Hillary Clinton, E-diplomat, Embraces New Media
In less than three months, Clintons State Department has embarked on a digital diplomacy drive aimed at spreading the word about American foreign policy and restoring Washingtons image. Part of a broader Internet outreach by President Barack Obamas administration, Clintons Web efforts already have outpaced those of her predecessors.
Since taking over at Foggy Bottom, Clintons team has built on e-diplomacy innovations developed during George W. Bushs presidency:
-They have revamped the departments Web site (http://www.state.gov ) and the Dipnote blog (http://blogs.state.gov and http://twitter.com/dipnote ) with a fresh array of features, graphics and colorful posts.
-Users can track her foreign travel on an interactive map (http://www.state.gov/secretary/trvl/map/?trip-id5 ).
-They can keep up virtually with her every move through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/statevideo ).
-They can pose questions through an “ask-the-secretary” column (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/ask/secretary/117297.htm ) that recently was revised to “text the secretary.” (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/ask/secretary/120236.htm )
“New media is critical in this new era of diplomacy, where smart power and expanded dialogues are essential to achieving our foreign policy goals,” said Cheryl Mills, Clintons longtime confidante and chief of staff.
Even for a government Web site, early indications show a surge in interest, according to internal State Department statistics provided to The Associated Press.
Daily views of the Dipnote have doubled from 10,000 a year ago to 20,000 today, with 700 subscribers to its RSS feed, twice as many as in March 2008. The number of followers of the department on Twitter has tripled since Jan. 20, when Obama took office, while the departments Facebook friends have increased by 2 1/2 times in the same period.
“What they are bringing in is more willingness to experiment,” said Peter Daou, who was Clintons Web guru during her 2008 presidential run. “They are starting to push the envelope.”
What remains unclear, though, is whether the spike in interest reflects the revamped Web site or the publics fascination with Clintons latest career shift.
“The personality behind it cant be dismissed,” said Daou, who now blogs on human rights and other issues for U.N. Dispatch (http://www.undispatch.com ).
“The United States Government is behind nearly everybody, except in certain discrete areas, in terms of technology,” she told department employees at a town hall meeting in February. “We are, in my view, wasting time, wasting money, wasting opportunities, because we are not prepared to communicate effectively with what is out there in the business world and the private world.”
Clinton was quick to embrace new media at the start of her presidential campaign. She announced her entry into the race in February 2007 on the Web and followed with regular Internet chats and Internet fundraising appeals.
Nonetheless, Clinton was surpassed by the Obama campaigns mastery of the Internet and social networking sites. Obama used the Web to raise record donations and identify and orchestrate an army of volunteers.
Clinton was first lady when the first White House Web site debuted in 1994. It was a bare-bones operation compared with what is available now. Three years later, the State Department went online during Secretary of State Madeleine Albrights tenure.
But it wasnt until 2007, under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rices spokesman, Sean McCormack, that the departments public affairs shop began exploring new media in earnest. McCormack started the Dipnote blog, which some foreign service veterans predicted would fail, given the private and stuffy nature of diplomacy.