Tweet for Tweet: Competing Defense Programs Resort to Social Media to Make Their Case January 7, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, FaceBook, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, FaceBook, Social Media, Twitter
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The Aerial Refueling and JSF Dual Engine Programs are two major US DOD initiatives that have pitted several major Defense contractors against each other in search of elusive government budget awards. Even though these battles have been chronicled regularly in both industry and mainstream press, they have also been fought on the Internet through the use of Social Media. I thought it would be interesting to see how targeted websites, blogs, and Twitter have been leveraged by the various players. I will be using some of the measures from my “Social Media Report Card for the Top 10 A&D Companies” post to evaluate these initiatives.
Aerial Refueling:
Boeing KC-7A7 vs. Northrop Grumman/Airbus KC-45
Except for Northrop Grumman, these companies’ main websites do not use Social Media and yet, for this particular program, they have gone out of their way to provide a direct information channel. Here is what they are offering:
| KC-7A7 | KC-45 | |
| Website | UnitedStatesTanker.com | BestAmericanTanker.com |
| Photos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Blog (#Posts) | Yes (31) | No |
| Twitter (#Posts) | @USTanker (35) | @NorthropGrumman |
| FaceBook Page | No | Northrop Grumman |
Positives:
The Boeing Site is nice, clean and harmonized. It features a very active blog as well as a news feed right on the home page. The Blog is also available from an RSS feed or via email subscription. They have good comment solicitation in the blog and via a “Share Your Story” page. You can even request to be sent a free Boeing Tanker sticker (success measurement technique?). The Twitter account is advertised right on the home page.
The Northrop site does not have a blog but does have a number of additional functions to make its case. There is an interactive map of where the jobs for this program would go. It also has a “Contact Your Elected Representative” section that provides all you need to send a message to the appropriate official based on your zip code. The use of FaceBook is also unique and, although not specific to the program, it gives the KC-45 another channel to deliver its message.
Negatives:
The @USTanker account has been under utilized which is a shame since it could at a minimum post the press links published on the home page. There is also not a way on the website to post a link to the blogs or press releases elsewhere via a now standard “Share” button.
The KC-45 message is very fragmented. One can find news and facts about the program not just on the website mentioned above, but also on northropgrumman.com/kc45, eadstankerupdate.com, aerospacealliance.com/the-tanker, and keepourtanker.com.
Verdict:
I think Boeing has a better platform, but they don’t seem to know how to use it beyond the traditional way of putting the URL on printed advertising. They should take advantage of the Twitter account and implement ways for people to spread the content.
Northrop Grumman should take some of the innovations it has recently implemented in its main site and put them on this site as well. They might want to create a dedicated Twitter account for the program and then retweet the posts in the main account as appropriate. Finally, the KC-45 message seems to be fractured with multiple voices trying to tell the same story but not coordinated or linked to each other. Coordinating facts, blogs, and news through a central website and twitter “mash-up” might be more beneficial.
JSF Dual Engine:
Pratt&Whitney F135 vs. GE/Rolls-Royce F136
Where the Tanker debate has essentially focused on the DOD Procurement process, the JSF Engine battle has been much more about head-to-head combat. Social media has been used in this case to put forward a lot of arguments and opinions against the opponent. It has had much more negative undertones than the Tanker debate. Here are the platforms that have been used.
| F135 | F136 | |
| Website | F135Engine.com | F136.com |
| Photos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Blog (#Posts) | Yes (70) | No |
| Twitter (#Posts) | @F135engine (299) | @F136 (57) |
| FaceBook Page | F135-Engine | No |
Positives:
The Pratt&Whitney site is very professional and complete. It has all the main features plus integrated social media and blog. It has also a “Contact Congress Now” page. The @f135engine account is used very effectively and is very active. The blog is written expertly to amplify information that surfaces as well as dismantle counter-arguments from the opponents. The dedicated FaceBook page is also very active.
The GE site is a bit more austere and does not feature a blog. However, it does display the Twitter feed from @f136 which is a nice touch. The “Tell Your Senator” page is featured prominently and is much more elegant than the outsourced tool used by Pratt&Whitney. It offers the option to Tweet the Senators which is very smart. The program is also supported on Twitter by GE corporate accounts @ge_reports and @GETech_Infra. The later account has been an extremely vocal defender of the F136. I also like the fact that most of GE’s arguments (particularly on Twitter) are attributable to a specifically named employee or outside source. GE reports that traffic on f136.com has surpassed 100,000 unique visitors since the summer.
Negatives:
The F135 site offers very little direct feedback other than the “Contact Us” page. One can leave comments on the blog (powered by Blogspot) but they are moderated so it might not represent a true conversation. The parallel campaign waged by Citizen Against Government Waste has been called into question by some, and might have tarnished an otherwise very professional and effective use of Social Media.
The Rolls-Royce website offers very little information about the program and does not link to the f136.com website at all. There is also very little information in the official team website at f136engine.com. It seems to be redundant with the main site. Like the F135 site, the GE site provides little opportunity for feedback or conversation. The @f136 account is not very active.
