WASHINGTON -- By now, social media and networking are old hat to America’s youth. But to those in charge of keeping America safe, social media is just starting to be something more important than an obscure diversion for teenagers.

Just take a look at the Department of Defense. The Air Force recently joined the Twitter revolution. Gen. Ray Odierno, U.S. commander of multinational forces in Iraq, is on Facebook.

These are just a few ways the U.S. military is trying to incorporate social media into the everyday workings of national security.

But as they enter the world of social networking, military leaders have to be careful in ways other users don’t.

“We have to remember the government is a different participant than other people in social media,” said James Carafano, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who recently published Social Networking and National Security: How to Harness Web 2.0 to Protect the Country. “We also have to remember that there are downsides to the technology just like anything else.”

Carafano says there is the issue of classified information being leaked in a sort-of “social media experiment gone wrong” as well as concern that all information on the social networking sites isn’t accurate.

But the issues must be dealt with because the networks are here to stay, he said. This year alone, communication via Facebook has outpaced the total number of e-mails exchanged.

“We can’t just say ‘the government can’t do social media’,” said Carafano. “The fact is - the world is doing it. The government just needs to be smart about how it uses social media.”

And being smart may mean taking more time to learn how to use social media effectively.

“It’s all about the exchange of information,” said Hugo Teufel, III., former chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security. “It’s something government sometimes isn’t really good at doing.”

Teufel now works on privacy and security issues for the advisory services arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, mainly working with government agencies and aerospace and defense contractors.

He said using social media is about bringing people together and that the government should use any means to engage with the public.

“(The government) blogging just for the sake of blogging – not sure if there’s value in there,” Teufel said. “In a military context, I can see it being used more social than business focused.”

Some security experts say it’s about having the right leadership in place.

“With people like (Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Gen. Cartwright at or near the top of the defense decision-making chain, we should see a lot more use of social networking and web 2.0 tools and practices,” said Michael Tanji, former supervisory intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“The real issue here is time. Gen. Cartwright and those like him recognize that the right answer now - regardless of where in the organization it comes from - is better than the official answer too late.”

Tanji, an Army veteran who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Threat Awareness, said senior military leaders who are wary of social networking tools and practices in national security decision making are in for a surprise.

“If (senior officials) fight (social networking), not only will they lose the best and brightest now,” Tanji said, “they’ll alienate future generations of potential national security professionals and they’ll make the nation less safe.”

Next month a conference, entitled “Social Media Strategies for DOD and Government,” will take place in Mclean, Va. The three-day conference was organized by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. Officials said most of those attending will be involved in marketing, public affairs and communication with the U.S. military.

“(The conference) is a good way for areas of defense to learn new ways to reach out to the public,” said Nigel Cunnings, senior sales manager for the IDGA. “In particular areas, specifically concerning the war, a lot of people have a misconstrued idea of what’s really happening. And we can begin the work to change this.”

Carafano said the government in general, like the military, has just scratched the surface of social networking’s power.

“Look at the White House now with a MySpace and Facebook account,” Carafano said. “Maybe the government will look at it as ‘data mining,’ and looking for information. This way, they’ll better understand ‘What are people talking about?’”