The official US Army blog is now up and operating:

This week the Army not only launched an official blog portal, but also an Army fan page on Facebook.

The “Army Live” blog (http://armylive.dodlive.mil) officially went live Monday, after a “soft launch” last week, said Lindy Kyzer, the portal’s administrator and a Public Affairs specialist in the Online and Social Media Division.

The U.S. Army Facebook page went live about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Both sites were launched by the new Online and Social Media Division of Army Public Affairs. Division Chief Lt. Col. Kevin Arata said he was excited because thousands of people get their information from blogs and social networking sites.

“And I don’t think we’re targeting just one demographic,” Arata said, alluding to the perception that such sites attract primarily a younger audience. “I think there are a lot of older folks out there savvy to this type of communication.”

“The blogosphere is a place where a lot of different people are at,” Kyzer said. “We know our active-duty Soldiers are there. We know that our family members are there. We know that there’s people simply there who choose to get their information from blogs.”

Blogs are meant to be an informal and chatty type of communication, Kyzer said.

“Everything we post on ‘Army Live,’ we really want to get comments and feedback from,” Kyzer said. “Blogs thrive on a vibrant comment section and an active dialogue, and that’s really what we want.”

More than two dozen comments have already been posted to the blog site, Arata said, including one from a Soldier in the Australian Army and the rest from a cross-section of people both inside and outside the U.S. Army.  (…………)

Arata said he would like for the number of linked blogs to grow exponentially so that “Army Live” is the one-stop virtual shop for all Army blogs. And he invites participation from everyone in the field.   [Army.mil]

You can view the new Army Live Blog here.

The site looks nice, but as with any blog it is way to early to judge how good it is going to be.  If it just becomes a place where PAO press releases are published the site is not going to build the community that they say is their goal for the site.  People read and interact with blogs because they like to read other opinions and share theirs.  It will be interesting to see how the Army Live blog turns out.

Anyway if you are administering an official unit webpage let the Army Live folks know because they will link your site on their sidebar.  Since I’m not an official site you won’t be seeing the ROK Drop linked there anytime soon unfortunately.