Now this guy is interesting. He is famous for going to Libya and fighting for the rebels there. He was also captured, then released after 5 1/2 months as a POW, and then went back to the front lines to fight again.
He also enlisted in the National Liberation Army and was assigned the position of being the the DShK gunner. Although he claims to have not accepted any payment for his service, his experiences will definitely have value when he writes a book and does a documentary about it all. Hell, even a movie would not be out of the question. Call it the Hemingway method of war volunteerism–which turned out to be quite profitable for ‘papa’ in later years.
Which brings up the next deal about Matt. He has a website complete with Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube accounts. So he is going full bore on promotions of his work and future work. Not only that, but he has started a blog complete with free email subscription.
Now the question you are probably wondering is if he plans on going to Syria to fight? I know he follows the situation there and has hinted about going back to the middle east, but I have not heard anything about him going there specifically. But you never know?
The other cool little tidbit is that he stopped in at Tim’s guest house in Afghanistan during his motorcycle trip. I wish him well and he definitely gets the Feral Jundi award for best pro-bono security contractor last year. lol –Matt
Yep, you heard that correctly. One million page views! This is great milestone for the blog, and I couldn’t have done it without such a fantastic readership. It also shows how important a brand is, and having the right architecture to support that brand.
I would have to say that the most important lesson learned is focusing in on really good content. Then use the blog’s RSS, Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin to get it out there so people know the post exists. That is extremely important these days, just because there is a ton of information for the user to access these days, and the reader’s time and attention can be difficult to capture. This blog definitely competes with the media in this regard, but I am grabbing market share or readership.
The future is only looking on the up and up for the blog. I recently did some work to improve upon the mobile version of FJ, and I expect that to pay big dividends. My theory with this is that everyone is carrying smart phones these days, and it is very easy for someone to pull out their device during the little breaks in their life and check out what is going on at the blog. Standing in the line at the supermarket, sitting down at a doctor’s office, taking a break at work, etc., all of these are the times when folks look for something to keep them occupied or are just curious about what is going on in the industry.
What is also interesting is that more and more contractors and soldiers are using these devices out there. As long as they have access to a wifi point, they can surf the web and check out their favorite spots online. So it is a pleasure and an honor to provide a place for this industry to hang out at and stay informed.
As to the chart below, the one spike downward was when I had to switch to a new theme and upgrade the platform. But as soon as everything was up and running again, the blog did just fine. It was kind of hectic though, and it was the equivalent to doing brain surgery–or so it seemed. lol –Matt
Very cool and it is about time. Although I do have a few misgivings about the blog itself, and this is stuff that can easily be fixed. First, there needs to be an RSS feed for the thing. I continue to see companies make this mistake, and it is just a simple little deal that makes a blog more useful. Guys like myself hunt for RSS feeds to put into our readers, and if you don’t have one then we just kind of forget about your site.
Some other ideas is to have a moderated comments section. If you check out my comments section on this blog, you will see that folks have the choice of entering a name and email, or signing in using Twitter or Facebook. This is the way to go, just because the easier it is for readers to sign in, the easier it will be for them to interact on the site. I use Intense Debate, but there are others out there.
Which is the other thing that kind of strikes me here. Who is the author? Is it Ashley Burke, the media relations person or who? So definitely sign off on who wrote the posts, and most of all, get that individual to interact with the readership. Especially if the CEO writes a post. Blogs are great tools for interacting with your readership. And the best thing with moderated comments, is that you can filter out those who have no interest in having a reasonable conversation or who are spammers.
Some technical issues would be to have a more complete site map at the footer, and have clear links going to the DynCorp corporate page, and clear links going to the blog. So really make it easy for the reader to know where they are at, and give them a map and clear signage as to where to go throughout your websites. An archives is important to, and put a search box on there so folks can search through your posts. Also, I did not see any tags, and that isn’t cool. All of this stuff is important to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and if DI wants to own the story about the ‘their’ company, then they need to do the things necessary that pleases Google Search.
