Liz Mair, an outspoken, socially active and blasphemous political consultant recently observed the Republican presidential canidates in the month of January and quickly offered a thought on one of the leading social media channels, Twitter. The sooner Iowa relinquishes its dominating role in the nominating process, the better off will be American politics and policies. Soon after that she got a job with a leading candidate who nurtured high hopes of carrying Iowa. A single day after she grabbed this new job with Scott Walker, GOP Gov., she was off the payroll, thanks to her take on this politically dynamic state, Iowa. This was one of the most recent examples of the tug of war between the political world, where the top obligation is to stay-on-message and the free and outspoken ethic of the social media world.
Within the last few weeks, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former governor of Florida, Jeb Bush (both probable and potential candidates for the GOP nimination) have even had a tiff with volunteers and staffers over the posts in their social media profiles. Yes, it is true that most politicians try to exercise command over every facet of their political profile, showing too much concern over their speeches, their travel plans, whether or not to wear a red tie or to keep an open collar. In an effort to reap the benefits and immediate reach of the social media, they’re even taking steps like hiring members who have already created their personal brands through years of social media participation and have gained thousands of followers. This person sometimes even has an aggracating voice that may cause problems to the candidate.
A conservative political strategist, Matt Mackowiak, said that the staff members might find it tricky enough to digest the changeover from utilizing social media for reasons totally personal to promoting an election candidate’s bid for office. When one speaks for himself, he’s more like a journalist who is speaking without an editor. But once he joins an election campaign, your own views become secondary and the views of the candidate becomes primary.
Most digital staffers are specifically susceptible to inquiry and inspection as they most probably come with a huge history of social media posts, said a digial strategist, Melissa Ryan of Trilogy Interactive. A digital staff’s personal social media profile (if it is already famous) will soon become a resource for a campaign when it attracts a large number of users towards the candidate. In fact, Ryan also adds that it is more risky to hire a digital staff member who has less than 500 followers than someone with few ambiguous and controversial tweets.
Ethan Czahor, who was recruited as a tech staff member for the committee of Mr. George Bush, had posted few messages back in 2009 which were considered to have crossed the extent from being insulting to annoying. Soon after his online work came to public attention through the media, he quickly resigned from work. During that time, a spokeswoman for George Bush, Kristy Campbell commented that the messages of Mr. Czahor didn’t reflect the strategies and views of Gov. Bush and it was most apt for him to step away.
Hiring digital staffers has become common among the politicians to voice their opinions and grab the online audience. John Rampton is an online connector and an entrepreneur at the same time. He was nominated the #3 online influencer by Entrepreneur magazine and he’s someone who continues to gain more trust among the online audience. So, in a nutshell, politicians have merged with the social media to voice their opinions, be popular and win the GOP elections.
