What The New US Military Social Media Policy Really Means

Posted by Dave Konig at 2 March, 2010, 9:00 am

Early Saturday morning I read a story over at Mashable about how a New U.S. Military Policy Opens Up Social Media to the Troops. It’s important to realize that the bans in effect were only applied to access of social networking sites through the military’s internet networks and did NOT restrict personnel from using their personal computers to access these networks or create Social Media. There is in fact a very vibrant Military Blogging Community who have advocated long and hard for this sort of policy on behalf of personnel with no other options for internet access other than the Department of Defense (DoD) networks, such as those deployed overseas.

I found the policy interesting for three specific reasons:

: Image via Wikipedia

First, it effectively negates the current Marine Corps ban on Twitter and the longer standing US Army’s ban of Youtube and MySpace, the wording is broad enough to allow local unit commanders to restrict activity on their networks as they see fit
Secondly, by allowing the use of DoD computers, they are allowing the use of Social Networking sites while technically at work. Now their policies do state that their use for personal reasons must be done without interfering with work duties, but it is still an interesting stance for the military to be taking
The third and final interesting aspect of the policy is actually in Attachment 2, section 3 parts b and d which promotes and outlines good Social Media behavior through posting relevant and accurate information, and the use of a disclaimer when personal opinions are expressed

Now let’s be honest and remember that the military has been using Social Media effectively for both public relations and recruitment for awhile now. The military understands the power of both positive and negative Social Media, even to the extent that the Air Force had developed a Blog Assessment chart. These policies do not change any of those efforts.

So what does this policy really mean? It shows us that the US Military knows and understands that:

With a little guidance your members can be your best ambassadors and most vocal advocates for your agency
It is your responsibility to help educate your members as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behavior online
It is more important to focus on behaviors than on the current state of technology
Whether you grant them access or not, people will still connect with each other online in the privacy of their own homes
A well written policy today will help mold and shape your Social Media success tomorrow

Social Media is good enough for the US Military and their members… is it good enough for your agency and your members?

Let us know in the comments…

Download 09-026 – Responsible and Effective Use of Internet-based Capabilities (PDF)

U.S. Department of Defense Goes Social…Yes, Really! (readwriteweb.com)
Pentagon Embraces Social Media (techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)
Pentagon gives social media access to troops (newstatesman.com)
U.S. military OKs use of online social media (cnn.com)

About the author

Dave Konig wrote 204 articles on this blog.

Dave has been involved in Social Media since 2005 through the current major services and some defunct ones as well. During this time he has been able to hone the craft by testing out the theories of others, creating his own philosophies, and gathering a better understanding of the mediums involved through networking and most importantly actual practice.