Clipping blog

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They Call It Puppy “Like” Posted: 28 May 2012 07:34 AM PDT If this is representative of young political leaders, we really don’t have to worry about the “youth vote” in November. A 2009 Pew Research Center study indicates that 10 percent of internet users ages 18 and older have used a social networking site for some sort of political or civic engagement. With just younger voters, 18 to 29, that number jumps to 37 percent. That’s not exactly a tidal wave of civic engagement. But Thor Lund, the University of Texas at Austin’s student body president, says that for college students, it feels like marching in the streets. "Social media is a huge tool to get people interested in things, and honestly, the biggest way to create interest — to spur the civic engagement — is numbers, people being involved," [Thor] Lund said. "So whether or not someone thinks it's a civic engagement issue that they're starting out and that they're trying to do, when people get behind an idea, the power of people is amazing." And when you’ve got a full semester and an evening job, being able to click “like” before studying can make you feel engaged without taking up too much time. "When we're tabling and fliering, we let folks know, hey, like us on Facebook, even if you can't come at every meeting, even if you can't be there physically, at least be aware of what we're doing," said Huey Fischer, president of the University Democrats at UT. "So that way, when you do have time, when you can make a commitment, you'll know what's up." Let me get this out up-front. I love social media. I think it’s frightfully important for political campaigns to have people on board to whom they regularly listen who get social media. When used well, social media can be the least expensive and most effective clip of projectiles in the ammo pack of any campaign (or business, for that matter). But getting someone to push a “like” button in a spare moment is not engagement and it doesn’t necessarily lead to engagement. It’s a one-off, like throwing a couple pennies in a charity jar on the counter at the corner convenience store. In fact, it’s worse, because a “like” doesn’t do anything substantial. It pays no bills, gets no one to the voting booth, puts no feet in the streets, makes no phone calls, and get absolutely no one elected. What it does do is give the person who pushed the button a little warm tickle in their happy place, like they did something important with very little effort. It’s like the feeling of goodness a rat gets for pushing the little red food button, except the rat doesn’t get any food (could you then say young people aren’t quite as bright as rats? Hmmm…). Those of you who use Facebook, think back a month. Can you remember all the “like” buttons you pushed? Can you remember half of them? How many of them led to real engagement with a brand, cause, or political party to which you weren’t already inclined to engage? I do think that Facebook has plenty of uses and the Like button is a valuable tool to get people to make that initial buy-in that can lead to more. But a “like, in and of itself, means nothing at all and if political parties or businesses out there believe it is a replacement for engagement, they’re fooling themselves and they ought to fire whoever is working on their social media campaigns.

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