When I was in 9th grade, I had this social studies teacher who told us that if we choose not to vote, we couldn’t complain about anything that was going on in the government. This must have been a pet peeve of his, but I took it as a get out of jail free card to not to pay attention to politics because I just didn’t care. So, I have something I have to publicly admit, I have never voted.
I feel like this must be a bombshell for many of my readers, but I really have never physically gone to a voting location and filled out a ballot. I have never followed a presidential race because I never felt I knew enough about any candidate’s political views to have an opinion on who should win, so I just avoided the topic entirely. Actually, I think I am similar to the “common person”, if there is such a thing, that really only get their information from what other people are saying about candidates and from parodies about them like Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impressions on SNL. I don’t know if it’s just in the air living in D.C. or if I have just started reading more about politics and worldly issues after leaving the “Bucknell bubble”, but I think politics are cool now.
I was reading an article today on the metro called Presidential hopefuls ‘Friend’ Social Media. It was about how important it is for candidates this year to be involved in social media in order to enhance their campaign strategy. President Obama, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Donald Trump were all mentioned in the article as having and using Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, and other social media tools to start their political campaign and state their views and outlooks for the future (links are to Twitter).
Incorporating social media into the campaign is quite a savvy move for campaigners because they are really “communicating directly with voters on platforms where they work and play”, according to Beth Fouhy’s article. “You have to take your message to the places where people are consuming content and spending their time,” said Romney’s online director Zac Moffatt, which is really the case for me because I am able to take in all the content about political views of candidates and current events at my convenience without missing a beat.
Although the use of social media is extremely helpful in getting messages out to the public, there are some downfalls to using it. One thing that could become overwhelming for a presidential candidate is the volume of questions they might receive about their political views on their Facebook wall, or the need to respond to criticisms from other candidates that show up on their social media sites. For one, there are probably plenty of unwarranted or unintelligent questions they just don’t want to answer, but they can’t just delete them. That would create a backlash of criticisms so strong, a candidate would probably loose the campaign. If you don’t respond fast enough to these questions or rebuttal the challenges of other candidates, your reputation and image you are working to build could crumble.
So, social media has a huge importance in this upcoming campaign. The use of social media in with facilitate the involvement of young voters in political discussions and campaigning. It is important to reach voters directly, and having a clear voice and active passion in you messaging are the keys to success. If a candidate is active and thorough in their campaign and presents clear messages that are consistent, they have a real chance of getting the votes from online users. Once again, this is just tapping into another market of consumers, so will online polls and discussion really give an accurate sample of the population? Probably not. However, it is the easiest way for candidates to reach a large number of voters (President Obama has over 7 million followers on Twitter and over 19 million on Facebook) with a clear message.
How do you think social media will influence the campaign?
Chameleon 