Maxwell expands reach into 'Twitterverse'

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Melissa Copeland
  • Air University Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) --  Maxwell Air Force Base officials joined Twitter March 7, becoming the first base in Air Education and Training Command to do so.

Twitter is a popular social-networking tool where users send short messages, or "tweets," to other users.

"We're always looking for new avenues to tell people the Maxwell and Air Force stories," said Capt. Brad Kimberly, the Air University Public Affairs internal information chief. "Twitter is a great way to reach out to people who might not otherwise read anything about the great things Team Maxwell-Gunter does on a regular basis."

Joining Twitter is an important step in bringing a greater awareness to Maxwell AFB's mission, he said.

"We want people to not only read our stories but also keep coming back to our Web site," Captain Kimberly said. "Instead of waiting for people to find us, we're going to make sure they can see us in the tools they use. With Twitter, users will automatically see every update we make, and we hope that results in more visitors to our Web site."

Joining Twitter was a major milestone in Maxwell AFB's ability to reach people outside the base.

"One of the core missions of public affairs is to communicate effectively to the general public," said Lt. Col. MC McCarthy, the AU/PA director. "We can't communicate effectively if we almost exclusively rely on an 18th century innovation -- newspapers -- to get our messages out. It's time to upgrade. We've got the brightest minds in the Air Force at Air University, and this project is going to propel us into 21st century communications."

According to Captain Kimberly, Twitter will be used for more than just putting out news stories.

"News stories are an obvious product we can use Twitter to publicize, but it has more applications for us," he said. "We can also tweet about upcoming community events such as military appreciation nights in the Montgomery area. If it has to do with Maxwell and its people, we could be sending out tweets about it."

Maxwell AFB recently launched a new public Web site at www.maxwell.af.mil, offering new articles on a near-daily basis. Now that Twitter has launched, Captain Kimberly said he hopes to expand Maxwell AFB's online presence to other social networking sites in the future.

To see Maxwell AFB's Twitter feed, visit http://twitter.com/MaxwellAFB.

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