In today's Washington Post, writer Ben Pershing comments that although Congress rarely does anything quickly, members of both chambers have quickly adopted the use of social media vehicles like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with constituents. His article reports on a study by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a nonprofit group working to improve the way congressional offices operate. The report shows results of a survey of Hill staffers about how they and their bosses use social media tools.
According to CMF "while congressional offices may lag behind some leading private-sector organizations in their use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the legislative branch has adopted social media much more quickly than it adopted other technologies, such as fax machines, email and websites.”
CMF conducted its survey with 260 aides from the House and the Senate. Facebook is useful, staffers say, but no substitute for a firm handshake or kissing a baby. Lawmakers are still hitting the parade and luncheon circuits, and their offices are still cranking out old-fashioned letters.
Senior managers and social media managers, according to the report, “say they rely most on the more tangible and verifiable forms of interaction with constituents, such as attending events in the district or state, receiving personalized messages from constituents, and holding town hall meetings.
The survey suggests that social media are more useful for getting the word out on basic issues — for one-way, rather than two-way, communications. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter scored well for communicating lawmakers’ “views and activities.”
It’s common to find politicians and staffers with their noses stuck in their BlackBerrys., but some aides think their offices actually spend too little time on online communications. Democrats, in particular, were more inclined than Republicans “across the board” to believe their offices needed to devote more hours to maintaining the official Web sites and using Facebook.
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