Marines are looking for a few good social media experts

Younger members of the Marine Corps are being pressed into service to use social media to tell the world about their mission.

That's according to Brig. Gen. William Seely III, director of Marine Corps communications, spoke at Tuesday's meeting of National Press Club American Legion Post 20.

He said the Marine Corps, which marked its 242nd birthday Nov. 10, is asking its members to use social media to keep up with a "24-second news cycle." To handle that, the Marines now have a new assignment category, communications strategy specialist, defined as a Marine able to use multiple forms of media.

Seely said technology today makes it possible for "every Marine to be a reporter and a spokesman." He said the Corps has 365 registered social media sites.

Born in Saigon where his father was a construction contractor, Seely is the nation's first Vietnamese-American brigadier general. He did four combat tours in Iraq before moving to his current post in the Pentagon.