It’s time for Americans to hold politicians responsible for the same social media standards they must meet.
Somewhere in the world, there’s a freshly-graduated college student who has devoted time today to scrub their social media accounts. He or she will try to perform a disappearing act on anything that may leave a sour taste in the mouth of a potential employer.
Also happening today President Trump is sure to craft up a few signature tweets. This analysis found that on average President Trump sends out between 11 and 12 tweets per day.
Impact of Social Media
If you take a trip to your university’s career center, you’ll likely meet an advisor that will key you in on the importance of grooming and maintaining professional social media channels. They’ll say something to the effect of “if an employer were to only view your social media today would you be hired?”
They aren’t wrong to ask those questions. In fact, a recent survey from Career Builder indicated that 70 percent of employers use social media to research potential job candidates. It also stated that an additional seven percent planned to implement social media research in future hiring processes.
Additionally, 57 percent of those who used social media to background potential employees found something on a social media channel that caused them not to hire a candidate. Some of the most predominant red flags included: bad-mouthing their previous company or a fellow employee, discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion, and being linked to criminal behavior.
A Look at President Trump’s Social Media
All of this seems especially ironic when taking a magnifying glass to President Donald Trump’s twitter account. Here we see examples of many of the red flags that would turn the average potential employers off.
“Democrats must change the Immigration Laws FAST. If not, Sanctuary Cities must immediately ACT to take care of the Illegal Immigrants – and this includes Gang Members, Drug Dealers, Human Traffickers, and Criminals of all shapes, sizes and kinds. CHANGE THE LAWS NOW!” – President Donald Trump April 13, 2019
“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” – President Donald Trump March 20, 2019
“Incompetent Hillary, despite the horrible attack in Brussels today, wants borders to be weak and open-and let the Muslims flow in. No way!” – President Donald Trump March 22, 2016
A quick visit to the Trump Twitter Archive will inform patrons of the number of instances President Trump uses words like loser, dummy, fake news, or Russia in tweets. There are even a number of published books for sale on Amazon that aim to memorialize and analyze his most iconic tweets.
Social Media and Digital Campaigning
Of course, President Trump isn’t the only political power player using twitter as a means of communicating personalized messages to their base.
Many have nicknamed the 2008 election the ‘Facebook election’ and with good reason. The powers of social media and digital campaigning were realized and utilized heavily for one of the first times.
A study from the Pew Research Center concluded that “74 percent of internet users went online during the 2008 election to take part in, or get news and information about the 2008 campaign.”
As this trend continues it comes as no shock that we see political hopefuls take complete advantage of their social media platforms. As indicated by this article politicians can utilize their social media to fundraise, advertise, connect, personalize, and of course, go viral.
According to Ballotpedia, “26 notable elected officials and public figures—24 Democrats and two Republicans—have entered the race or formed a presidential exploratory committee.” Many already hustling on to the social media scene to score votes and campaign dollars. Others have already begun to attack their competition.
With so many presidential hopefuls, many like Beto O’Rourke who rose to celebrity status via social media, it is an exciting and important time to be a United States voter.
In the coming months, the American people will serve as a special form of hiring managers as they cast their votes to fill the nation’s highest office. The people will decide who the most qualified candidate to do the job at hand is. They’ll also influence the decision of their peers by the information they choose to like, share, and retweet.
For me, the question is simple. Will Americans hold their elected officials to the same standards they are held to each time they hit the ‘apply’ button or throw on their business professional best and head out the door for an interview?