Semper Tweet?

It’s official: All branches of the military are using social media.

Last week the United States Marine Corps officially became the last branch of the military to endorse the use of social media by its soldiers when it published its very own set of social media guidelines. The handbook features a comprehensive set of policies, guidelines and terms for basic Marines, leaders and even the families of Marines.

The handbook comes two years after the Marine Corps issued a ban on social media use and is a victory for social media nerds everywhere. The Air Force, Navy and Army have already adopted social media guidelines for their soldiers and employees.

The central focus of all these military social media guidelines is to transform soldiers into walking, tweeting brand representatives while giving them a chance to connect with their families and express themselves. The Marine handbook even goes as far as to designate soldiers with public affairs occupational specialties as go-to “social media marines” for their units.

The Marine social media handbook is pretty comprehensive and gets the point across that safe, effective use of social media can benefit both individuals and the military. It’s about time that the Devil Dogs jumped on the social media bandwagon. I just hope that the Marine Corps didn’t already turn their soldiers off to social media with their two-year ban.