Advice to 2017 Elected Officials

Posted on by Kelly Myers

Elected officials in 2017 hold a unique responsibility, because social media played a part in their campaigns and continues to influence their interaction with citizens. It is important that they speak in a tasteful manner and understand that no matter what they post, there are going to be people who agree and those that do not. Even though it has its benefits, social media data should not be the driving force in decision making for elected officials. It is not the richest form of media. What they could do is use social media data to collect information and then make visits to different organizations for face-to-face meetings. That way the richest form of media would be combined with the most used, and effective decisions can be made. As talked about in an October 2016 blog post by Rhianna Richards via Sysomos, people used to receive their news from just a couple sources, but not as often, whereas now they’re receiving it just as quickly as things are happening. Not only that, but they can share their opinions just as quickly too, which can make for a more confused political landscape than before social media existed.

When it came to the most recent election, President Trump used Twitter to make his campaign memorable by repeatedly using the phrase “Make America great again” It is one thing to hear it, but by using it on social media, people are seeing it plenty more than maybe they even want to. He is not using it in a disrespectful manner, and it attributes a phrase to a name.

 

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