The Marine Corps has become the latest in a long line of uniformed military agencies to formally introduce a department-wide social media policy. This wouldn't be such big news if not for the fact that two years ago the corps actually banned personnel from using social media sites like Facebook.

Information Week is reporting that the corps new policy, "The Social Corps," advises personnel on ways to "engage in greater discussion as even better communicators and improved representatives of our Corps."

The policy has been posted online (PDF) and includes the usual nuggets like tips on how to avoid posting any sensitive information online and ways to best engage regular citizens via sites like Facebook and Twitter. "With social communication, you essentially provide a permanent record of what you say--if you wouldn't say it in front of a formation, don't say it online," the handbook says in what has become something of a running theme in these sorts of documents.

As OhMyGov reported back in August another branch of the armed forces, the Army, published an in-depth social media handbook of their own. It is important to avoid painting all military branches with the same brush, but when it comes to social media there can be much overlap found in the two handbooks.

"Organizations and soldiers must keep operations security in mind with every post, photo and video loaded to social media platforms because adversaries are constantly trolling social media sites to find bits and pieces of information that can be aggregated to tell a larger story," Army Social Media Manager Brittany Brown told OhMyGov at the time. The same sentiments can likely be applied to the Marines in their social media efforts.

The publication of this handbook is something of a stunning reversal for the corps, which in 2009 strictly prohibited all personnel from using any social media platforms whatsoever. The Department of Defense overturned the policy in February of 2010, opening the door for the Marines to become an active presence on sites like Facebook and the eventual publication of what is quickly becoming a staple of government communications: the social media handbook.