Social Media tips for politicians

It is election time and almost all political aspirants now have a new medium to tackle and master-the online. While desperate home minister said he wants to curtail social media [Report here], MP aspirants can't afford to ignore social media as a part of their poll campaign. 

For those existing and to be politicians who want to rock online, I have a few tips which can come handy over time.

 

1 Do not keep party name in your handle/profile URL

Online profile URLs are kind of permanent. Most of the sites won’t let you change your URL. As you aren’t committed to a party for life, keeping your current party name in your handle or url may be a bad idea. When you hop from one party to another (which you’re sure to do even if you don’t want to hint at it right now), it will be a huge effort to change your social media identities and rebuild the fanbase, Keep the profile IDs party neutral and be sure to thank me when you change the party, for this golden advise.

 

2 Do not set up automatic replies

Lot of plugins/apps exist which allow you to set up automatic replies to your followers. Don’t use them. It can be embarrassing at times. Vodafone used automated standard replies, thinking that will keep the consumers engaged for a while, but now everyone has realized that these tweets are automated and won't take them seriously.

 

One smart guy even tweeted that he wants to marry Vodafone India owner’s daughter by tomorrow EOD and got a standard automated reply stating “Please share your contact details, we’ll revert to you asap”

Sometimes, it is better to keep quiet than say something stupid. Where possible reply in person.

 

3 Be careful before abusing/accusing someone online.

What you post online stays there forever. Even if you delete it later, some smart follower might have already taken a screen print. Your opponent of today will be your alliance partner post poll, so be careful not to use exact names or spit too much hatred on someone. It may backfire.

 

4 Learn to blame auto correct

You are used to saying "Media has mis quoated me", "I never said like that". Such statements can't used on what you post online when things go out of control. However, you can blame the auto correct feature on your smartphone for wrong typos. Learn to use it to your advantages

 

5 No need to retweet everything your party supremo tweets. 

 No party has issued a whip to that effect yet. So relax. Retweet or share only when it adds value

Similar post: Shoes of the dead * Amma mineral water * Oops Missile *