Bridging the "Last Three Feet"

After reading The Last Three Feet: Case Studies in Public Diplomacy, it became clear to me that the field of public diplomacy (PD) is ever-evolving. American PD practitioners must come up with creative ways to bring people together, whether it is through government officials mingling with foreign populations at American pavilion at the Shanghai Expo or through exchange programs like the Youth Ambassador Program in Brazil that bring young students to the United States. Many of the cases outlined in the book suggest that human interaction offers the best chance for creating mutual understanding or even likeability.

With the advent of new technologies and communication infrastructures has dramatically changed the way public diplomacy is practiced in the field, can social media now bridge the “last three feet”?

As was seen with the cases of Embassy Baghdad's Facebook page and the @America center in Jakarta, social media is a great way to disseminate ideas and stimulate interactive discussions. It offers a great opportunity to reach tech-savvy, younger audiences who like to communicate creatively through any medium that can be digitized – videos, photos, graphics, words, music, etc. (the list goes on and on).

However, I still think the best way to bridge the “last three feet” in public diplomacy is to engage in face-to-face communication. Making a post on Facebook for someone who may respond to it hours later while sitting alone in a room does not have nearly the same potential for a personal connection as an in-person encounter has. This is not to say that PD officers located in countries where there is very little Internet connectivity or it is dangerous to meet people outside of the embassy should not rely on social media as their main source of public outreach. Yet, for the majority of U.S. missions, social media tools should supplement, not substitute, programs that bring people together in person to interact in real time. PD practitioners who marry face-to-face communication with social media contact will inevitably reach a larger audience and help greater numbers of people better understand America and its values.