Verdict:
Pratt&Whitney is practically setting the standard for Social Media use in this scenario. One small improvement would be to have tweets from @f135engine reposted to @PrattandWhitney rather than the other way around. Management is reportedly very pleased with the feedback it is receiving and the effort has been deemed a great success. Erin Dick, Communications Manager for Pratt&Withney Military Engines says: “By using Social Media we have been able to move into a conversation about the program rather than a one-way information distribution. We have been able to engage thousands of people from all over the country in the debate in a way we could have never achieved using traditional methods.” To that point, I would like to see more solicitation of feedback from the site.
GE needs to add a few of the elements used by the other companies to this website to make it more integrated and useable. A blog would be very nice to amplify the points made in the quotes and on Twitter. The excellent arguments and posts generated by @GETech_Infra should be reposted to @f136 (or vice-versa). There should be more links from the GE and Rolls-Royce sites to the program site.
Conclusion
Pratt&Withney seems to be the only one that has a well organized all encompassing plan of attack (pun intended) where others seem to have pieced a few tools together to “have a go at it”. All seem to still treat these new methods as another information distribution channel and I wonder when they will try to start “listening” more and react to the conversation rather than trying to drive it. You can follow the development via the two Twitter Lists I will be maintaining: Tweet4TweetTanker and Tweet4TweetJSF.
Nevertheless, I applaud all these companies for exploring the use of social media to address challenges in a new way. Hopefully, this will provide lessons and expertise that will lead to more use in the main business processes.
Jeff DeMarais, Executive Director of Global Communications at GE, (and the voice behind @GETech_Infra) seems to agree: “The social media campaign is viewed as a very successful component of a well-rounded and successful communications effort. We learned a great deal about the platforms and continued to optimize their use as the year went on. If you look back at GE Aviation’s social media efforts during the Paris Air Show and Oshkosh you’ll see that we’d been doing some very different things in 2009. The JSF dialogue helped us identify new areas to develop and we’re ready to tell our story in 2010.”
Ludo Van Vooren, a 15 years veteran of the industry, blogs about eBusiness, Social Media, Internet Marketing, and International Business Development.
Ludo: A very thorough, review of the social media campaigns.
Our team really thought about this from a holistic communications perspective and as a result we considered the GEReports.com, F136.com, F136engine.com, @F136 Twitter feed, @GETech_Infra Twitter feed, and @GE_Reports Twitter feed all as primary channels for the discussion. We consciously skipped some other forms of social media like Facebook (which was largely an echo chamber) and used the @F136 feed as a semi-curator of content vs. Digg.
One thing we were very proud of – and you pointed this out – was that all of GE/RR’s content platforms are run by internal team members. We felt it was important given the very negative tone of the campaign that was launched against us that we wanted to be open and honest about who was posting. So you wouldn’t see a “GEBlogger” post or any fake postings in response to blogs or tweets. It was Jeff DeMarrais (or another named colleague like Rick Kennedy, George McClaren or Matt Benvie) from GE responding.
Last summer we watched the online attacks from pay-to-play watch dogs and our competition ramp up significantly, so we began our response strategy largely with a “fight the smears” approach, pointing out fact from fiction. As we found our audiences not only receptive to our participation in the conversation but looking for more, we engaged our employees and external partners.
The democratized social media forum allowed us to engage in debate (though, you rightly point out we could do more on the Web site), point out the misleading stories and the irony of being called wasteful when it wasn’t our program with a $2B overrun and a $100B monopoly!
We also tried to applaud others who were willing to engage and poke holes at misinformed rhetoric; and provided a broad audience with the government’s recognition (through GAO) that a long-term, annual competition for the JSF engines could save $20 billion based on the F-16 experience.
Great post, thanks for covering the topic.
- Jeff
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Thanks for this very comprehensive analysis, Ludo.
The actual facts of this debate are well known and have already been established:
· Two Presidential administrations have canceled funding for the alternate engine for several years because they there is simply no military requirement for it.
· An alternate engine will add unnecessary cost to the F-35 the program not only through development, but also due to duplicative production lines, training operations, maintenance lines and much more.
· The Pratt & Whitney F135 Engine has accumulated more than 13,000 test hours, has delivered all but one test engine, will deliver the first production F135 in a few weeks and yesterday powered the F-35 through it first successful in-flight STOVL lift fan engagement.
· Add to all those facts that the F135 is built on the legacy of the proven F119 powering the F-22. The F119 has accumulated more than 125,000 test hours and is the most successful military fighter engine ever fielded.
· Congressionally mandated studies have concluded that an alternate engine will not lower cost or save taxpayer dollars.
But Ludo’s story is not about this debate, it’s about how our industry is using social media to tell our stories and convey our messages. Social media is still a relatively new forum for communications, particularly in the aerospace and defense industry. When we launched our campaign, there was little within the industry for us to benchmark against, but there are many industries outside aerospace and defense that use social media with tremendous success. The key challenge for us is to continue to provide all interested parties and audiences a forum where their voices can be heard in the conversation, This is why having a wide spectrum of tools in our campaign has been important. And you gave us some other great ideas, Ludo, for better interaction. Some people prefer to watch videos on YouTube rather then via the website. Others like to leave comments on Facebook instead of our blog. The more opportunities and outlets we have to educate and engage interested people, taxpayers and key decision makers in Washington D.C. about this issue, the more opportunities we can set the record straight and present the facts.
Thanks again for the great piece, Ludo. Analyses like this helps us to better understand and use these dynamic tools and presents another great forum for discussion.
- Erin Dick, Pratt & Whitney Military Engines Communications Manager
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