What kind of value does Twitter actually bring to a politician? I think we tend to overestimate how much Twitter does influence politics of any kind. People who will support a politician will support them and people who don’t will not, Twitter will rarely sway anyone to a different position. Is it necessary to keep posting about every opinion you have constantly? If that’s what being politically active is, then politics has devolved beyond repair.
Simple. Direct, uncensored, and provocative announcements directly to your constituents without needing to set up an event for each topic you want to discuss. More eyes and more control of your message. The most important thing is the number of eyes you have on your content. The more people that know and talk about it, the more likely the people who can vote for you will know about you.
When the news has segments covering tweets and Trump won in 2016 partially because of his social media presence, politicians have no choice but to use the platform until it loses the majority of it’s userbase. Or until it gets officially declared no better than 4chan by the mainstream media.
People who will support a politician will support them and people who don’t will not, Twitter will rarely sway anyone to a different position.
I disagree with this. It’s like when people say “why does Coca-Cola run ads, everyone knows them”. Marketing matters. Awareness matters. Maybe it shouldn’t but that’s how it be.
I agree to an extent. I understand your analogy but I think there’s a crucial difference between ads for a product and political positions. You can easily get someone to buy a product, but getting someone to change their views on, say, abortion is much harder. Political positions are tied to identities in ways that purchasing decisions are generally not. There may be some ways to sway some people who are on the fense about a given candidate or position, but I generally think this ability to change people is way overstated. People just keep posting their opinions over and over and think it’s actually changing someone’s mind, more often they are preaching to people who already agree with them.
politicians don’t use social media for “convenience”
What kind of value does Twitter actually bring to a politician? I think we tend to overestimate how much Twitter does influence politics of any kind. People who will support a politician will support them and people who don’t will not, Twitter will rarely sway anyone to a different position. Is it necessary to keep posting about every opinion you have constantly? If that’s what being politically active is, then politics has devolved beyond repair.
Simple. Direct, uncensored, and provocative announcements directly to your constituents without needing to set up an event for each topic you want to discuss. More eyes and more control of your message. The most important thing is the number of eyes you have on your content. The more people that know and talk about it, the more likely the people who can vote for you will know about you.
When the news has segments covering tweets and Trump won in 2016 partially because of his social media presence, politicians have no choice but to use the platform until it loses the majority of it’s userbase. Or until it gets officially declared no better than 4chan by the mainstream media.
It sucks, but this is our reality
I disagree with this. It’s like when people say “why does Coca-Cola run ads, everyone knows them”. Marketing matters. Awareness matters. Maybe it shouldn’t but that’s how it be.
I agree to an extent. I understand your analogy but I think there’s a crucial difference between ads for a product and political positions. You can easily get someone to buy a product, but getting someone to change their views on, say, abortion is much harder. Political positions are tied to identities in ways that purchasing decisions are generally not. There may be some ways to sway some people who are on the fense about a given candidate or position, but I generally think this ability to change people is way overstated. People just keep posting their opinions over and over and think it’s actually changing someone’s mind, more often they are preaching to people who already agree with them.