I forgot to set my clock back today...

Day 1…

It’s Sunday and I’ve completely forgot that it’s daylight savings today. I set my alarm clock last night and here I am, awake at 6am and blogging…

I’ve spent most of yesterday looking over the Legion college material Dave Elmore presented… I am actually excited about the class coming up this week. I am a bit nervous because this will be the first time I am involved with the Legion college.

I enjoy the idea of being able to involve the Internet and blogs into this year’s class. I really believe that veterans of this generation identify the community from this newly evolved sense of open source communication online. (This is what we refer to as net 2.0)

I hope we can use this opportunity to familiar ourselves with how younger veterans are communicating and develop a new sense of dialogue. I want to thank everyone for your participation in advance. As the week progresses, I hope we can see just how important an open dialogue is in developing an idea and why my generation hold dearly the practice of keeping our daily lives transparent to complete strangers. In the end you may find a sense of relief in sharing your difficulties and your success. I hope you will understand that by simply sharing your thoughts creates a community around you. That sense of community redefines a generation under a paradigmatic shift of instant informational gratification.

We need to take advantage of this paradigm shift.

As a result of exponential growth of computing power, and the popularization of internet activities, the online communities is now redefining the concept of advertisement given the mounting pressure of market growth and globalization. We are seeing a new trend of marketing development that defies what we once thought of as the cornerstone of consumerism. Today, we are seeing a new wave of advertisements at no cost to the producers and are actively searched and targeted by the consumers. In essence, the tides have turned, and the buyers are going to the sellers because of the accessibilities of Internet. The consumers now hold the power to compare and control what they see and how they select products. While some companies maintain their million dollar marketing accounts and are still actively pursuing the award winging national ad campaigns. On the other hand, some are surfing on the edge of creativity and are able to compete by producing low cost and well thought out tidbits of video messages for the likes of You Tube and My Space.

The success of this type of advertising hinges on a few factors. At first we need to recognize the fact that our consumers have been exposed to the traditional sense of advertising for over decades now. Market research and analysis have been trying to stay ahead of the trend and come up with new and creative ways to capture the viewers’ attention. However, this is becoming more and more expensive and difficult. These days, ad agencies almost have to include some kind of shock factor to grab the attention of your average viewers. The Internet, on the other hand, is a brand new and fertile ground for public advertising. User driven and credit worthy, people of all ages are flocking to the net to find out the latest trend of consumerism and product reviews. Advantages are given and few realized the true potential of this type of exposure. Since the creation of My Space, their members have grown from a few thousand to over 200 million today. My Space help launched countless careers of musicians and small social networks. On You Tube, user uploaded videos are attracting hundreds of thousands view per day. There are also countless veterans and servicemember related material on You Tube attracting, on average, over 200,000 hits per day. This is an exposure The American Legion cannot afford to ignore.



The viral effect:

The primary reason Internet has been a successful place for many of the product and social network launches is because it contains a factor of viral effect not seen in the traditional ad campaigns. Traditionally, a successful ad campaign will need a rather large bankroll to fund enough exposure to cover the desired consumer region. The return rate of consumers is often 3-5% of the targeted audience. This is often enough to offset cost and return an overall profit. The Internet, however, connects and covers the entire consumer community of a newly founded global market in one instant. The return rate of the type of viral ad campaign is exponential, and is pure profit. The viral effect is by virtue of trust we share with our friends. When television was created, credible sources were those with the power and influence to put ads on TV. However, we have learned over the years that ads can be deceiving. On the Internet, however, we ignore the countless spam email sent by companies, but pay much attention to what our friends and family are reading and looking. Essentially, we trust our friends’ judgment and follow a herd instinct. One friend praises one product, and she passes it on to ten friends via email. Those ten individuals then pass it on to ten each. As you can see, if this continues, along with the help of bulletins and chat rooms and blogs, soon millions recognizes the credibility of one product initially launched by one individual.



The American Legion’s part in this phenomenon

Recently I discovered an individual who uploaded some videos to You Tub. The title of his project was “the obscenity of war”. At first I thought it might be another misinformed individual online bad mouthing the war effort. I viewed his first video and realized that his project was about starting a swear jar to support the injured troops. His video generated over 190,000 hits in one week. And there were three subsequent videos on this project and each one was generating over 100,000 hits in the first day of posting. This does not include countless others who mimicked his videos and started their own “jars” and posted their own comments. Their efforts will be to raise some money to donate to a foundation to support the troops. His video is short but long enough to communicate a message and short enough for you to view it from start to finish. Its quality is average anyone with a computer and a web-cam can produce the same quality. His message speaks to the public, and he has an understanding of how to appeal to the generation. Compare to some of the well-made videos and TV ads, I’d say he is getting more bang for his bucks.

His video has taught me a few things about the success of any kind of online advertising effort. First we will need a good message, one that people can flock to and understand. We will also need an idea and a cause to stand behind. This is essentially what will prompt people react to it rather than simply viewing it and forgetting it. We will also need a creative way to present that message and the cause.

There is nothing that is keeping The American Legion’s members from doing this. Essentially our Heroes to Hometowns program and our ideals of veterans helping veterans are our message and our cause. What we need to succeed in this will be the unique and creative ways to present this to the online community. This does not need to come from any high paying marketing firms. This can come from your net surfing sons and daughters, your next-door neighbors, even your grand children. The idea is to flood the net space with The American Legion message. Success will come from creativity but also from the sheer numbers of our online activities. The more videos and blogs and bulletins we post as not only a national organization, but as a department and a post, the more exposure we will have in the local online communities. The idea is to get people start passing out message via email, to start a viral effect for The American Legion.



Myth about the Internet:



“There are no Internet in the Foxhole”

Today’s military is so heavily depended on the Internet when a unit deploys. At every FOB in Iraq and Afghanistan there are numerous Internet cafes set up by foreign workers. There are relatively cheap compare to making phone calls. Soldiers often will hit the net first thing before and after their missions. Sometimes a unit will also host its satellite connections and allow soldiers to make Internet phone calls. The left behind families may not have the necessary equipment or high-speed connections to receive these calls, a post can set this up and help the families make these connections.



“We have a website”

It’s not enough to simply create a website and hope a young veteran will visit. A website is like an address on the virtual space. Without anything to attract your audiences, they will not bother to spent time and effort to come and see what The American Legion is all about.



“The Internet has nothing to do with what we are doing”

It’s misleading to think the web is a completely new entity that has nothing to do with reality. The virtual space is simply a mirror reflection of the reality we came to know so well. Today’s young veterans are seeking out communities to belong just as veterans once had in the past. Only they are seeking out these communities online. To be successful reaching younger veterans, you have to understand their needs online. Employment and social networking is the key. You, as a post or department, must develop an extensive network to give these younger veterans reasons to visit your site.