Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver turn to social web to build consensus
If you hadn’t noticed yet, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has joined the ranks of Twitter users in politics. He isn’t alone – his wife, Maria Shriver, has been building a Twitter presence as well. They haven’t stopped at Twitter, though. They’ve also been incorporating web based widgets for budget initiatives and other online points of contact.
Some say the Governator, as he is affectionately known, is simply copying President-elect Barack Obama’s social media push from his campaign and is trying to sway voters with his online presence. I’m sure that is the case, as part of the point of being in politics is to achieve goals and get legislation passed – it’s part of the job description. Having looked over (and followed) the Governor’s Twitter page and that of his wife, I get more of an overall impression of trying to inform and build consensus.
I was pleased to see that unlike some politicians and policy wonks on Twitter, like a few of those in the TCOT (Top Conservatives on Twitter) “army”, the Governor and his wife seem inclined to engage their followers and not just regurgitate links. They don’t seem to reply to each person who sends them a tweet, but they do seem to reply to issues raised (one tweet addressed to many who raised an issue), which is fine. If you’re busy, Twitter can be time consuming. Managed poly-user issue-based engagement is just as good as individual engagement in the case of government issues, in my opinion.
Is it Arnold himself tweeting? That’s hard to say, although Twitter users were assured recently that the account was “real”. If it’s an aide tweeting on behalf of the Governor, they seem to be doing just fine at staying on message and in voice. If pressed to guess, I’d say to me it feels a bit more authentic than just an aide, but I haven’t gotten a reply yet to my message and phone call asking for confirmation of authenticity or the name of the staffer in charge if the account is being managed on the Governor’s behalf.
Maria Shriver’s account is focused on women and women’s issues, and seems slightly less engaged than that of her husband. Even so, the links it sends don’t come so fast and furious as to be called spammy, and all lead to useful information related to her chosen cause. I’d like to see her engaging with her Twitter following a bit more (and the Governor as well), but I also know that Government 2.0 brings special concerns: involvement level, time constraints and privacy issues. Even President-elect Obama has tapered off on the tweeting since winning the election, to the chagrin of the thousands who followed him and were excited to see him so accessible.
I think that Twitter in particular and social media in general affords politicians who can walk the fine line of time management, policy issues and privacy concerns a unique opportunity to connect with voters and make their message clearer. There is always a risk involved that you might come off as antagonistic, preachy or single-minded, like a few of the more prolific political users from both sides of the political divide do, but if you can avoid the inclination to brow beat the people connecting with you online you stand a great chance of real consensus building and bringing fresh perspectives to issues that are important to you and to your voters.
Governor Schwarzenegger is already exploring another way to build consensus – passive interaction. He is using the power of embeddable widgets to make people aware of the budget crisis in California and drive them to (hopefully) contact their representative to drive a vote that will resolve the issue. Granted, the widget is slanted to his point of view and his solution, but even so – it’s a way for voters to get involved without a lot of effort, and makes voters who are not as involved in politics aware that there is a problem.
Budget issues are nothing new for California. For decades the state has come in late (or not at all) with votes on budget resolutions in the state legislature. The economy of California is complex and spread out, and effects a variety of special interest groups, minorities, and industries. Each of these insists on having their say, no matter how unproductive the constant bickering is. If the Governor has hit on a unique way to bypass the bickering lobbyists and politicians to make the public aware of the issues and get them to drive their representatives to make decisions faster and better – I say more power to him, whether it is through what’s left of traditional media or new media like Twitter and social action widgets.
If you are a person who regularly uses social media applications and sites like Twitter or FaceBook, do you find the recent rise in government participation in social media reassuring or disconcerting? I find it reassuring, but there are many out there who worry about some of the less controlled aspects of social media as a means of communication, and others who fret over the reliability of information. They are concerned that not enough vetting of the facts goes on when using tools like Twitter and widgets. To some extent these people are correct in worrying – there can be issues with trust (or rather, trustworthiness of information) in social media. However, social media users are well versed in building trust based networks. It never takes long online for someone or something non-trustworthy to be seen as such and no longer given the time of day.
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January 31st, 2009
I noticed that almost instantly after I started following Maria Shriver, Governor Schwarzenegger started following me.