Elected officials and politicians have a long way to go on social media
Despite the potential for social media to speak directly to constituents and potential supporters, many North Carolina legislators have not fully embraced Facebook, Twitter or other online communications tools. But they should. Legislators can tap into a base of people who have actually decided they want to hear from them.
While Capstrat’s recent research showed some legislators are effectively using social media to talk directly with supporters and constituents, many are not as engaged as they could be. For example, “Legislators' average Tweet frequency was 1.99 per day. While some of the Facebook and Twitter pages had little activity, hundreds of people subscribe to their feeds.” [follow all legislators tweets using a Twitter list that we’ll keep updated].
Those followers and friends are potential voters out there just waiting to hear from legislators.
There are several possible reasons some legislators are slow to pick up on social media:
1. Avoiding the Gotcha! – We’re waiting to see the first political ad that calls out a politician for something he or she has tweeted. Unlike a newspaper quote, where the person can claim to be misquoted or out of context. A tweet is straight from the individual’s mouth. But avoiding these pitfalls is as simple as putting a minor filter between your brain and mouth, which is something that most people learn to do in general. (If you’ve seen a campaign ad that quotes an opponent’s tweet, let us know in the comments).
2. They are incredibly busy – In contrast to popular opinion, legislators have to spend a lot of time doing the job they were elected to do, in addition to whatever their real jobs are. On top of that, they have to get out and pound the pavement every two years. It’s hard enough for me to find time to update Facebook, write blogs and tweet, and it’s practically my job.
3. Hard to form new habits – Let’s face it. Twitter and Facebook are most successful when they are a habit. Maybe we can chalk up the limited implementation of social media to the old standby – it’s new and people aren’t ready to embrace new things. The use of it will simply increase over time.
Despite the challenges of social media for elected officials and candidates, there is just too much potential to ignore it – especially on the legislative level, where the electorate is a bit smaller and more directly connected to the legislator. Those who aren’t using online tools are missing out on great opportunities to push out their messages.
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