Danger Room, a National Security-focused blog at Wired.com, is not normally the place one would go to find sound advice on being a modern writer. Further adding to the general sense of improbability is that the Danger Room story is actually focused on flowchart put out by the United States Air Force. So, you might be asking, what’s the connection?

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The US Air Force has always been rather blog-averse, outright blocking access to many blogging sites across their entire network. However, the new social internet means that everyone most adopt a touch of public relations knowledge now that everyone can publish and a story can quickly grow legs. And it appears that the Air Force understands this. In order to aide Air Force staff in dealing with blogs, the service’s Public Affairs Agency has put out a rather thought out guide to how to handle with online mentions of the Air Force, be it good or bad.

As the modern writer is almost required to develop an online presence, the flow chart provides a good start with how to deal with your online “brand”. And the article also goes to show that tips and tricks can come from seemingly unlikely places.

Some of the helpful tips on the flowchart include:

• Evaluate and classify what type of response the post is
• How to phrase your response accordingly
• Cite your sources
• Don’t rush, responses with quality are better than responses with speed.

and

• Disclose your identity

They’re all good tips and show that the Air Force is getting a handle on managing it’s brand online.

Does anyone else have any tips or tricks for keeping everything straight?