Wanna Join Up? Mind Your Online Profiles

Todd South - Chattanooga Times

Army Gen. Raymond Odierno likes to watch the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" and the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond" and listen to Frank Sinatra.

Apparently the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq also enjoys the film "Animal House," at least according to his profile on the social networking Web site Facebook.

Though the general has embraced the site, branches of the U.S. military are treating social networking carefully, especially when it comes to recruiting.

"If you want to join the Army, you can go to goarmy.com," said Tim Bundick, a retired Army sergeant who now works as a public affairs officer for Army recruiting in Atlanta.

If individual units or stations have social network profiles, it's more to share information and direct prospective recruits to the branch Web site or a local office, he said.

Mr. Bundick started a Facebook page for the Atlanta battalion a few months ago and has seen more former recruiters reconnect through the page than people interested in serving.

"There's no measurable success," he said. "This is for information purposes only. We're not using it to recruit."

Sgt. Andrew Hurt, Marine Corps recruiting spokesman for Tennessee, said that, so far, the best use of social networking sites for recruiters is to speed up screening candidates.

If a potential recruit lists his online profile, recruiters can take a look. A person with too many tattoos or messages advocating drug use or other criminal activity would be ruled out immediately, he said.

"It's all kind of trickling down," he said. "I think the biggest roadblock is the question, 'Is this an effective means of processing or a waste of time?'"

Recruiters spend the bulk of their time trying to find qualified candidates by canvassing high schools and colleges, then calling eligible men and women. Without a format or official Marine Corps program, Sgt. Hurt said, some recruiters are trying out social networking profiles to connect with people online, but much of that work is individual and hard to quantify.

"We can't attribute a genuine interest (in military service) from a MySpace page," he said.

Other military branches are wary of using the social sites at all, especially if sites run the risk of containing false or negative information.

"If we can't control the content, we won't put our feet in the water," said Chief Master Sgt. Doug Sikat, superintendent of strategic marketing for the U.S. Air Force.

The master sergeant said that, until an Air Force-wide policy lays out details of how to use social networking, recruiters are discouraged from building the pages.

Advances on the Air Force Web site help the branch and recruiters to spread information, he said.

Interactive games, live chats and e-mail responses to questions about military service help recruiters connect with candidates.

A 25-year recruiting veteran, Chief Master Sgt. Sikat said when he began, each recruit filled out a 3-inch-by-5-inch index card with information that was mailed to a clearinghouse in Baltimore, Md.

"Now within 24 hours of receiving the information, we can text, e-mail or live conference," he said. "We've evolved a tremendously increased ability."

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