I am an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, NY. In my research projects I am focusing on informal social networks in the public sector and the use of social media applications by government organizations. I teach classes on social media management, Government 2.0, social network analysis, and networked governance.
On September 19, 2012, Bonner Gaylord, City Council Member, City of Raleigh, NC, shared his insights on his use of social media during his two election campaigns and his tenure as a city council member.
Mr. Gaylord focused on innovative tools such as Twitter and the issue reporting site SeeClickFix.com to reach out to citizens and interact with them. He mentioned that digital interactions are saving him time and making him more connected to his constituents.
Mr. Gaylord can be reached on Twitter. Here is the video of the Skype conversation I had with him in class:
Mr. Bradford talked about the many different channels offices are using to respond to their constituents in their home districts. A remarkable take-away from the talk: about 80% of the communication volume is generated by what Mr. Fitch calls “roaring lions”, large professional organizations that are interacting with Members of Congress.
Here are the two videos of Mr. Fitch’s presentation and conversation with the students:
I am happy to announce a new book “Studying Social Networks”. I was honored to be a co-author on this book with Marina Hennig, Ulrik Brandes, and Juergen Pfeffer who took on a leading role publishing the book. It’s available on Amazon.com in February 2013 and will be distributed by Chicago University Press. In Europe it can already be ordered via Amazon.de (in English!).
The idea of the book was to create a guide for new researchers in the area of social networks to help them start a research project using social network analysis to analyze their data. It can also be used as a textbook for beginner and as well as advanced social network analysis classes in social sciences.
The blurb says: “This textbook provides an introduction to the process of empirical network research. In an action-oriented approach, it features explicated learning goals, numerous reference examples, and exercises that facilitate successful learning. Integrating their different disciplinary perspectives, the authors address an interdisciplinary audience of teachers, researchers, and practitioners alike.”
The task for this week’s assignment was a social media analysis of the online channels, the content, types of message the Romney campaign is using. The students had to evaluate what insights they can gain from the observed social media interactions. A key question was: Does the use of social media create a social connection to the candidate. One of the take-aways was that the campaign site focuses mostly on mainstream social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook (at the top of the page), and lists other social media accounts hidden at the bottom of the page.
The messages are mostly “me, me, me”-messages pointing to appearances, overshadowed by opposing issue statements directly attacking Barack Obama: There are more tweets starting with .@barackobama than regular tweets and there are almost no interactions with other users. Highly focused on the mission and a very coherent message. Overall however the students did not feel connected to the candidate himself.
Until one of the students pointed to Romney’s Pinterest account that include behind the scenes videos posted by his family, talking about Romney – but never featuring himself. A big social media misstep and missed opportunity by the campaign.
Author and biographer, Michael Kranish, Boston Globe, points to this radio show recorded in 2007 in his book “The Real Romney“. While the book does not supply the URL to the video, it has made the rounds online.
I showed the video in class today – perfect timing after the #47Percent video was leaked earlier this week by Mother Jones and the class assignment to understand the “Real Romney”. Besides the content, it is remarkable how Romney changes to a PR pro from one second to another – and the viewers can only get a glimpse of his personality when he thinks he is off the record:
The expectation of many audience members was to get a behind-the-scene view of presidential candidate Romney by an insider who has researched and covered him for over 18 years for The Boston Globe.
Kranish is a great story teller, a diligent researcher: For this book, he and his coauthor followed Romney’s career during the last 18 years, interviewed his business partners to understand how the candidate’s environment, upbringing, religious context, business experience at Bain Capital have shaped his political decision making.
After his introductory lecture, Kranish was asked several times – in different ways – who the real Mitt Romney is, how his status in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the local “bishop” will shape his decision making as a potential president. Kranish did not provide a response directly to the question, instead quoted Romney with: “I want to be a Mormon who runs for presidency, and not a mormon president.” Earlier although he did hint at the fact that Romney had said several times, that his faith has shaped who he is today and that it is a large part of himself as a person.
