D-Ring PR

You like D-Ring PR? Enjoy hearing about the intersection of new media and the military? You need to check out my new blog — The D-Ring.

D-Ring PR has been a great first blog, and I have loved writing at prblogs.org for the last 9 months. However, I want to focus my writting a bit more, which is why I have moved and re-vamped the D-Ring blog.

Update your feeds, check your links, and keep up with national security in a new media world.

I’ll see you in the D-Ring.

Who in the defense industry is listening to the conversations going on in the blogosphere? And who in the defense community is going one step further and engaging bloggers to help their communication efforts?

Inquiring minds want to know (namely yours truly).

I have decided to conduct an experiment. I want to see who from the following military services and defense contractors (after the jump) are paying attention. If you are, comment to this post or e-mail me at fieldsteven (at) yahoo (dot) com. As incentive, each respondent will get a post dedicated to his or her organization at the new D-Ring blog, which will go live soon.

I know I have readers from different services and different contractors. So which of you want to join the conversation?

Let the experiment begin.

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I had written off as hopeless my efforts to urge team Chipotle to engage in the social media sphere through this blog (for reasons I won’t get into here) when I got a surprise from Joe Stupp.

An e-mail. It said:

We thought you’d like to know that we just held our first-ever video advertising contest with some universities throughout the country.

All of the 30 second entries are posted at www.youtube.com/group/30secondsoffame.

This is what I am talking about. It is fun. It is engaging. It reaches one of Chipotle’s target demographics. And I am sure it will get people talking.

Here’s one produced by a student at my alma mater:

[youtube]VKUpYojoJI4[/youtube]

Check out the rest. There are some really good ones.

Nice job, Chipotle. Mmmmm. Chipotle.

PS — After this post, I really will be going on my week-long blogging vaction. I swear.

Regular readers know I don’t do personal posts frequently, but I think today requires one.

In personal news:

1. My last day at the Pentagon was Friday. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to all of the incredible people I have gotten to work with. And while the people are what I will miss most about my old job, I will also miss getting to tell others that I work at the Pentagon. (And I know Paull will miss telling Aussies that I work at the Pentagon too!)
2. My frist day at Edelman is tomorrow. I am very excited.
3. I am swamped with a major paper for my research and writing methods class. I am doing research for a paper on the impact of movie marketing on social networking Web sites like MySpace, but finding “scholarly, peer-reviewed” material for my literature review is not as easy as I thought it would be. So, if you have noticed a decline in my blogging rate, that is why.

And in blogging news:

1. The D-Ring is moving. When I first announced my new job, I said there would likely be changes to my blog. I have decided the direction I will be taking, and am designing the new D-Ring blog. I’ll post here with more information soon, but you can expect a brand new D-Ring in the next few weeks.
2. I’m taking another week off from blogging. I need to focus on the new job and the school work right now.

So stick around. Especially after I implement my changes to the D-Ring, there will be some interesting and exciting content coming. I look forward to sharing and discussing with you.

Time for Steve to get back to work.

Thank you.

[youtube]osTrMe76kes[/youtube]

Happy Monday!

If it hasn’t already, a problem called Trophy will - for the second time - be hitting the Third Deck shortly.

(The Third Deck is how Pentagon insiders colloquially refer to the leadership of the services. The Secretary of the Army, along with the Chief of Staff of the Army and their deputies make their homes on the third floor of the building.)

It may not be tomorrow. It may not be the day after. But this story — a story about digg, YouTube and the power of online connections — has the potential to enflame a story that had died down in the mainstream media.

And this story is a reason why the military needs to take note of the power of social media.

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Funny video. Happy Monday!

[youtube]IzO1mCAVyMw[/youtube]

Army News Service: Virginia National Guard eyes Web sites, blogs

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Read/Write Web: War on Web 2.0 Terror

CNN.com: Warner, new media trailblazer, won’t run for President

In an effort not be outblogged by the Army and the recent unveiling of the Army Strong campaign, there has been some buzz lately about the new Air Force campaign, “Do Something Amazing.”

The Web site is good.

The videos are awesome.

[youtube]icUzv7EJSyQ[/youtube]

January, the U.S. Army hired advertising and public relations firm McCann-Erickson to develop a new advertising campaign to support the Army’s recruiting efforts.

This week, the U.S. Army gave Soldiers a first look at the theme of the campaign.

Today, you get a peek.

[youtube]C_FYDyshyk4[/youtube]
Commercials and advertisements won’t be out for another month. I will be back with more on the campaign then.

What deserves note now is that the Army decided to engage military bloggers to help educate Soldiers about this new campaign.

To my colleagues who worked on this (I was not one of them), very well done.