By Ben Forrest | July 20, 2016 Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 11 seconds.
In November 2013, the RCAF decided to dedicate full-time resources to social media, which has led the Facebook following to soar from approximately 16,000 followers then to more than 200,000 now.
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) recently hit a social media milestone when it welcomed the 200,000th fan to its English Facebook page, a major highlight in a year that saw its audience more than double.
That growth is part of a trend that has seen the air force dramatically increase its following across multiple platforms in recent years, a valuable tool for engaging the public and telling the stories of its airmen and airwomen.
“I think it’s partly what we did, but I also think that there was obviously a big hunger for it,” said Karen Johnstone, website and social media manager for the RCAF. “It’s fast, it crosses boundaries, [and] it crosses communities. It’s been interesting to learn who cares about the air force.”
The RCAF began using Facebook in 2010 as a storytelling tool and a way to get information out as quickly as possible following the earthquake in Haiti, in which air force assets were key to the Canadian response. In November 2013, the RCAF then dedicated full-time resources to social media: the Facebook following has since soared from approximately 16,000 followers then to more than 200,000 now. They were also able to launch Twitter and more recently Instagram, and also have a presence on YouTube and Flickr.
Johnstone also attributed the RCAF’s social media success to some luck, enthusiasm, and having an overall centralized approach across the Royal Canadian Air Force, with the national sites sharing information regarding all Wings and Squadrons.
“We don’t take down comments from people who don’t like us. We don’t go through comments and only accept the good ones; we welcome the feedback. We don’t let people swear or threaten each other or be overly aggressive, but we’re not information out only.”
Johnstone noted that most of the information uploaded to the Facebook page comes from all over Canada, from many different sources.
“It’s not just communicators communicating; it’s the people in the air force wanting to share what they’re doing as well,” she said. “And now, we have a lot of content just being pushed to us, so that’s been wonderful to see, and from all over. From coast-to-coast and exercises, operations, feel-good stories—and you can see the interaction on the stories as to what people think.”