Besides the Mormon faith, Romney’s sense of the middle-class, or “the poor” were questioned, but not transcribed in the attached list of tweets: Kranish talked a lot about Romney’s success at Bain Capital, an investment firm created as a spin-off from Bain Consulting, that was created to invest rich investors’ money into companies and sell the companies at a profit. Kranish reports, that Romney personally must have made ~ $25-30 million in profits when he sold Staples after consolidating the company. The Boston Globe reviewed ~100 transactions during Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and – you make the math – traced Romney’s share of the profits. Again, not a straight answer to the question wether Romney is able to understand those part of the society who are not able to make millions of dollars per year. Kranish pointed to the experiences that shape a politicians life which will provide the context in which he might most likely make decisions in the future.
Overall, many questions were unanswered, especially because Kranish’ did not draw any conclusions from his research and did not want to provide theories through his personal lens.
Here is a list of tweets transcribing and commenting on the author’s lecture in chronological order:
Kranish is an SU alum, and deputy chief of the Washington Bureau of The Boston Globe. #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
Prof. McClure dismissed the usefulness of social media for public good & improved public information. I disagree #SoDKranish#ElectionClass— Billy Kluttz (@bekluttz) September 14, 2012
"We need a full scale understanding of who the candidate is. How did this person become who they are?" #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
Kranish: people tend to view information through their own tunnel. Need a full scale understanding of presidential candidates. #SODkranish— John Fornof (@Jfornof) September 14, 2012
"There's a concern that people just turn into the news channel that reaffirms their opinions" Michael Kranish #SoDKranish— Alexandra Solimanto (@ASolimanto) September 14, 2012
Kranish: Mitt watched his father lose his pres. bid by speaking frankly, fighting against extreme partisanship within his party #SODkranish— John Fornof (@Jfornof) September 14, 2012
Romney's wife Ann told him to run for Senate. "If you don't do it you will always regret it." #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
"Mitt Romney's greatest political accomplishment was working with a 85% Democratic legislature as governor." #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
Romney learned lessons from '08 primary campaign, but still has trouble connecting with average voters. #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
Kranish: Romney overcame Mormon issue by discussing religious service, not beliefs | Great alternative framing. #SoDKranish#electionclass— Billy Kluttz (@bekluttz) September 14, 2012
"Does Mitt Romney understand the average person? To have difficulties with money? You see a turn in the convention." #SoDKranish I agree.— Cruz (@Sierra_Cuse) September 14, 2012
Boston Globe and others have been asking Romney to release tax info. since 1994, when he originally promised to release them. #SODkranish— John Fornof (@Jfornof) September 14, 2012
Romney is a spreadsheet geek, analytical person who asks, "What does the data mean?" #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
Kranish: Benghazi press conference was pivotal moment for Romney campaign #SoDKranish#ElectionClass | Important social media moment as well— Billy Kluttz (@bekluttz) September 14, 2012
Romney not a true neoconservative, says Kranish. Has a wide variety of foreign policy advisers with different philosophies. #SODKranish— SyracuseU Live (@SUSqueeze) September 14, 2012
#SoDKranish "When you are running a campaign you want to see what sticks" #ElectionClass how to manage this in a ever changing news cycle?— Emily Ruddock (@emilyruddock) September 14, 2012
"There are some things that we're are not going to know about Mitt Romney unless he becomes President" Michael Kranish #SoDKranish— Alexandra Solimanto (@ASolimanto) September 14, 2012
#SoDKranish wrote a down the middle book. For such an important decision people want to know who the candidate is. #ElectionClass— Emily Ruddock (@emilyruddock) September 14, 2012
How are messages going viral in today’s social media economy? Who picks up content and is willing to spread a video or a statement through their own social network?
