Some Social Influencers in the Army Have More Followers Than the Army Has Soldiers – Guy D. McCardle

Today, I discovered something that blew my mind. It shouldn’t really surprise me, though; it’s more that I just didn’t realize it.

Some social media influencers in the Army have more followers than the Army has soldiers. 

For example, the active Army has more or less about 443,000 soldiers today. Instagram sensation Sergeant First Class Tyler Butterworth has 2 MILLION followers! That’s his own damn Army. To be fair, he only has 502k views on YouTube. Wait a second, that’s still more than the whole freakin’ Army. He must be doing something right; let’s check out a video.

Pretty freakin’ funny if you ask me, and the sexy Bentley chick is a bit of marketing genius. Ok, Tyler now officially have 502K +1 followers, I’m a fan.

Of course it’s not just this one guy and it’s not just the Army, but you have to start your story somewhere and this is where I’ve chosen to start.

To show how influential this social media influencer is, in the Instagram clip below he has Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth as his comic foil mentioning that’s she learned that it’s not a good idea to wear high heals on helicopters. I’ll keep that in mind.

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On the SOF side of the social media house, we have Green Beret Master Sergeant Tim Kennedy. Here we are at SHOT Show back in 2023.  Tim is one hell of a nice guy; he really is. Funny, smart, could kill you with one finger…everything you could want in a Green Beret. He also has 1.5 million followers on Instagram. Damn, I didn’t realize that until just this instant. There is a reason why he has so many followers: he’s authentic and makes entertaining content. That’s what it’s all about.

Now, you might think the Army has tight control over what their soldiers do regarding social media engagement. Not so. The service is handling them with kid gloves. Rather, they are not handling them. It’s a “hands-off” approach.

To quote Army Secretary Christine Wormuth: “The Army doesn’t have a policy on social media engagement: it’s sorta the wild west. What I don’t want to do is (for) it to become an Army reg that tightens things so much that it sucks the life out of their posts.” 

Pretty cool. The eternal pessimist in me is waiting for some jackass to come along and ruin it for everyone else, but that hasn’t happened yet. The rules are subjective and are left up to individual commanders.

Here is my two cents worth, the social media account must be a fantastic recruiting tool if folks at the highest levels are demanding a hands-off approach so they don’t ruin it. I mean, who wouldn’t want to laugh with Tyler Butterworth or hang out with a badass like Tim Kenned? In our vicarious experience-based reality, watching their videos is almost as good as the real thing. If these guys are what the Army is, then how bad can it be?

The influencers are solving a very 21st-century problem for the Army. In the past, the service has relied heavily on TV ads for recruiting. Today’s recruit-aged young people don’t watch TV. Where do they spend their time? Places like TikTok, where the government is forbidden to pay for content. But there is no such prohibition against social media influencers.

Now, things are beginning to come into focus, aren’t they?

Of course, some guidelines must be put into place, lest things get out of control. There are guidelines regarding using the uniform for personal gain. How will this issue be ironed out? Guess we’ll have to wait and see, but one thing is certain…military social media influencers aren’t going anywhere soon.