Organizational Uses of Social Media: Social Media in Politics

This is a topic near and dear to my heart because I was able to get an inside look at political social media through a congressional internship in Washington, D.C. Because of their roles as  pivotal figures, politicians have to be extremely careful about what goes on their platforms.  According to the United States House of Representatives Social Media Wiki, 96% of members of congress use Facebook and 85% use Twitter. The congressman I worked for sometimes Tweeted his thoughts from inside hearings and meetings! This doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for filtering of ideas and messages for anything that could be offensive.

This lack of a filter can be, and has been, a public relations nightmare for some politicians. Remember New York Rep. Anthony Weiner? His political career was ruined after he sent some inappropriate photos to women via Twitter.

Politicians and constituents have more access to each other than they ever have before. And although that can create problems for politicians, it can also be an excellent tool for them.

During the presidential elections this past year people broke Twitter records during the first presidential debate, were encouraged to vote by their peers through many social media platforms, and mentioned the elections 71.7 million on Facebook.

These interactions create an extra level of work for political support staff. While I was in D.C., I helped respond to literally hundreds of emails sent to my congressman each week — we received at least ten times as many emails as we did physical letters. Petitions were conducted via email. Our office’s media manager was literally doing the job of two people because in addition to the traditional work of press releases and media engagements, he was also required to regularly post to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as well as monitor what others were posting to the congressman’s profiles.

I think that social media overall does more good for politics than harm. Maybe it isn’t such a bad thing to be able to see what our elected officials think and do when they aren’t being filtered. And if more people get involved in the happenings of their country because they can do so through their mobile device, that’s great!

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