This week, the Ellen Degeneres Show picked up a music video by the South Korean artist Psy and it is now quickly spreading in the U.S. The video has increased number of viewers overnight by 10 million views on YouTube (jumping from 144 million views to 153 million views). The celebrity boost started weeks ago when Britney Spears tweeted that she wants to learn the outrageous dance style, Justin Bieber’s manager hired Psy for his own portege, many other celebrities chimed in.
This example shows that viral campaigns need the support of so-called network stars – nodes in a network with a very prominent position who are connected to many other nodes. The messages are snowballing through the network and repeated (or retweetd and shared) over and over again.
The video was posted on July 15, 2012, and within a short two months it went viral. It features South Korean musician and comedian Psy and picked up more than 153 million views. Gangnam is the Korean word for the southern part of Seoul.
The video – sung in Korean – itself shows many symbols that can only be interpreted and identified by South Korean audiences who followed the artist Psy during the last ten years, as Jason Lim, columnist for The Korean Times and a former student in my Social Network Analysis at the Kennedy School told me on Facebook:
Two very popular Korean comedians participate in the video (the yellow suit guy in the parking garage and the dancer in the elevator) are both rarely known outside of Korea.
The other symbols include references to Gangnam, a part of the nation’s capitol Seoul that is known for its upcoming new wealth. Previously one of the poorer neighborhoods in the city, it is now an area where you can get everything. As one of my former EMPA students tells me, there are more Mercedes Benz cars driving around than anywhere else in Korea: the video highlights expensive horse stables, high-rises, exclusive Yoga lessons, pools, and bold-colored sport cars as symbols for things you can only get access to in Gangnam.
“Gangnam style” therefore provokes two very different reactions among South Koreans: Either envy or pride.
For Koreans the symbols are easy to identify, everyone knows about Gangnam and Psy was already known for his witty and outrageous gigs, according to Jason Lim, a columnist at The Korea Times, who responded to my Facebook post of the video.
One of my former EMPA students, Sungyeol Shin, reflects on Psy’s background and fame in South Korea:
Psy himself is a Gangnam guy, a very typical Gangnam school dropout case whose family was super rich. At his high days, the only way to go to a decent college in Korea was got a high score in SAT and he could not make it because he was good at the other thing, hanging around with his friends on the dance floor. So his parents sent him to the US and he found his talent in music there.
When he made his debut around 2000, he was a very ‘abnormal’ figure because he talked about his story (which was a very shameful one most modest Koreans wanted to hide) without any hesitation. Later, he went to the military in his 30s because the prosecutor found a forgery on the his military examination paper which changed his military service into an alternative civil service. (That was also a very typical “Gangnam style military manipulation by bribing the doctor”) The reason his abnormal attitude and acts were accepted in the society was he looked so funny and talked it with a sense of humor. His face and posture completely betrays his background – a typical Gangnam guy. This song uses this contrasts very well. (A typical Gangnam things like Ferrari and skyscrapers are mixed with kitsches and cheap symbols like subway station and duck boats.)
