This article was sent to me by a reader who was disappointed a comment posted on Alderman O'Connor's face book page was deleted. The reader argues, "it was a fair question, and polite, I'm not sure why it was deleted. I believe the Alderman simply didn't want to answer". (See comments under Public Safety post for all the details).
Could be.
This article is from today's Huffington Post (Chicago Edition) and was written by Alderman Moreno, who strongly believes in being accessible to his constituents and doesn't delete tough questions on his face book page.
Thank you, Jim. Very timely...
From the article:
"I have a closing message for the politicians who don't use social media: please stop being ridiculous... Hire someone fresh out of college, sit down with them and learn it. Your constituents should demand and certainly deserve that ~ Alderman Moreno"
____________________________________________________________________
Social Media Week, I Mean Social Media Life
Posted: 9/27/11 01:10 PM ET
Last week I participated in a panel discussion for Social Media Week. The panel was moderated by Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey, who definitely has the most personal and probably the most interesting social media content out of all Chicago-area pols.
Basically, the point I tried to make was that there's literally no excuse for elected officials not to utilize social media. I would love to be known as the most accessible alderman in the city. Having a presence on all the different platforms is an important piece of this effort.
Frankly, I'm embarrassed for elected officials who don't take advantage of social media as an obvious resource.
Anyone can learn how to use the technology. I'm not tolerant of people saying they can't learn new things. That's one my biggest pet peeves. But I often find myself having to defend Facebook, as the umbrella term for all social media, as a thing to "older" people. It's so boring. I'm sick of hearing that Facebook is "a waste of time," "why do you care about what people had for lunch?" and all the other common blah-blah they say.
It's incredibly easy for 1st Warders to DM me for a service request, ask me what I think about an issue or sometimes to call me bad words. I get a ton of ideas and feedback from Facebook and, thanks to my Hootsuite Twitter stream, I don't think I've ever been better informed.
Personally, I find it much more interesting to receive requests for city services through social media. It's nice to be able to put a face, and a personality to the people who you're serving. Exchanging emails with people about garbage collection, rodent abatement, etc. can be so dry. It's just simply more pleasant to carry out this bread and butter work when you know what the person on the other end of the request looks like and is interested in.
I often find it difficult to talk about my social media "strategy," and finding it difficult to talk about anything is a complete rarity for people in my line of work. I'm not entirely sure why it's hard to talk about. I'm not sure I have a "strategy"... perhaps it's simply something one can either do well, or not very well.
I have a closing message for the politicians who don't use social media: please stop being ridiculous... Hire someone fresh out of college, sit down with them and learn it. Your constituents should demand and certainly deserve that.
(The King Of Chicago Social Media himself snapped this pic of me during my presentation)
Basically, the point I tried to make was that there's literally no excuse for elected officials not to utilize social media. I would love to be known as the most accessible alderman in the city. Having a presence on all the different platforms is an important piece of this effort.
Frankly, I'm embarrassed for elected officials who don't take advantage of social media as an obvious resource.
Anyone can learn how to use the technology. I'm not tolerant of people saying they can't learn new things. That's one my biggest pet peeves. But I often find myself having to defend Facebook, as the umbrella term for all social media, as a thing to "older" people. It's so boring. I'm sick of hearing that Facebook is "a waste of time," "why do you care about what people had for lunch?" and all the other common blah-blah they say.
It's incredibly easy for 1st Warders to DM me for a service request, ask me what I think about an issue or sometimes to call me bad words. I get a ton of ideas and feedback from Facebook and, thanks to my Hootsuite Twitter stream, I don't think I've ever been better informed.
Personally, I find it much more interesting to receive requests for city services through social media. It's nice to be able to put a face, and a personality to the people who you're serving. Exchanging emails with people about garbage collection, rodent abatement, etc. can be so dry. It's just simply more pleasant to carry out this bread and butter work when you know what the person on the other end of the request looks like and is interested in.
I often find it difficult to talk about my social media "strategy," and finding it difficult to talk about anything is a complete rarity for people in my line of work. I'm not entirely sure why it's hard to talk about. I'm not sure I have a "strategy"... perhaps it's simply something one can either do well, or not very well.
I have a closing message for the politicians who don't use social media: please stop being ridiculous... Hire someone fresh out of college, sit down with them and learn it. Your constituents should demand and certainly deserve that.
Alderman O'Connor uses face book to promote her events, photo -ops, and political agenda etc. She doesn't want to interact with the public via FB.
ReplyDeleteIf she doesn't want to answer constituent questions on facebook, she should say that on her FB page.
FYI:
ReplyDeleteI am a market researcher. It is a well known fact in my field, politicians who use social media to interact with constituents have a higher approval rating and win re-elections by wider intervals.
I seriously doubt that O'Connor does any facebooking herself. It's probably a staffer.
ReplyDeleteAlderman Mary Ann O'Connor hasn't yet been on a public record for anything. The other freshman alderman have been quoted in the media, have introduced legislation and ordinances. Pawar, Arena, Sposota have all been in the news recently speaking out for their constituents. Our Alderman O'Connor doesn't want to state/go on record on any policy position, new ideas or concepts.
ReplyDeleteI am a face book friend of Senator Shoenberg, and he specifically asks his followers what their thoughts are about different issues, legislation and district issues. He genuinely wants to know what people tink and dialoges with well. I am more informed because of him.
ReplyDeleteSome elected officials are more comfortable communicating via social networking, emails, websites. Others want to hide from constituents and hope they go away. The truth
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of alderman who are quite comfortable interacting with constituents on facebook. Moreno is one, Waugsbach, Moore, Fioretti are others...they ooze knowledge and confidence.
ReplyDeletePaul Lisnek from "Politics Tonight" will be discussing Social Media and Elected Officials, tonight on CLTV at 6pm...
ReplyDeleteGood show! Much discussion about how social media educates constituents and helps elected officials really "create community".
ReplyDeleteSpoke about politicians using social media to "interact" with constituents, and how constituents must INSIST on open communication via social media.
Also spoke about the pitfall of elected officials not responding to constituents on facebook, actually "hurting" rather than helping the elected official.
Better to have a facebook page and fully use it the way it should be used (by interacting and responding)than to have a face book page just for posting info - leaves constituents thinking their concerns, ideas and comments are not important.
Much thanks to Paul Lisnek for bringin up my question tonight.
I saw the show too, the professor commented on new technology that will allow discussions and debates, too, very soon.
ReplyDeleteFritchey talked about how much social media has helped him understand his voters. He said he uses FB to educate us and to learn from others. I like that guy.