Each and every day 2,200 people hang on my every word.
Well, not really. But still, each and every day 2,200 people will see whatever message I want them to see. Such is the power of social media and specifically that of Twitter.
Roughly four months ago after I got back from my holiday in New Hampshire, I began thinking about what I really wanted to do. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have become interested in politics, so much so that I now see myself in that career field. The problem is that politics is a hard job to break into without a political science degree. Sure, you can volunteer like I did, but at some point there needs to be a way to get an "in" working for either a candidate or for an organization. For better or for worse, it's very much a patronage system and if you don't have someone on the inside it becomes extremely difficult to break through.
But that's not going to stop me from trying.
Within the past two weeks, I have been in contact with members of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. At this point the campaign is not able to bring someone on, but they are gearing up for the general election where they will most likely be expanding their staff. Until that point, it will up to me to best determine how to remain relevant and how to set myself up for success if and when the campaign decides to bring on additional staff. As a blogger, the first step is obviously to produce top-notch blog posts. But the second part of that is to find a way to market yourself so that you reach a point where the campaign can't help but take notice of you and your work.
For that, I have turned to Twitter.
For those unaware, Twitter is a funny animal. It provides a way to simultaneously create a revolution and to delve into the seething underbelly of some of the worst of humanity. It has allowed us a way to communicate in 140 characters from everyone to celebrities, athletes, world leaders, artists, musicians, friends, family, businesses, companies, and even fictional characters. It provides a way to instantaneously share news and information as Twitter has become THE modus operandi to share on-the-ground observations from protests and other live events. It gives users the ability to instantaneously share a thought/idea/concept and should that thought/idea/concept become popular, it can lead to amazing new opportunities. And it gives anyone the opportunity to promote themselves and their brand.
That's where I come in.
As a political blogger hoping to gain an audience, Twitter has become an essential part of who I am and what I do. Each time I compose an article, I wait to receive notice that it has been published. I then go back and quickly re-edit the article to make sure there are no lingering errors (you don't want people reading a sloppy product) before heading out into the Twitterverse. Currently, I'm focusing on sharing my work with those I know will be supportive of it. The majority of my political posts these past couple months have been in support of Hillary Clinton or have been critical of Bernie Sanders. Therefore, I will share those posts will all the Twitter groups I can find that would appreciate the content of that article: Hillary's own Twitter account, her campaign staff, state groups of volunteers, pro-Hillary blogs, pro-Hillary celebrities, and media personalities all receive a Tweet from my right after my work gets posted where I share a link to the article.
I then give the Twitterverse a couple hours to digest my work. I do this because people who like or share my work will then have it viewed by people on THEIR Twitter feed in a snowball effect. That helps spread my work beyond the core group who I initially shared it with. I then come back to Twitter two hours later and build my support network. I do this simply by following people who have either liked or shared my work. It's funny that Twitter is very much like a high school cafeteria; there's always an undercurrent of peer pressure. I've found that if you follow someone, that person is much more likely to follow you back. Not everybody does it, of course, but you essentially are playing the odds and hoping that those odds are ever in your favor. Most of the time they are as people will like or share something you wrote because they agree with it and they are interested in reading more things they agree with. In this way, you are able to build up your own personal echo chamber and add followers.
That's the good part. The challenge is that if you are on Twitter and are representing a particular point of view, there will be those who will disagree with your point of view and feel empowered to let you know about it. This is especially prevalent in the political arena, where keyboard warriors will let you know exactly how they feel about you and your opinion, often times doing so in downright offensive ways. As distasteful as it might be, it's simply part of what happens when you put yourself out there. You have to have thick skin if you want to build up your brand on Twitter. Fortunately, I do and thus I don't lose any sleep over the insults hurled at me through my computer screen. Most offensive people I will simply block, never to deal with again. Some I will engage with a fact or counter-argument and the majority of those simply don't respond or hassle me further. And some will be so out there that I will respond in a humorous, snarky way and then will proceed to block them before they can respond. I like to envision them yelling at their computer screens when they realize they will no longer be able to insult me and that I've won the argument by not allowing them to respond.
Since January, I've amassed 2,200 followers. It's not a huge number by any means, but it is significant nonetheless. At the very least, it makes for a good pitch should the Clinton campaign come calling. I can say not only have I been sharing my work with the campaign, but I also have garnered a significant online following. I've even had a couple of cable news personalities retweet myself and my work so I figure that doesn't hurt either. All I know is that I'm slowly and surely creating a brand for myself and in the political world that is unquestionably a valuable thing. All campaigns look for people who know how to get a message out to a broad and diverse audience and I'm proud that my followers are certainly in that mold. I even learn from them, as some of them have sent tips my way or have suggested topics to write about. One person even said that one of my articles made me a modern-day Edward R. Murrow. That praise was clearly a little extravagant, but it definitely brought a smile to my face. Because I'm not a famous newsman. I'm not even a famous journalist or writer. I'm simply a guy trying to use social media to enter the political field.
Something Edward R. Murrow never had to worry about.
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