The following video shows reactions of American teens who had never seen the video before and are filmed while they are trying to make sense of the dance style, the language and even the chorus “Gangnam style”. They do quickly identify it as K-pop (Korean pop), but can’t make sense of the title, the symbols in the video, and except for one will never want to hear and watch the video again:
With all successful online memes, the Gangnam style dance video was also used to mock presidential candidate Mitt Romney – giving him a more human character than most of his own speeches so far:
An addition to the Romney video added Obama’s dance move to the mix:
Before Barack Obama accepts his second nomination for president, take a look back at the path that brought him here: OFA.BO/LSYkY8— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 04, 2012
OMG the use of the old Mitt footage in the Kennedy tribute was just too ingenious.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 04, 2012
Which was immediately bashed by the Republican side:
Classless Dems use tribute video of deceased Ted Kennedy to attack Mitt Romney.— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 04, 2012
And countered by democrats:
Hey, no one attacked Romney. We just pulled some old video from the past. Thought Republicans loved old movies, old times, good ole days.— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) September 05, 2012
Guess GOP prefers its speakers to bring an empty chair and use derogatory references. #tedkennedy the dream lives on!— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) September 05, 2012
Dems should have put the Lynn story in the network hour. That was an unbelievably powerful testimony to the importance of health reform.— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 05, 2012
"Each crisis was so deep, and so dangerous, any one of them would have defined a presidency." – Rahm Emanuel #DNC2012— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) September 05, 2012
.@RahmEmanuel: "We faced a once-in-a-generation moment in American history. Fortunately we have a once-in-a-generation president." #DNC2012— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) September 05, 2012
Because you wanted to know… #sexyface peaked at nearly 2K Tweets per minute at 9:32p ET. #DNC2012— Twitter Government (@gov) September 05, 2012
Massachusetts Gov. @devalpatrick: "By the time Romney left office, Massachusetts was 47th in the nation in job creation." #DNC2012— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) September 05, 2012
Deval Patrick on Romney's time as MA governor: "he was more interested in having the job than doing the job." #DNC21012#msnbc2012— Joy Reid (@TheReidReport) September 05, 2012
"Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he's fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn't one of them." #DNC2012— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) September 05, 2012
Deval Patrick says he won't let Obama be "bullied" out of office, and "neither should you."— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) September 05, 2012
History is being made right now! Joaquin Castro introducing first Hispanic keynote speaker at DNC @JulianCastro#dnc2012— Eva Longoria (@EvaLongoria) September 05, 2012
While everyone is watching the social media memes erupting on Twitter and Facebook around the presidential campaigns, the question remains how social media can enhance governing to provide regular government operations with a human face. In my conversations with social media directors I hear one expression over and over: “You have to be where the people are,” which reinforces the idea that social media is necessary to reach audiences where they prefer to receive official government information.
This is easier said than done, especially because the mission of most agencies does not necessarily include engagement goals. Instead, most mission statements are fully focusing on broadcasting — providing scientific information to the public, informing the public about a policy issue or educating the public.
Translating these mission statement into social media interactions often ends up employing push tactics: Social media channels are used in highly static formats to push press-release style messages out through additional channels beyond the official agency website. But social media has the potential to be used for more than one-directional broadcasting. Many highly innovative agencies have shown that interaction and online conversations with the public are possible – if they have the right social media policies in place.
Recently, truly engaging and highly creative social media tactics emerged that give government agencies a human face in very unlikely places. Take for example the recent landing of the NASA’s Curiosity Rover on Mars. The landing itself and the reactions of JPL’s employees in the control room were broadcast worldwide, inspiring many online memes that went well beyond just the landing. The Internet community was inspired by mundane side effects such as flight director Bobak Ferdowsi’s haircut, a.k.a the “Mohawk guy,” which resulted in many Tumblr posts and JPL team’s awkward high fives inspired a YouTube dance and song: We’re NASA and We Know It.
NASA social media use has kept the curiosity about the rover alive even after the usually short-lived Internet memes. Three NASA social media managers are tweeting on behalf of the rover to give her (yes, it’s a she!) a human face. Speaking in the first person about her daily experiences, using movie, popculture references and Tweetspeak, they catapulted her Twitter follower number to over 1 million users within a 20-day time period.
NASA has always had a great sense of involving audiences fascinated with space and tapped into the fan base of TV shows such as Star Trek or Enterprise. As an example, NASA organized Tweetups during space shuttle starts and landings; astronauts tweeted from space and the public was allowed to interact directly with the agency’s stars. Even before the social media era, other NASA missions inspired the public with glimpses into the world of science. Take, for example, Hubble — also known as the people’s telescope. Until it’s flawed mirror and subsequent decommission, Hubble provided the public with inspirational space pictures and videos and NASA allowed the public to book time using the telescope.
