Earlier today, I was alerted to the ISAFmedia Twitter feed by my Frontline colleague, Alex Strick van Linschoten.
I contacted ISAF, (NATO's multinational International Security Assistance Force fighting in Afghanistan) and they confirmed that the Twitter feed is an official ISAF operation.
A spokesperson said the project "is in its infancy", but ISAF hope to use Twitter as a way of getting their message out. In the first instance, it will be used as another way of issuing ISAF's news releases.
The spokesperson explained ISAF's rationale for using Twitter:
"As with any organisation transmitting our information and getting it seen by as
many people as possible is very important and we feel that Twitter could
provide us with the means to transmit our messages to a new, and wider,
audience."
ISAF expect Virgil Magee, a member of the Media Analysis team, to be doing most of the tweeting.
As I've noted on the blog before, there are plenty of problems with military organisations using social media given the nature of conflict, but there have also been calls for NATO to 'plug in' to the global conversation online. This represents a step in that direction.
It'll be interesting to see how the feed develops. While Twitter is an effective method of disseminating press releases, I have never felt that using Twitter in this way maximises the potential of the tool.
While I've been writing ISAF has made its first tweet:
"Two ISAF troops were killed as a result of direct fire today in eastern Afghanistan. For more info visit www.nato.int/isaf"
