There is something I have noticed lately, it seems that a lot of those running social media in politics are forgetting, or just not getting at all, the first word in “social media”. Social. The whole point of social media is to encourage people to interact, to share and reshare your content. Achieving this isn’t just about producing quality content that people want to engage with, it is also about how and when it is shared.
I am sitting here writing this on a sunday night, John Key’s account hasn’t posted anything since 5pm on Friday, David Cunliffe is slightly better, with a Tweet at 5pm on Sunday, before that was also 5pm on Friday. The National Party account hasn’t Tweeted anything since Thursday afternoon, the Labour account has a reTweet from Friday, and a Tweet from Thursday. Both Russel Norman and Metiria Turei have been Tweeting over the weekend, along with the Green Party account. I suspect this is partly due to the fact that Russel and Metiria are more actively involved in the running of their own accounts.
Social media is not something that can be done during business hours only. It is something that should be happening when users are around. Part of the task of those running political social media accounts should be to track when target audiences are using social media, and target posts to those times to make the most of it.
Unlike traditional media, where the audience works around the timings of the nightly news or the morning paper, social media is about those wanting people’s attention working around those people’s needs. Social media changes the dynamic and the people managing the politicians need to understand this.
