When everyone in an organization tweets, where does accountability lie?
If the dangers of mixing politics with social media weren’t already apparent, the fallout from a tweet sent by a Conservative staffer in Alberta should serve as a warning sign to political strategists.
Premier Alison Redford saw her campaign sidetracked Saturday by the low-level staffer’s dig at Wildrose leader Danielle Smith over the fact the opposition party leader doesn’t have any children.
In recent campaigns, Twitter and Facebook have been hailed as key ways to reach voters, but there are major risks involved as well.
“I think what it shows is that there are people who are either ill-equipped or uninformed about how to use social media,” said Mark Evans, a Toronto-based social media expert.
“You’ve got to have a system in place to make sure that the message you are putting out there is accurate.”
Many political staffers fail to understand that Twitter isn’t a private discussion board where anything goes, Evans said. It’s a public forum with consequences.
Amanda Wilkie, the staffer who sent the tweet, was responding to a series of announcements by Smith promising more tax help and money for families with children in school.
“If (at)elect Danielle likes young and growing families so much, why doesn’t she have children of her own? #wrp family pack insincere #abvote,” read the tweet.
Wilkie, an assistant to the executive director in Redford’s southern Alberta office, was forced to apologize after outrage grew on Twitter. She eventually resigned over the controversy.
Smith responded in a news release on Saturday, saying she and husband David Moretta wanted to have kids when they married in 2006, but were not successful. Redford told reporters she was offended by the attack on Smith and phoned her to apologize.
But the damage was done.
For one political analyst, the controversy is further proof that, when it comes to low-level staffers at least, Twitter poses more of a risk than it does a potential benefit.
“If I’m running a campaign, I would only allow senior level communications staffers or maybe the team directly around the leader to make any kind of comment,” said Stephen Taylor, a director at the National Citizens Coalition.
“Social media is not really the most efficient way for most people to get the message out or to find new leads when it comes to politics.”
Karl Belanger, senior press secretary for the NDP and a self-described “prudent” tweeter, agrees.
“As much as Twitter has become part of the political world, the truth is that its impact is limited, unless someone makes a mistake,” he said.
Fearing controversy, many politicians and staffers tend to stick to a strict script on Twitter. Many offer little more than a rehash of an official announcement or meeting they attended.
Evans said that misses the whole point.
“For a lot of political parties, they see social media as yet another broadcast medium,” Evans said, whereas the true benefit of Twitter and Facebook is that it allows for two-way communication.
It could serve as a forum for “thought-provoking discussion,” he said.
There have, of course, been examples of campaigns that used social media effectively.
In Calgary, Mayor Naheed Nenshi was widely praised for his use of Twitter during the 2010 campaign that brought him to power. But that doesn’t mean everyone can pull it off, Taylor said.
“Social media isn’t some magic formula that you can drink and all of a sudden you become a rock star,” he said. “You have to be interesting in your own right.”
Is this something policy can fix? Can you bar employees from using Twitter to avoid situations like this? Post your thoughts in our comment section.
