Is It a Party Thing?

We're rolling deep into political season these days. The other day Scott E ran a post about social media use among local candidates. Here's the link on Twitter:

Why Is The Howard County Republican Party Anti-Twitter? scotteblog.com/2017/07/01/why… #HoCoGOP #MDPolitics #HoCoPolitics

This gist of it is that all seven of the local Democrats running are using Twitter for outreach and none of the Republicans are. Hmm. Is it a party thing? My immediate thought was that it might be a generational thing. Twitter seems harder to "get" for folks who are older, but I should add that this is a whopping generalization on my part. I also know plenty of younger people who feel "meh" about Twitter.

"I just don't 'get' Twitter. What is it for?"

So, is it a party thing? Is it a conscious, strategic decision to eschew Twitter in favor of other, perhaps more traditional, forms of outreach? Or is it simply the shrug of candidates who, because they don't understand how Twitter works, refuse to challenge their set ways of thinking and learn something new? Or does their gut tell them that the Republican base doesn't use Twitter, so it's a wasted effort?

I really don't know. I must admit, if someone told me I should support my next big venture by mastering Reddit, Tumblr, and Snapchat, I'd probably shrug. Or wince. I haven't gotten there yet,

A footnote to this story. When Scott posted the link to his story on Twitter, he got this pushback from a local Republican:

Because Twitter is an echo chamber with few real people. Facebook is where it is at.

Scott responded:

300+ Million "Active" users on that platform...not just an "echo chamber" if used correctly. Can be an important voter outreach tool.

And this is where it went south:

300 M world wide "active" users, which most likely includes bots. theguardian.com/politics/2017/… An actual study. No wonder you are mocked.

Alrighty, then. If the local Republicans are leaving Twitter alone because it's not really important, at least they've got this guy patrolling it for them in their absence.

What a great way to win friends and influence people.

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