We ran across a story in the Harrisburg Patriot-News this week included a phrase that, we must admit, mystified us just a bit. In it, a respected governmental relation practitioner was talking about his style of lobbying, which he described as “face-to-face” contact.
He then compared his style to what he termed “social media-focused lobbyists.”
Since Triad Strategies has a lobbying practice in addition to its public relations practice (which uses social media strategies), we set out to try and understand what exactly a “social media-focused lobbyist” really is. Is it some super-hybrid person who lobbies by day and tweets by night? Is it a government affairs associate who posts pictures of a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Facebook? Are they a human RSS feed that dumps content out indiscriminately?
Our guess is there might be a bit of misunderstanding about the role social media can play in complementing – not replacing – face-to-face contact. Oh sure, from time to time you will meet a key elected official who will allow you to sit in his or her office 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But it is rare.
Lobbying is about relationships, and the ability to convey information on behalf of your client via those relationships. This can be achieved, of course, by the aforementioned sit-down, and this happens quite frequently as our senior associates will happily attest as they walk mile after mile on any given Session day. The telephone is also a neat gadget that can allow you to achieve that goal as well. Finally, the time-honored tradition of splitting a plate of chicken wings with a few cold sarsaparillas can sometimes do the trick.
But what some folks seem to be missing, however, is the fact that lawmakers, key staff members and policy makers spend a whole lot of time gathering information on their own. Spend a day watching the House of Representatives debate a long, contentious issue. You will literally see dozens of lawmakers online, reading blogs, online newspapers, checking their e-mail and tweeting directly from their seats. They check their official Facebook pages and post content describing a bill they are working on, or a vote they are taking. They are soliciting a conversation with interested parties.
So if the potential exists for you to join that conversation and keep conveying information through these non-traditional social media channels, should one forgo that chance and instead wait for that 10-minute face-to-face meeting? Or should you do both?
Social media is just another tool in the arsenal, but one that is increasingly effective. To deny that fact is akin to taking a pretty large arrow out of your quiver. The days of lobbyists serving as only middlemen (middlewomen?) are numbered.
So maybe the term “social media-focused lobbyist” should be replaced with “a focused lobbyist who understands social media.” Of course, if one does not believe in the effectiveness of using social media, then they probably didn't read this blog anyway.
UPDATE: 3 hours after we posted this original piece, we learned that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will bring the House back into Session early to vote on the FMAP bill that the Senate is poised to pass. And how did the Speaker infrom her colleagues of her decision? She tweeted it.
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