Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 6

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Virtual Influence

Leveraging Social Media as
a Leadership Tool
Maj. Jana K. Fajardo, U.S. Army

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HERE ARE OVER 7 billion people in the world today, and
over 1.2 billion of them have a Facebook account, more
than 550 million subscribe to Twitter, and over 1 billion visit
YouTube each month.1 These sites belong to the category of social media, or a “collection of online platforms and tools used to
share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media itself, facilitating conversations and interactions
online between individuals or groups of people.”2 People often
use social networking interchangeably with social media, but social networking is the act of using platforms of social media.3
Although their definitions are rapidly evolving, both involve collaboration, interactive dialogue, and making connections.4 Social
networking is not a new concept or term; people have done it in
person for centuries. However, social networking using social
media is not much older than a decade, especially in the Army.
Maj. Jana K. Fajardo is the brigade support operations officer for the 16th
Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord,
Wash. She holds a B.S. in engineering psychology from the U.S. Military
Academy and an M.A. in organizational psychology from Columbia University,
New York, N.Y.