I'm trying to understand the negativity of the article. Isn't trying to get our baby boomer aged politicians onto new technology and communications channels a good thing? Or are we just going to write off anybody anybody who isn't already "with it"?
Agreed, the tone of the article was "Who the hell doesn't know what Twitter is? Haha, what losers!" which is a really alienating and negative attitude to take towards the uninitiated.
I know, right? I work with a lot of politicians and they run the gamut from "tech savvy 30-year-old" to "grandpa who still uses AOL". Any product which wants to appeal to the entire population needs to be able to explain itself to that range of people. If you want to move beyond the bleeding-edge techie crowd and the Millenials you've got to be able to sell yourself to the people who don't grow up with computers.
I was actually thinking that this manual would be great for people like my dad! He isn't a politician but it would help him figure out how to use it and having a manual he could use would make him much more comfortable getting started on a new product.
He currently uses Facebook and I get the feeling a Facebook manual would be helpful for him, but I wonder how long that manual would be and if there would be any overlap with this one.
I completely agree: the pictures in the article make the manual look brilliant: simple enough for anyone to understand, but detailed enough to get the most out of the tool. Every social media platform should have this manual.
Page 1 - "Even though you may be tempted, don't put naked pictures of yourself on the Internet/Twitter, as the net result of that is there will be naked pictures of you on the Internet/Twitter FOREVER!"
Page 2 - "Young and attractive girls are not sending you suggestive pictures of themselves because they like you, these are always reporter honey traps, ALWAYS"
As a politician this is all you need to know about twitter.
They all have media/PR staff to fill Twitter with cheap talking points, empty optimism "Let's make x great again! Retweet" or for begging for donations. There's no interaction with voters here whatsoever it's a one way channel.
I think this handbook is Twitter's attempt to change that. My guess is that most politicians don't really understand social media in general and thus delegate it to their twenty-something polisci intern whose only connection to the candidate is an approved list of messages. It's no surprise they're terrible.
I work in DC - and our clients have a lot of public affairs work in the portfolio. Many members of Congress, especially on the House side are more active on Twitter than you'd realize. We've found anecdotally that especially during periods of recess or home district work periods, voter contact can be an effective way to target elected on Twitter and we've seen responses. Tends to skew younger.
Be nice to politicians and they will be nice to you. Sounds like a good idea for a social media company. Twitter already does additional services for certain segments so this would be consistent.
