Nothing like a little rivalry within the US Military. Just days after the US Air Force announced that it was canceling its MySpace profile came news that the Army is launching their own MySpace campaign.
You might remember that the Air Force cancelled their MySpace account because as Col. Brian Madtes, chief of the Recruiting Service’s strategic communication division put it:
The danger with MySpace is we got to the point where we weren’t real comfortable with the potential for inappropriate content to be posted [on the page of] a friend of a friend. We didn’t want to be associated with that … and tarnish our reputation.”
The Army is not concerned about this according to The Detroit Free Press.
“We are aware of and understand the decisions made by the Air Force, but in reality, everything on the World Wide Web is just a click or two away from everything else, so it’s difficult not to ensure association with inappropriate content,” said Louise Eaton, an Army advertising spokeswoman.
The US Marines also have a MySpace profile and claim that the profile has sent 50,000 people to Marines.com since the profile was created according to Sgt. Brian J. Griffin, community relations chief for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s Public Affairs Office. I wonder what the conversion rate was for that 50,000 clicks?
Jeff Nichols, Navy Recruiting Command spokesman, said the Navy has no current plans to use MySpace for recruiting and is focusing all of its efforts via the navy.com Web site, TV commercials and print media.
You can argue that different arms of the military are simply acting like competitors in a market (which they are) where some companies embrace social networks while others want nothing to do with them. The longer term question for the Army and Marines is whether the MySpace campaign generates a better ROI for new recruits than other advertising mediums. Until then we will not know whose plan is better.
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Personally, I’m curious how much it actually costs to host a myspace. The US Marine Corps page…for instance, apparently 430 people have filled out online applications since they started using it. And the video just looks like a clip maybe an intra to a training film? or a failed commercial? Then its just hiring someone to create the feel for the site. I’d have to imagine 430 people joining via their myspace profile since January is a fairly good ROI. (via infopackets.com) Though that is a small number compared to 150,000 (or so) recruits across the country averages a year. I’d still suspect it does better than an average recruitment office with 0 real overhead.
150,000 was woefully off by the way. After investigation I discoverd they had 36,000 recruits in 2004.