Clean Campaigning

So if you’re following the US Presidential Campaign, you’ll be aware that it has raised an additional debate on the side:

‘Is social media making us over confident?’

In the 2012 elections, Twitter, the Internet’s micro-blogging site has become a major platform for reaching voters, with messages tailored to individuals, shifting politics away from a 24-hour news cycle to a 140-character one.  And it’s a cool thing when people can be engaged in a one-on-one basis like that. But there is also an argument for whether Twitter is leading to shallower politics.

We’ve all seen those attempts to score points through sarcasm for example, the lobbing of one-liners over the Twitter wall in an attempt to move the needle on undecided voters. But why do something that can only undermine your credibility?

It’s a fact that sarcasm is a means of the perpetrator indirectly expressing aggression towards others and insecurity about themselves.  Sarcasm transforms the polarity of a negative utterance into its opposite, to imply positivity. But who’s actually fooled? We all recognise that wrapping thoughts in a joke shields the perpetrator from the vulnerability that comes with directly putting their opinions out there.

And whether you are a President or a business person, doing it in 140 characters can just make you look like a bad stalker, seeking cynical publicity.

Cue a follower hemorrhage.

And it’s time to call people out who do this. So tweet carefully. There’s a fine line between firing a quick and smart riposte, and the act of Twitter trolling. And whether you like it or not, how you behave on Twitter directly affects the impression you are giving of yourself professionally.

It’s a double-edged broadcast tool.

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