Another agency capturing current pop culture references and using social media to reach out to broader audiences is the Center for Disease Control. Using the Zombie Preparedness tool kit, the CDC uses popular zombie and werewolf references to get the attention the population not watching TV ads or listening to emergency announcements on the radio, because they receive their information and news through their friends on networks such as Twitter or Facebook, according to a recent Pew report:
These examples show that government agencies can use social media channels in unexpected ways to connect government data and operations directly to popular events. They are tapping into social awareness streams, linking data to questions the public is focused on and engage with elements of the population that might otherwise be disconnected from government.
Another important side effect is that the public is more likely to understand the reasons and impacts of large-scale expenses for technology policies or might in the future support additional spending for an agency’s mission. Especially in times of budget crunches and massive budget cuts, giving an agency a human face, being part of the ongoing conversation and providing insights into the importance of the agency’s mission might help to gain public support. NASA rover landing has certainly inspired the President to promise his ongoing support to the JPL budget in a recent phone call mentioning the Mohawk guy meme.
This election season, people started to talk about political cookies – a new expression for the already existing term previously used for targeted or customized ads. These are advertisements that are automatically pushed out based an Internet surfers searches or the history of websites s/he has visited. Computer cookies are files stored on a user’s computer that save the browsing history and behavior on websites they visit. This history can be activated by companies to provide a tailored browsing experience as soon as users return to these websites. Every time a user submits information to a website the information is stored. The data in the cookie file is stored locally (and reactivated at return visits) and can also be transferred to another website.
This practice has been around for a while and especially Google has become known for pushing context-relevant ads based on individual email content to Gmail accounts or to search results. Similarly, TV ads are targeting those cable TV subscribers in states that are known to be swing states – or states where pollsters know that there are many undecided voters. Other states, such as NY state – a historically blue state – will likely see very few TV ads.
This is where political cookies come in. A recent ProPublica article revealed that companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo are selling political candidates access to their users’ data:
Based on the users known search and browsing history cookies, in combination with their voter records, political campaigns now have a much better sense of who they should target. These ads then pop up using a network of different sites, including social media platforms, online news sites, etc. Subtle reminders are pushed at a user based on their previous search and browsing behavior and pop up in the ad section of the visited site – instead of the previous practice pushed at them in a targeted email from which users can actively unsubscribe.
Social media companies are heavily using this practice in less subtle ways:
Facebook’s application to register voters and to use the same application, including voter registration records to invite friends who haven’t registered. On election day 2008 Facebook pushed an application out to count the number of people who voted and published it as an update to the newsfeed, increasing awareness among those contacts who haven’t voted. Washington State is the first state this year to actively use a Facebook application to help people register online.
Amazon’s election heat map displays political preferences based on its buyers’ purchases of political books.
Twitter displays user sentiments posted in tweets about both candidates in real time on the Twitter election index and sells trending topics to political candidates or promoted tweets based on the sentiments.
This election season social media is driving much of the conversation – whether real-time online fact checking during the GOP convention speeches or fast and furious responses to statements made on a candidate’s website: the online community crowd-sources responses and the candidates have trouble controlling the message.
A recent Nielsen study showed that in parallel to the rising numbers of social media users, TV cable subscription numbers are stable. So-called “cord cutters” are moving toward broadband and TV bundles and are watching TV content mostly online on Hulu, Netflix or directly on a network’s homepage. They are DVR-ing their favorite shows and no longer watch them at primetime where a strategically well-placed campaign ad would reach them live. Instead, they are fast forwarding through ad blocks or even deleting them out of their online copies and a 30 minute show is now only 23 minutes, deleting all ads.
The campaigns are therefore focusing their strategy on online engagement – instead of spending their budget on TV ads to reach a live audience. Here is where the Super PAC spending comes in - swing states will still see a lot of TV ads, paid for by Super PACs instead of solely the candidates themselves.
I am happy to announce a new book “Studying Social Networks”. I was honored to be a co-author on this book with Marina Hennig, Ulrik Brandes, and Juergen Pfeffer who took on a leading role publishing the book. It’s available on 
