The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced it hit 200,000 fans of its official Facebook page, helping it with efforts to communicate directly to veterans.
"We started our social media program with the vision of getting the right information to the right veteran at the right time," said VA secretary Erik Shinseki, adding that the social media platform helps it reach a significant part of the veteran population and delivering to them important information.
The department established an office of online communications three years ago overseeing all its social media programs – prompted by the White House’s open government initiative.
Individual VA medical centers also have pages. Combined, the department has about 150 Facebook pages and about 440,000 fans. It also has 70 Twitter feeds.
