Official Marine Crops social media has somewhat struggled to keep up with other branches over the years as network policy kept public affairs Marines off the government network to update Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and blogs. Public Affairs Marines have been forced to work longer hours by updating various sites from home or purchase commercial Internet access and computers. However, over the last couple of weeks the Marine Corps has entered into compliance with DoD policy to no longer restrict access to the big social media sites.
I had the pleasure of meeting the Corps’ social media team at the Pentagon Friday afternoon and was very pleased to see that it is run by a Gunnery Sergeant and two Corporals. These three Marines have big plans for the future.
On a personal level I don’t feel like so much of an outcast in the social media world. My branch of the military is finally learning to embrace me as a powerful tool and starting to take advantage of what social media can do in the age of global networking. This feeling can really be attributed to meeting the social media team for the Corps. They admitted that any form of social/new media just wasn’t a priority to the service until recently and they are quickly taking steps to change that.
The Marines still have a long ways to go, though. They will likely have many of the problems other branches have experienced with less than enthusiastic chains of command , disinterest from leadership at all levels, and ignorance of the good social/new media can do. There will be cases where blogs will be ordered shut down and Marines will get in trouble.
This is where the Marines can set themselves aside from the failures of other branches. Instead of knee jerk and over reactions when something does go wrong, the Marines can calmly approach each situation and handle it in the best way. I really do hope that the social media team has looked at lessons learned from other branches, seen their problems and failures, and actively taken steps to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes.
Here is a few social networking sites for the Marine Corps:
http://www.facebook.com/marines
http://twitter.com/usmc
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marine_corps/Official Marine Crops social media has somewhat struggled to keep up with other branches over the years as network policy kept public affairs Marines off the government network to update Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and blogs. Public Affairs Marines have been forced to work longer hours by updating various sites from home or purchase commercial Internet access and computers. However, over the last couple of weeks the Marine Corps has entered into compliance with DoD policy to no longer restrict access to the big social media sites.
I had the pleasure of meeting the Corps’ social media team at the Pentagon Friday afternoon and was very pleased to see that it is run by a Gunnery Sergeant and two Corporals. These three Marines have big plans for the future.
On a personal level I don’t feel like so much of an outcast in the social media world. My branch of the military is finally learning to embrace me as a powerful tool and starting to take advantage of what social media can do in the age of global networking. This feeling can really be attributed to meeting the social media team for the Corps. They admitted that any form of social/new media just wasn’t a priority to the service until recently and they are quickly taking steps to change that.
The Marines still have a long ways to go, though. They will likely have many of the problems other branches have experienced with less than enthusiastic chains of command , disinterest from leadership at all levels, and ignorance of the good social/new media can do. There will be cases where blogs will be ordered shut down and Marines will get in trouble.
This is where the Marines can set themselves aside from the failures of other branches. Instead of knee jerk and over reactions when something does go wrong, the Marines can calmly approach each situation and handle it in the best way. I really do hope that the social media team has looked at lessons learned from other branches, seen their problems and failures, and actively taken steps to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes.
Here is a few social networking sites for the Marine Corps:
http://www.facebook.com/marines
http://twitter.com/usmc
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marine_corps/
