Beyond the Article - Does the Military Need Social Media Influencers?

(Expanded Article)

In January 2020, the United States Army and Navy banned the Chinese-owned TikTok app on government devices after the Defense Department labeled it a security risk. The ban has since been extended to all branches of service and includes DoD contractors. But despite this legitimate security threat, is TikTok still the military’s best recruiting tool?

“In 2023 veteran related content on Tiktok amassed over 15 billion views, right? That's with a B, 15 billion views,” said Albert Calamug, Marine Corps veteran who works U.S. Public Policy at TikTok, during a presentation at the Military Influencer Conference (MIC). MIC is an annual event that brings together the people and organizations that promote and support the military community. Notably TikTok was the only social media platform in attendance despite its tenuous relationship with the Department of Defense.

New military influencers are popping up daily talking about military life – the good the bad and the ugly. This method of information sharing holds the potential to give the American public insight into military life that doesn’t require them to pick up a history book or read military news articles. This medium will have an impact on both recruitment and internal top-down and bottom-up communications. But adopting new-ish platforms and strategies is difficult for any organization to embrace, let alone the military, an institution that fiercely protects its public relations messages.

“The military as a whole really needs to lean into social media because it is where marketing is,” said Johnny Vargas, an active-duty soldier and social media influencer known as Viva La Vargas on TikTok. Despite being strongly encouraged to abandon TikTok in favor of other platforms, Vargas has remained with the app and says his audience wants more military-focused content. Vargas started off by posting summaries of Military.com news stories, information about accessing benefits and skits. “The platform that has given me the most success is Tiktok…they've given me the ability to organically reach so many people, and until I'm faced with, like, a jail sentence or something, I'm still going to use the platform.”

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“Regardless of individual or institutional views on TikTok, the #militarylife hashtag has amassed over 6.7 billion views, undeniably providing our community with greater exposure to share their stories and build community,” said Curtez Riggs, founder of the Military Influencer Conference (MIC). “TikTok offers veterans and military spouses a valuable pathway to chart their own post-military careers or businesses and create platforms to raise awareness for important issues,” said Riggs. The military knows it needs to update policies.

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