Air Dropping Your Message! What is New on MilitaryAvenue – The Department of Defense Blogger’s Roundtable

What is a DoD Blogger’s Roundtable? Why should I care as a business owner, marketing director, etc? First, let me explain what the Roundtable is and then tell you why it is important for your business and marketing strategy.

About six months ago MilitaryAvenue was invited to participate in the Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable with other media outlets such as the Armed Forces Press Service, CNN, Stars and Stripes, ABC and other national outlets. We had grown in stature to be paired with some very big organizations!

The Roundtables are designed to bring the decision makers to the media such as MilitaryAvenue so we can tell their story to our readers! We have discussed the Haiti military response following their earthquake, medical care for military families, Wounded Warrior programs, the impacts of the Icelandic volcano on air traffic, Iraq and Afghanistan operations, withdrawal from Iraq and many more topics! These discussions have frequently been with 3 and 4 star generals/admirals and civilian leadership at the Pentagon or front line commanders/public affairs specialists on hot button topics. After one Roundtable we were invited to personally interview Lt General Keen, the commander of Joint Task Force Haiti in a one on one interview! General Keen had been in Haiti when the earthquake occurred so it was a very personal story! This program allows us to be an advocate for military families with our questions and written articles and to tell the military community about the whirlwind of activity around them!

After the roundtable discussion (usually no more than four or five writers attend so we get individual questions with the decision makers/commanders) we write a blog/article on the subject and then place it on our Facebook page, place it on twitter for followers to see and send it to the Department of Defense New Media. Usually the Department of Defense New Media, DoDLive then publishes a hot link to MilitaryAvenue! We receive numerous comments, traffic and visibility after the blogs!

Now we are talking about why this is important to you the business owners and marketing directors: Visibility for our efforts to support the military family by connecting them with your business brings more friends, fans and visits to your ads! For example, after one recent Roundtable I received this email comment from a participant:

“Military Avenue is one of the DOD oriented blogs I read, so I was happy to hear someone on the interview from the blog.”

We use Facebook and twitter to highlight your ads too! Just like we do the Roundtable articles so our fans at both social media see a great mix of information, interviews and advertisements! It increases our credibility and improves your reach! Have you seen our Facebook page? Did you know that you can introduce yourself on the page and become a fan to keep up on the news and receive new ideas for the military community’s interests? Just go to Facebook/MilitaryAvenue and become a fan and while there tell others about yourself and what you offer the military community! (Stop by and introduce yourself!)

If you would like to see some of the Roundtables that we have participated in please go to DoDLive or go to Our Letters to You/DoD Roundtable to read some of the articles we have written! By the way when we were invited to attend we were reluctant at first due to schedules, workloads and other obstacles. It was a hunch that they might be productive from one member of our team that led to our participation. The results have been almost viral for us as we have seen a tremendous success from our participation!

Photo Credit: Forty pallets of relief supplies exit a C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft over Haiti Jan. 18, 2010. The C-17, crewed by Airmen from the 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., departed Pope AFB, N.C., and delivered 40 pallets of food and water into Haiti. Joint Task Force-Haiti secured the area where the supplies were delivered. Once on the ground, supplies were distributed by JTF-Haiti, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other relief personnel. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo)Posted byColonel KonWednesday, May 05, 2010Labels:Col K,DoD Roundtable