Robert Carr is GlobeSt.com's bureau chief based in Chicago. For the last six months, Robert has been in Kabul, Afghanistan where he has been deployed as part of his Naval Reserve unit. I recently sent him a note asking if he would provide an update on what he is doing and how the world looks from where he is based. I also couldn't help asking if he had anything to report about commercial real estate in Kabul for the benefit of his GlobeSt colleagues. Here's his response:

Bill-

I’m a public affairs officer at the International Security Assistance Force (read: NATO) Headquarters base in Kabul, Afghanistan. My main job is working in the secret NORAD-esque operations building to cover what’s going on throughout the country and shape proactive and reactive public affairs coverage. I also answer media queries on events, and arrange media embeds.

One interesting takeaway is how we’re using social media. We’ve started a U.S. Forces Afghanistan Facebook page www.facebook.com/usforcesafghanistan to help get our word out…all of our press releases get uploaded to this page, and if you’re a “fan,” you receive the press releases as part of your regular updates. Though we put up about two-three per day, people do not seem to be tiring of them, and they provide dozens of comments of feedback to each one. Also, we are on Twitter, and have an official USFOR-A Twitter feed, as well as our commanding officer has a Twitter feed where he posts his thoughts. Further, we notify people (including media) using Twitter that we’ve uploaded a new press release.

We were rather surprised how well this has worked. There has been a limited marketing plan, but we’re noticing that others who see that their friends have signed up also sign up with our page – an Internet “word of mouth” if you will – giving us more than 16,000 fans since our page went live two months ago. The Facebook page also drives traffic to our Web page.
I think that success has some lessons learned for our Web publishing business…regular, limited posts on social media (not overwhelming) have really increased our view count, and it’s interesting to see how many people are willing to be a “fan” of a certain group…which gives the group an ability to get right in front of those eyes on a constant basis. These people frequently provide comments to our posts, valuable feedback that seems to be 5 to 10 times more than what is posted after a blog post.

Real estate situation in Afghanistan – Well, I guess you could say that the occupancy could use some growth. It’s at about 0%. There are companies building various plants throughout the country, but the security for those facilities is immense, as it needs to be.

As for other observations…it’s a dangerous place. We’re doing our best to hold, shape and build…we’ll see what happens as we get past this summer offensive and the August elections.

I definitely look forward to returning to Incisive. It’s very good to hear from people back home.

Navy Lt. Robert Carr
U.S. Forces Afghanistan
PAO Operations Chief