“In the absence of guidance: do the right thing” - Lieutenant Colonel Greg Reeder, U.S. Marines

Wow, the marines really trust the corps.  And Lieutenant Colonel Reeder was talking about the use of social media when he made that comment.                        

In the same presentation, Marine Corps officers went on to list 16 challenges to the use of social media.  But with rules of engagement in place and policies and processes defined, the rest of the presentation focused on how to achieve the mission.

Personal privacy, security, safety…not many organizations have as many reasons NOT to use social media as the Marine Corps.

Yet the marines are everywhere – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, flickR, YouTube… Over 1 million people “like” the marines on Facebook. 

Not many organizations have a culture like that of the marines – renowned as built on respect, hierarchy, pride, and always pushing to be the best.  Transparency, openness, equality, some of the hallmarks of companies with strong social media DNA, are not words we often see in descriptions of the marine corps. 

Respecting their own culture, establishing a blueprint for social media behavior, and recognizing the need to integrate some new behaviors are enabling the marines to evolve.

Take a look at this presentation that the Marine Corps posted on-line: http://www.prsa.org/Conferences/DigitalImpact/DIConf_Marines.pdf

And remember: “Provide guidance – don’t give up terrain to adversaries”