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"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advocates for what she calls \"twenty-first century statecraft,\" the use of technology and social media by ambassadors and their staff to connect and engage with their local communities. But can Facebook and Twitter  really change the art of diplomacy?\nThat was one question posed to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for Digital Strategy at the State Department Victoria Esser, Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana and American Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray during a panel at the 2012 Social Good Summit.\n\"[Social media] is an integral part of how we're conducting our diplomacy around the world, said Esser. \"We have 300 Twitter profiles, 400 Facebook pages. To me, it's about creating virtuous circles online and offline \u2014 nothing will replace face-to-face diplomacy, but social media is an important way to connect with people and cut away time, distance and diplomatic rank barriers and have a real conversation.\"\nEsser pointed to a recent State Department experiment with Google Hangouts as an example of such a conversation.\n\"Earlier this year, we did a Google Hangout in Persian,\" said Esser. \"We were trying to figure out a way to really engage in a dialogue in Iran, where we don't have a diplomatic presence.\"\nEsser, subtly acknowledging the situation at the American Embassy in Cairo wherein a staffer sent tweets later reported to have gone without authorization, also said that Washington largely gives individual missions free reign to tweet as they will.\n\"We've devolved [control] so missions in the field are responsible, with general guidance from Washington. You can't manage a tweet at a time, and it's important not to or it won't be authentic to the community you're trying to engage with. We recognize there will be bumps along the road, but as my colleague Alec Ross points out, the twenty-first century is a terrible time to be a control freak. If you want to engage in this dialogue, there's a certain loss in control involved.\"\n\nSEE ALSO: Iran\u2019s Electronic Curtain: How the U.S. Is Tearing It Down\nAmbassador Ray shared a unique story of using Facebook to circumvent a local government's obstructionism.\n\"When the government discovered our face-to-face meetings with young people were having an effect ... they started disrupted meetings. They hated it with a passion. So we came up with alternative, which was a wild suggestion at the time: A live Facebook chat, along with SMS, Twitter, and YouTube. In the first one, 200 people enrolled and we had 250 comments in the first 30 minutes. \n\"Facebook didn't replace face-to-face diplomacy, but it filled a gap, it became a tool we could use to do face-to-face diplomacy when that wasn't available.\"\nFor Ambassador Djalal, Twitter especially has become a crucial mechanism for interacting with Indonesians at home and in the United States.\n\"If not for social media, I'd have no other medium to reach out to [Indonesians],\" said Djalal, who only started tweeting when he first became an ambassador. \"I recently made a tweet. . .I have about 100,00 followers. I said, 'if you want to give me a gift for my birthday, do one act of kindness.' A few hours later, the hundreds of replies I got were amazing: 'I proposed to my girlfriend,' 'I kissed my mom on the cheek.' That's when I realized. . .the power of social media. It has a remarkable use for the field of diplomacy.\"\nAbout Ericsson\nRead more of Mashable's coverage of the 2012 Social Good Summit:\n\nDay One:\n\nHillary Clinton Opens the Social Good Summit [VIDEO]\nHow the U.S. Chief Technology Officer Is Making Data Awesome\nCan Mobile Phones Help Fight Pediatric AIDS?\nHow Is Social Media Changing Diplomacy?\nPeter Gabriel Makes Case For Internet Freedom\nITU Secretary-General: OK to Make Profit When Helping Developing Nations\n8-Year-Old YouTube Sensation Performs at Social Good Summit\nSocial Good Summit Day 1: Highlights and Pics\n\nDay Two:\n\nShoutAbout Aims to Inspire Social Action Based on News Stories\nTim Pool, Guerrilla Journalist of the Digital Age [VIDEO]\nU.S. Ambassador Susan Rice: Twitter Crucial to Her Mission\nHow Social Media Is Empowering Women in Haiti\nHow to Use Mobile Devices to Solve Global Problems\nHow Forest Whitaker Is Using Technology to Spread Peace\nSocial Good Summit Day 2: Highlights and Pics\n\nDay Three:\n\nNapolitano: Congress \u2018Got Stuck\u2019 on Cybersecurity\nU.N. Foundation Challenges the World to Take Action\nNick Kristof Takes Social Good Gaming to the Next Level\nWhy Tech and New Media Can Help End Modern Slavery\nUNICEF Launches Online Campaign to Reduce Child Mortality Rates\nWhat It Means to Be an Advocate in the Digital Age\nWhat Non-Profits Can Learn From Cat Videos\nWikipedia Founder: Online Connections Foster Real Change\nDeepak Chopra: Social Media is the Next Phase of Humanity [VIDEO]\nHow Social Good Summit Sparked the Largest Conversation on Earth\nSocial Good Summit Day 3: Highlights and Pics\n10 Inspiring Quotes From Mashable\u2019s Social Good Summit\n\n\nImages courtesy of Flickr, SEIU International"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/09/22/social-media-diplomacy/>