and 7 demonstrates that the two that while no one thinks Twitter – and for
are inextricably linked. Both work hand-in- the purposes of this analysis we can extract
hand to present an overall picture of a that out to mean social media platforms in
company. general – is a ‘critical’ tool (Figure 7), it is the
most effective for online engagement, as the
majority (53%) indicated.
Figure 7:
Analysis of key platforms the media use for engaging with and
learning more about defence contractors
Innefective Somewhat effective Very effective Critical
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Linked In
Hosted videos
Facebook
Hosted article
Banner ads
Blogging
YouTube
Whitepapers
Other social media (Pinterest)
Twitter
Webinar
Company newsletter
Page 18

19. Dispelling the myth about the word ‘social’
Facebook is a far more effective platform for Diversification and flexibility, especially in an
informing and shaping people’s, and economy like the one facing industry in
especially the media’s, perceptions about a 2012, are vital characteristics for a company
company than the defence industry realises. if it is to execute a successful growth
strategy.
Looking at Figure 6, Facebook is ineffective
according to commercial respondents while “Many defence contractors are stepping up
Figure 7 shows that media respondents see their diversification – to other government
it as a valuable learning tool. This is primarily sectors, internationally and to commercial
due to an image problem, and it also markets,” said Burdett. “This diversification
underpins a deeper challenge: the word is driving the need to increase awareness
‘social’ in social media. beyond the defence procurement
community.”
One commercial respondent commented:
“Should grown-ups use SOCIAL media in Social media can be an invaluable tool for
business?” this. Even if it was held that social media
offers few benefits for the defence industry,
It’s a fair question, but a common that is not to say the same is true for all
misconception. defence companies.
Perhaps it is an unfortunate term but rather Social media allows commercial enterprises
than having to call ‘social media’ by another to connect with people in far more subtle
less gregarious name, it is people’s ways than ever before. Companies are now
perceptions of the phrase that will have to using content marketing, such as blogs,
adapt instead. And in time, that will happen. webinars, whitepapers, eBooks and videos,
to provide useful information to attract and
“As social media becomes a successful, engage the people with whom they need to
integral part of the fabric of defence communicate, according to Burdett. Social
contractor communications, the perception media is an excellent forum through which
of social media as being an unnecessary to distribute that content.
marketing tactic will fade,” Douglas Burdett
said. Social media channels don’t allow
companies to connect with people on a
The argument that social media, while social level; they offer a very real and
relevant for many, will never be necessary effective form of inbound marketing that
for the day-to-day operations of a defence can add considerable weight to any forward-
company is not an unreasonable one. looking corporate strategy.
However, this approach is only accurate if
growth is not on the owners’ agenda.
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20. “The urban myth of the social media world is
when the CEO’s daughter comes back home
and asks him why his company isn’t on
Facebook. Next morning the CEO tells his
marketing team to create a Facebook page
but with no understanding of what the point
of having one is … A lot of companies set-up a
Facebook page and just become a ‘nexus of
hatred’…without clear social media objectives
all you’re doing is creating a public forum for
people who hate your brand. There’s a real
negative ROI with outreach which I think
defence contractors have to be careful of.”
Patrick Herridge,
Co-Founder,
Social360 Ltd.
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21. Douglas Burdett recommends that those We still have telephones the same as we did
companies considering using social media as in 1972, but in 2012 they now come
a marketing tool ask themselves one equipped with music players, navigation
question: Which groups would you most like systems and cameras too. Social media is to
to have a relationship with and what marketing what the iPhone was to the
content can you offer that would be of rotary dial.
interest to them? This will be the
cornerstone of any successful social media
strategy.
Figure 8:
Analysis of which tools the defence media use to learn more about
industy news and issues
Innefective Somewhat effective Very effective Critical
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Linked In
Twitter
Facebook
Whitepapers
Hosted videos
Blogging
Hosted article
Webinar
Company newsletter
YouTube
Banner ads
Other social media (Pinterest)
Page 21

22. Breaking news
According to respondents, Figure 8 again
shows that Twitter is most effective in
helping users learn about and understand
issues in the defence industry. The reason
for this is that social media offers instant,
up-to-date and, if you’re following the right
people, reliable information. While blogging
is also highly rated by defence media
professionals, Twitter is the preferred
option because it’s immediate. It also allows
users to easily read a wide range of opinions
and quickly appreciate many different
angles on the same story.
Page 22

