Price Floyd, the Defense Department's first-ever chief of social media, is leaving the Pentagon next week. The meaning of the prolific tweeter's departure is hard to summarize in a mere 140 characters.
Before becoming (deep breath) principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in 2009, Floyd was a veteran of the State Department's public-affairs shop, where he saw "the gap between how our actions have been perceived and how we want them to be perceived," as he wrote in a 2007 *Fort Worth Star-Telegram *column. At the Pentagon, he set to work bringing the Defense Department into the Web 2.0 era, relaxing restrictions on employees' use of Twitter, Facebook, other social media and blogs. That's an initiative Floyd credits with the famously old-school man at the top, Secretary Robert Gates.
Gates may not be a Facebook or Twitter man, himself. But "he's someone who knows where the department needs to be, specifically on social media," Floyd tells Danger Room. "He really gets it. He understands that's not just where the troops are, but where the building needs to be as well." He has similar praise for Sumit Agarwal, the Google veteran who became the Pentagon's social-media chief earlier this year: "His ability to implement the new policy is great."
A fixture on Twitter with over 3000 followers, Floyd frequently solicited peoples' thoughts on what the Pentagon was up to and whether its critics made valid points.
As for his departure, Floyd says it's simply time for him to move on. His official last day is Tuesday, but on Monday he'll start teaching a class on public diplomacy at D.C.'s George Washington University. Additionally, he'll help out on special projects for the Center for a New American Security, the well-connected think tank that employed him before he came to the Pentagon. And he's in the process of lining up a full-time gig that he doesn't want to jinx by disclosing.
Alas, he jokes, taking over for top Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was probably never in the cards. "I can't be the next Geoff Morrell," Floyd graciously concedes. "I'm not pretty enough and I don't use pocket squares." Luckily, on Twitter, no one knows how you dress.
Credit: DoD
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