The one about trying to be young and hip

Social Media and politics

What is the best and easiest way for old people to seem young and hip and connect with young people?  Through social media of course.

(http://cdn.ientry.com/sites/webpronews/pictures/oldfunnytongueguy_616.jpg)

 

This is the strategy enforced by many politicians in their endeavors to reach and connect with younger audiences. The way in which it allows society to watch media releases and learn about candidates in their own time, makes it seem as if this is the way of the future. 

 

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If the increase in popularity of social media in politics continues it will change the way society views its candidates. Old-fashioned principles and methods will no longer stand as viable options in social media; nobody wants to watch a half hour speech about a policy, its boring and doesn’t fit into our online attention spans. In social media, we need things to not only be capturing our attention away from the other million things the internet has to over but quick and easy to watch, read or follow. Ex Australian Prime Minister John Howard is an excellent example of poor social media tactics. His YouTubevideos are long, uninteresting and did not attract views. Howard and his team in charge of social media did not try to use their media platforms to their full abilities.

But even if they did, it raises questions if it was even possible for Howard to be popular on social media due to his traditional, conservative demeanour. Just like everyone else on social media politicians need to be stand out, individual, easy to understand and humorous in order to be popular online. US President Barack Obama has truly mastered this. He appeals strongly to a younger generation due to relevant presence on social media. 

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 Obama (and his people, more likely) use social media in the appropriate ways for each platform. Tumblr is my favourite example of this. Tumblr is an interesting form of social media; it’s not a typical wordy blog, you reblog (or share) things you like (mostly images) and its very light hearted and fun. Obama uses Tumblr is this way. His blog is light hearted. It’s informative but its still fun. It seems as Obama (‘s people) is using his Tumblr just like everyone else is, making him seem very connected with his audience. This contrasts to Obamas opponent Mitt Romney whose Tumblr blog falls on the more serious and political scale. There are no ‘fun’ posts; it is a blog purely run for a political purpose. Obama’s Tumblr is has been created to make himself appealing to the Tumblr audience, and it works.

 

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md502wsYqI1qzhkvho1_500.jpg)

A pop-culture reference of the hit tv series Parks and Recreation reblogged on the Obama Tumblr.

  

The power of politics in social media can be explored though Howard Rheingold's study on virtual communities. Social media and virtual communities find strength in the weak ties created by this type of networking. This means that politicians are able connect to audiences through social media without really doing anything personal. Blogs and comments can be produced by anybody, and one video message is able to reach millions of people; we no longer have to be somewhere to hear a message.

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I think it’s always funny when older people try be young and hip on the internet. So it’s interesting to see how politicians, who are typically older, survive in the young and hip world of social media. Is it something that can influence their results?