23. Defence contractors rated
The company with the most outstanding Leonie and CACI – the majority used this to
social media presence is Lockheed Martin, state that none of the aforementioned
according to survey data (Figure 9 – a companies had an outstanding social media
breakdown of the data can be found in presence.
Appendix D). Boeing follows with 33% and
BAE Systems with 26%, but with 44% Figure 13 at the end of this report shows
Lockheed Martin is seen as a clear leader. that defence contractors need to
significantly increase their social media and
However, the ‘other’ category offers a online presence over the next five years,
remarkable insight. While some respondents which is supported by the response in Figure
mentioned other companies – such as 9.
Special recognition
EADS provoked a decent response from the updates. The EADS team shared exclusive
survey participants (with 22%), but this does pictures, insight from visiting delegations,
not fairly represent the quality of the chances to win (relevant) prizes in on-going
European defence company’s social media competitions, as well as general event
outreach. This was demonstrable during the updates. The coverage was not aimed at
Farnborough Airshow where the EADS social being corporate propaganda and nor was it
media team, using the event-specific idle nonsense – it was balanced, helpful, and
@EASlive Twitter account, gave a master interesting.
class in how to provide informative on-site
Page 23

24. Figure 9:
Illustration of defence companies with outstanding social media
Data: Appendix D
Page 24

25. “We still have telephones the same as we did
in 1972, but in 2012 they now come equipped
with music players, navigation systems and
cameras too. Social media is to marketing
what the iPhone was to the rotary dial.”
Page 25

26. Together with the survey data it is worth Essentially, the higher the purple areas and
considering these responses in the context the lower the blue bar, the better a
of what the specified companies’ social company’s social media presence is.
media presence actually looks like. Figure 10
shows the number of followers each The companies identified by survey
company has on their main Twitter account, respondents are generally those that have
the number of likes they have on Facebook, active and established social media
as well as giving an indication of how activities, although it’s clear that Booz Allen
frequently their Twitter accounts are Hamilton should have been considered
updated (based on an average taken from within the top group that included BAE,
three random samples). Boeing and EADS.
Figure 10:
Analysis of defence companies social media presence
Twitter followers Facebook likes Last Twitter post
50000 200
45000 180
No. of hours since last post on Twitter
40000 160
35000 140
30000 120
No. of people
25000 100
20000 80
15000 60
10000 40
5000 20
0 0
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27. “I think the large defence companies
are failing miserably in this area. If
you go to a webpage, Facebook
page, etc. for one of these
companies, you can hardly tell which
one you're visiting. There is no
individuality or personality. The large
companies seem to benefit from
being perceived as a commodity - a
concept that is inconsistent with
having an effective social media
presence; an effective social media
presence benefits from personality.”
Gregg R. Sypeck,
Senior Vice President,
Mav6, LLC
Page 27

28. For further context, in his blog Douglas Based on Defence News’ annual list, here
Burdett recently published a list of the top are the top 20 defence contractors from
100 defence contractors rated by the quality 2011 together with their website grade:
of their website.
1. Lockheed Martin 68%
2. Boeing 72%
3. BAE Systems 45%
4. General Dynamics 46%
5. Raytheon 69%
6. Northrop Grumman 78%
7. EADS 58%
8. Finmeccanica 27%
9. L-3 Communications 50%
10. United Technologies 57%
11. Thales 68%
12. SIAC 73%
13. Huntington Ingalls 61%
14. Honeywell 55%
15. Booz Allen Hamilton 84%
16. Rolls-Royce 55%
17. CSC 72%
18. Oshkosh 54%
19. Textron 53%
20. GE
67%
Page 28

29. Listening: An alternative role for
social media
protestors are doing outside their offices,”
Up to this point, the focus of this report has
said Herridge.
been on outreach. But there is another
element to social media networks too:
Social360 aggregates all of the social data
listening.
aligned to a specific company and then
presents it in a format that the client can
Companies can use Twitter, Facebook,
action.
LinkedIn and thousands of other platforms
to ‘listen’ to what other people are saying
“The same way you used to get press
about them.
cuttings every morning, we now provide a
daily report on what is being said on social
Patrick Herridge co-founded a social media
media,” Herridge explained.
monitoring firm, Social360 Ltd., which has a
number of defence firms on its books, to do
A number of other firms offer similar
exactly that.
services which exploit the vast quantity of
data flowing through these social networks.
“Corporates want to know what investors
Social media platforms aren’t just for
are saying on bulletin boards, they want to
engaging with people – through this type of
know what staff are saying about what
analytical feedback they can also be used as
they’re doing, they want to know what
a tool to improve processes, avoid
unwanted events and stay ahead of the
game.
Page 29

30. Counting the cost Figure 11:
Overview of what percentage of marketing
Although slight, there is a discrepancy budget defence contractors should spend on
between how much media professionals social media (company perspective)
believe defence companies should be
spending on their social media activities 0% <2%
compared to what the companies 2% - 5% 5% - 10%
10% - 20% 20% - 30%
themselves think they should.
The majority of the media think that
defence companies should spend between
10% 10%
5% to 20% of their marketing budget (Figure
12), while commercial respondents 15%
indicated that anything up to 10% was more 20%
reasonable (Figure 11).
12%
Social media is relatively inexpensive – the
tools required are available for free or at 7%
26%
negligible cost – all it requires is the human
resource to manage the strategy. For any
company of a decent size this resource
should be absorbed relatively easily.
But that is not to say a company should hire Figure 12:
an intern or recent graduate to manage its Overview of what percentage of marketing
social media strategy. The social media team
budget defence contractors should spend on
will be responsible for the company’s brand
– they are the company mouthpiece. social media (media perspective)
Everyone in that team should not only be <2% 2% - 5%
social media savvy but they need to 5% - 10% 10% - 20%
understand and be comfortable with the 20% - 30% 30%+
technical aspects of the business too; they
need to be industry savvy. Inc. magazine
recently published an excellent guide to who 5% 5% 11%
should not be in charge of corporate social
media accounts. 21%
Brett van Niekerk, who has completed a PhD
at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu- 47%
11%
Natal, offered a useful postscript:
“As having a social media profile is often
free, budget is less of a concern than
actually getting it right.”
That is the critical part: getting it right.
Page 30

