US Air Forces puts bloggers in their sights

So one day you’re blogging away and end up writing something a little on the negative side about the US government (like that’ll never happen) or more specifically about the US Air Force only to find your post the target of some barbed comments by a USAF officers. Well, don’t take it personally because you have landed yourself in the sights of the new USAF counter-blogging policy.

Yup the US Air Force as a part of its emerging technologies division of the public affairs department has provided a 12 point flow chart for the airmen to follow when dealing with bloggers.

The flow chart lays out a range of possible responses to a blog post. Airmen can offer a "factual and well-cited response [that] is not factually erroneous, a rant or rage, bashing or negative in nature." They can "let the post stand — no response." Or they cancan "fix the facts," offering up fresh perspective. No matter what, the chart says, airmen should "disclose your Air Force connection," "respond in a tone that reflects high on the rich heritage of the Air Force," and "focus on the most-used sites related to the Air Force."

Source: Danger Room]

This is all part of a larger program within the Air Force to better utilize social media tools and be a part of the Web 2.0 community

Capt. Faggard and his Air Force Emerging Technology team is responsible for developing strategy, policy and plans for an ever-changing communication landscape for communicators worldwide. What was most interesting is that with Capt. Faggard leading the way, the Air Force employs 330,000 communicators! Their mission is to use current and developing Web 2.0 applications as a way to actively engage conversations between Airmen and the general public. Yes, that’s right, the goal of the program is that every single Airman is an on-line communicator.

Source: Web Ink Now

What’s interesting here is that as David Scott says in his post on Web Ink Now the US Air Force; and other branches of the military, seem to be more open to things like Twitter and blogs that the corporate world is.

Here is the full chart used by the USAF (click on it for full view)