Social Media Policy from the DoD

The DoD released on Friday new guidelines for the use of social media in the Armed Forces. This is an enormous landmark in the progress that the DoD has taken to be proactive in its efforts to communicate with the public and to allow service members the ability and tools to keep in touch.

The overall encouraging language in the policy opens the doors for the thousands of Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) and individuals in uniform to be positively engaged online. With sites like facebook, twitter, myspace and others the plethora of individuals in the services on line is a tool for the DoD. It’s an unprecedented time with combat operations occurring and Soldiers and Marines able to write a blog about it within hours or days. This unique wartime perspective is new to the modern battlefield and the Armed Forces newest weapon is the web. The military blogosphere has become an important media outlet in the Global War on Terror and hits home with the day to day experiences of those in the fight.

Given the fact that that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs tweets constantly himself, the policy reflects what is done at  the top already and influences anyone and everyone in uniform.  With fewer than 1% of the US Population serving it opens the door for widespread exposure to the general population from the military point of view. Looking forward I’m pretty excited about being downrange with those of you who follow…