31. Getting it right
When a social media campaign goes right it The Twitter application powered by
can have a real impact. Perhaps one of the Raytheon led to the ‘donation’ of 335,013
more obvious examples is Raytheon’s characters to the WWP. This resulted in a
Hashtags for Heroes (#HT4H). This is how huge surge in traffic for the WWP website
the company described it in a press release: together with an influx of (monetary)
donations. Details of the successful
“This innovative campaign takes advantage campaign can be found overleaf.
of what is, in effect, surplus tweet capacity.
Of the total 140 characters that Twitter
users are allotted for every tweet, many
characters often go unused (according to
one estimate, the most common tweet
length is about 28 characters). The campaign
enables users to download a special Twitter
platform application to tweet from their
computers or mobile devices and easily
"donate" their unused Twitter characters in
support of WWP [Wounded Warrior
Project].”
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32. Page 2
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33. Taking advantage of opportunities
When asked to what extent defence The benefits of social media have been
companies need to increase their social discussed earlier in this report and it’s
media and online presence, the top apparent that at least a third of survey
response was: Significantly, we need to respondents agree with the need for an
make major changes to take advantage of online presence. While 7% still see no
opportunities (Figure 13). advantages, the top two responses in Figure
13, accounting for the majority (58%), show
There are two important concepts within that defence contractors do see the benefit
that sentence: First is the acknowledgement of social media tools and will be doing more
that companies need to do more online; the in the future to increase their use of them.
second, arguably of more import, is that
respondents appreciate that there are
distinct opportunities in doing so.
Figure 13:
To what extent do you think you will be increasing your
social media and online presence over the next 5 years?
Significantly, we need to make major changes
to take advantage of opportunities
A little, it could be better than it is and we see
the benefit
It will probably increase organically, but we
won’t be putting much resource into it
We will continue to improve somewhat, but
our current presence is good
Not at all, there’s no benefit
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
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34. “When this generation of internet
savvy children become the decision-
makers of the future, not having a
robust online presence with an
engaging and spirited social media
policy would be, at the very least,
ignorant. Like it or not, in one form or
another, social media is here to stay.”
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35. Appendix A
Analysis of respondent by country
US
UK
Germany
Sweden
Australia
Canada
Italy
Israel
Netherlands
Norway
Spain
Ethiopia
India
Lebanon
Malaysia
New Zealand
Pakistan
Romania
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Africa
Switzerland
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
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36. Appendix B
Overview of the advantages for
defence contractors using social media
Increased brand awareness 68%
Recruitment purposes 59%
Recognised as a thought leader in the market 56%
Relationship building with journalists / media 55%
It’s the cheapest form of marketing 46%
Lead generation 39%
Keeping tabs on the competition 38%
For collecting customer feedback 34%
To stay ahead of the competition 28%
Other 11%
There are NO real-world advantages 5%
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37. Appendix C
Overview of the disadvantages for
defence contractors using social media
Risk of divulging too much information
The discreet nature of the business
Limited internal understanding and lack of skill base
Lack of active online community to engage with
Too easy for detractors to air complaints publically
Other
There are NO significant challenges
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
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38. Appendix D
Analysis of defence companies
with outstanding social media
Lockheed Martin
Boeing
44%
BAE Systems
33%
Other 26%
EADS 23%
Rolls-Royce 22%
Thales 21%
Raytheon 21%
Northrop Grumman 18%
General Dynamics 18%
Saab 17%
15%
Booz Allen Hamilton
15%
SAIC
10%
Finmeccanica 8%
United Technologies
8%
Honeywell
8%
Cobham
8%
Oshkosh 5%
RUAG 3%
L-3 Communications 3%
Textron
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40. Disclaimer
This report is provided for information purposes only. This report may not be reproduced,
published or distributed by an recipient for any purpose. The company accepts no responsibility
whatsoever for any direct or indirect losses arising from the use of this report or its contents.
Images courtesy of U.S. DoD, w3origin.blogspot.co.uk, slashgear.com and Raytheon.
About the author
Andrew Elwell is the Editor-in-Chief of Defence IQ. He has previously worked
as a survivability specialist for a provider of ballistic and blast armour
systems. Andrew holds a BA in History and American Studies from the
University of Nottingham. He can be reached on andrew.elwell@iqpc.co.uk.
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