Social Media In the Voting Booth
Remember when the "Rock the Vote" campaign was all the rage? While the campaign is still alive and well, it's not having nearly the impact as it could.What really drove people out by mass-scale numbers during the presidential race was social media.
Obama and his team wrote the playbook. However, somewhere along the line, that playbook must have been tossed out the window. In a time where politicians are clamoring or voters and in a media landscape that is dictated by social media, it is shocking how few local campaigns are leveraging new tools to engage voters.
In Boston, there's a hotly contested mayoral seat with hopes of ousting Mayor Thomas Menino. However, where's the use of social media to get more votes? Instead, what you see are traditional tactics like peak drive time advertising, picketing and op-eds in the dinosaur-like print publications such as the Boston Globe.
When I tossed out the question about why the lack of social media use in local political campaigns to Twitter, David Guarino, the former spokesperson for the former Massachusetts speaker of the house responded:
Yeah, local candidates haven't grasped - yet - that voters are on social media so they should be too. Large fear factor too.
He's absolutely right. There is a lack of education going on in political camps. Old thinking is getting in the way of progression in terms of leveraging the social web to gain visibility with voters. The fear factor is also real — Who is going to own it? What can or can't I say? What tools are the best to leverage? How much time do I have to put into it?
There are all questions that politicians should be asking themselves anyways. Ironically enough, the answers are the same — You should own it. Say what's real and how you are to address voters concerns if you are elected. Use the tools that your voters use. And, as for time, there are 24 hours in a day. That's the great thing about social media. The opportunities to spread your message doesn't have any boundaries. It doesn't have any time constraints. The best part is that politicians can market directly to the voters without filters.
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