There is not a lot of online conversation in Australia about Defence families on Twitter. In my experience it’s more common on Facebook. There is however a lot of ‘twittering’ about Defence (military) families in the US and beyond.
I identified several hashtags as most related to my topic. These included #milspouse which is how the US identifies military partners. Here in Australia #YourADF seems to be quite common on defence related tweets but mostly relates to Defence itself. The Defence Community Organisation (DCO) uses #YourADF in their promotional work of services and resources for Defence families. I like this hashtag as it invokes a sense of pride in belonging to the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Less used would be #defencefamilies. I decided to use this in one of my tweets because I think it explains exactly what I am talking about.
The first news story I tweeted was about a brilliant initiative from RSL Queensland and their financial assistance for Defence partners. No responses as yet to the tweet but on the Defence Families Facebook page (which I manage) the post was very popular with over 12,033 people being reached.
The second news story I engaged with was one about the Defence Special Needs Group, which help Defence families who move with children with special needs.
I was surprised with the immediate response I received from a Dad who has a child with special needs. I think he picked up on the tweet from my use of #specialneeds in the body of the text. I ended up having a lovely conversation with him about our children.
I retweeted about an initiative in the US with a program they run that employs military partners. This is something that more Australian businesses really need to look at. Defence partners could be such an untapped resource for business with so many finding it difficult to find work due to the transient nature of our partner’s empployment. In the article there is a great YouTube clip of a military partner working remotely for Amazon.
I also retweeted an article about Prince Harry and his comments on Defence families being ‘role models’. When this story first came out it really resonated with Defence families and went viral on many social media platforms.
I am a big fan of Twitter. But I wonder who is actually on it and who reads the Tweets? I think it is great for media and politics but I am not sure if reaches the ordinary person on the street?
A Sentimental Journey 