Top media consultants have one word for politicians like Cory Booker who want to personally use Twitter and Facebook to get their message out: Don’t!
“A Twitter account should be handled by a campaign team and not the individual,’’ said Mike Morey, the communications director for Christine Quinn’s mayoral campaign and a political consultant with SDKKnickerbocker.
“As appealing and interesting as it might be for a candidate to operate his own Twitter accounts, it can be a problem,’’ he said.
“As you see here, random people can reach out at any moment,’’ Morey said, referring to Booker’s recently revealed Twitter escapades with a raunchy topless dancer from Oregon.
“You never know who is tweeting at you and what their background is.”
That may be hard advice for emotionally needy politicians who feed off the public’s love, but it’s necessary, Morey said.
“To be in politics, you’ve got to like people, got to interact with them. Twitter allows you to interact with more people than if you’re on a street corner shaking hands. But the downside is people have immediate access to you, and you don’t know who they are,” Morey said.
Other consultants said that candidates just need to use some old-fashioned common sense.
“People still don’t understand that with Facebook and Twitter, if you put something there, people will see it,” said Andrew Moesel, a consultant with Sheinkopf Communications.
“How many people have to lose their jobs or careers over something they’ve put on social media before they will learn? It’s very easy to go down the wrong path and say the wrong thing and get yourself in a lot of trouble.”