Which along those lines, DI should also set up an official Twitter and Facebook Page. Even a Linkedin Page would be cool, although they might already have that. Either way, get hooked up on all the top social networking sites, and then link all of them together so that every time you make a post on the blog, the post automatically goes to those sites. Google Search really likes that kind of stuff, and it will help in SEO. You would really be top notch if you linked your jobs to all of those sites, and put a RSS feed on your career section. That way, as soon as new jobs come up, folks can find out about them and jump on it. (US Training Center has an excellent jobs section, that has all of the important information and tools that job seekers like) Oh, and don’t forget about a newsletter or some kind of subscription service. Those are very easy to set up using stuff like Feedburner or whatever.
Just some ideas, and it’s a step in the right direction guys. It is also a challenge to the other PSC’s and PMC’s in this industry. If DI has a blog, where is your blog? –Matt
About Inside DI
June 10, 2011
Learn more about the people of DynCorp International, our most recent company news, key contract wins, the causes we support and other fun facts.
Link to blog here.
I chuckled when I first found out about this and was considering making this a ‘funny stuff’ post. But then I started really looking at this effort from a different point of view, and that is if you can reduce the theories of Clauswitz into a children’s book, then that is pretty damned cool and impressive. It would also really open up the world of strategy to children, and likewise shame adults who did not know about this strategy.
The other thing I like about this project is that I could see this book selling quite well to the defense industry families and military families of the world. Parents are always interested in the whole ‘Baby Einstein’ concept of buying products that could make their children smarter. Imagine a child learning the very basic elements of strategy at such a young age, and how that could apply to all of their endeavors for the rest of their lives? I know I have been personally inspired by the leading strategies of business and war, and this knowledge has been immensely helpful for understanding the world we live in. That knowledge of strategy could also make a person wealthy, help in conflict resolution, help in contests of business or war, or even help in their personal survival. Lot’s of positives that can come from this knowledge. So what’s next? A children’s illustrated guide for Sun Tzu or Col. John Boyd? –Matt
Now this is what I like to see! The smart company is one that can apply effective strategic communications to their specific market. This is just one tool that can help you to achieve that kind of communications.
It is also a way for companies to correct the record or express views on a constantly changing market and world. From business owners/bloggers like Tim Lynch of Free Range International to CEO Eeben Barlow of Executive Outcomes fame, blogs are an excellent tool for both that individual to set the record straight or to attract new business for whatever projects they are working on.
This simple act also gives potential clients and researchers information that will further help them to make better choices or to create more factual publications/articles. Bravo to Control Risks and CEO Richard Fenning for setting this up and this blog is definitely on my Google RSS Reader. –Matt
The aim of this blog is to provide you with an informed perspective, as well as personal observations, on the complex and dynamic challenges faced by ambitious organisations operating on a global stage fraught with risk.
This first blog outlines some of the key global trends that will characterise 2011 and beyond. Urbanisation and mega-cities, the worldwide enforcement of anti-corruption legislation and the dominance of China will all have an impact on global business in the year ahead.
It is easy to feel a sense of weariness when contemplating all these challenges. In part, with good reason; the world can seem perilous and increasingly fragile. And at Control Risks, it can be all too easy to see the world through an excessively risk–shaped prism. Like doctors who think the world is full of sick people, and dentists who must feel that there is nothing else to life than crumbling molars, we encounter some of the most hazardous predicaments on a daily basis. So, in this blog I hope to demonstrate that as well as complexity and hostility, our world is more full of opportunity, and occasional bursts of optimism, than ever before in the planet’s history.
Control Risks CEO Bio
Richard Fenning is the Chief Executive Officer of Control Risks. Before becoming CEO, Richard held a number of other roles with Control Risks including Chief Operating Officer, head of the New York office and Business Development Director. He is a regular speaker on how geo-political risk can impact a company’s operations and on the role of the private sector in fragile and post-conflict states. Richard is also a director of emergency medical relief charity, Merlin.
