Social Media and Politics
an introduction to social media for politicians
by twitter.com/philippebossin

What is web 2.0?
• websites/internet applications which
empower people to
• share information
• work together
• usability and accesibility are key to web 2.0

A web 2.0 site
• allows visitors/users/voters to
communicate with other visitors/
users/voters
• can allow users to post their own content
(think Wikipedia)
• is not simply showing information (one way
communication)

Social Media
• empowered by web 2.0
• “one to many” communication changing
into “many to many”
• everyone, every voter becomes an online
“broadcaster”

Social Media and Politics
• politics 2.0
• “the idea that social media and e-
participation allow voters to follow,
support and influence politics and
political campaigns like never before”

the Obama campaign
setting the scene

“Tell stories. Make design a priority. Focus
on people. Use video whenever possible.
Build community. Treat your email list with
great respect. And, in doing so, help to turn
visions of how the world should be into
how it is.”
Joe Rospars - on the Obama campaign

Obama ’08
• November 2008, election day
• 115.000 followers on twitter
• 2.401.386 fans on Facebook (versus
McCain: 623.662)

President Obama
• January 2009, Inauguration Day
• over 200.000 Facebook updates
• over 4.000.000 Facebook fans

So, where do I start?

Starting with social media
• register an account at www.facebook.com
• don’t start with politics!
• first, connect with your family, friends
and colleagues
• add people you know to your network
• have a look around, observe

Your first steps
• every (online) community has its own
etiquette
• e.g. on Facebook, people tend to only
add people they already know offline,
on twitter, it’s perfectly acceptable to
follow people you don’t know
• your first days on a new network, just
observe the community. Watch and learn
how people connect.

Let’s get to work
• after a few days or weeks, you will have
built your own network
• try some new things
• share interesting stories, behind the
scenes photos, or videos and observe
which kind of information elicits
response
• connect with the community: give a
comment or two on content other
people shared

Social media = be social
• therefore, engage your network
• after a while, when you start talking
politics, people will react/comment. Good!
• expect negative response. Just stay calm
and polite.
• don’t get all worked up. Explain your
vision in a friendly way. Walk away if
the debate gets too heated.

There’s a whole world
out there
• go out and discover!
• join twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, ...
• create an account on sites that seem
interesting, see what works for you
• there’s no point in joining a whole lot of
sites, if you or your staff are never
connecting with the community

‘Using’ your network
• you don’t have to create new content for
each one of your networks
• use your networks as
distributionplatforms
• did you write a new blogpost? Then
share it on Facebook, twitter,
MySpace, ...

What content?
• internal and external!
• internal: a new blogpost you wrote
yourself, a press release, a video you
shot yourself, etc.
• external: interesting articles from an
online newssite, a fun YouTube video
with a message, etc.
• sharing external content increases
your interestingness and integrates
your online presence in the
community

And thus...
• go online and try new things
• see what works for you and your campaign
• connect with your network, they will
reward you by doing a lot of campaigning
for you

Wanna learn more?
‣ bossin.philippe@gmail.com
‣ twitter.com/philippebossin
‣ www.facebook.com/philippebossin
‣ www.facebook.com/epolitics