Miami marketing and social media consultant Al Quintana of The Digital Raindance recently supported the U.S. Army Miami Recruiting Battalion’s initiative to enlist a group of Florida mayors to conduct tandem jumps with the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team and sign a community covenant to show their support for soldiers and their families in their respective communities.
Quintana, who serves as a Board member and social media committee chairman for the U.S. Army South Florida Advisory Board, said the mayor’s jumps followed on an original strategy to provide two local Hispanic radio shock jocks with a unique experience to skydive with the Golden Knights. The strategy helped the Miami Battalion garner broad social media buzz and traditional media coverage that helped generate leads for a 91 percent increase in Hispanic soldier recruitment in South Florida. It also brought national recognition to the Miami Recruiting Battalion as the campaign was named Non-Profit Media Campaign of the Year by the Hispanic Public Relations Association and the Army’s national brass highlighted the efforts of public affairs specialist Harvey Spigler and his team for launching one of the best examples of its grassroots advocacy program in expansion markets, which included Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit and several cities in the Southeast.
The positive community advocacy generated by having influential Board members and community leaders jump with the Golden Knights was supported and social content shared on the new Facebook pages for the Battalion <http://www.facebook.com/USARBMiami>, the Board <http://www.facebook.com/ArmyGRABMiami> and individual recruiting stations throughout South Florida.