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The Speaker of House and online communication strategies


The US mid-term elections were held about the same time that the Greek Mayoral elections, and unfortunately I was preoccupied in keeping up with the local campaigns. But, I did manage to follow some of the news and catch up on US politics online.

John Boehner was elected Speaker-designate by House Republicans and when the full House votes in January, Boehner will become the 61st Speaker of the House.

When you visit the official speaker.gov website it's all about Nancy Pelosi And if you want to connect with the Speaker of the House you are directed to Nancy Pelosi branded social media.

Twitter Twitter»
http://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi
Facebook Facebook»
http://www.facebook.com/SpeakerNancyPelosi
YouTube YouTube»
http://www.youtube.com/SpeakerPelosi
Flickr Flickr»
http://www.flickr.com/SpeakerPelosi

I would have expected for the Speaker of the House, whoever that might be, to have an independent presence on social media platforms, and not be centred around people that occupy the position.

The consequence of having multiple accounts in social media, depending on the campaign or position, is that you will disenfranchise people that want to follow the Speaker of the House, and not necessary the politician that is the Speaker.

Nancy Pelosi has a twitter username @SpeakerPelosi, this will be obsolete when she steps down, likewise for facebook (Speaker Nancy Pelosi) flickr (Speaker Pelosi's photostream) and YouTube (youtube.com/SpeakerPelosi).

It would have been much more simple if the speaker.gov website linked to the personal social media sites of each speaker of the House or, in my opinion, for the Speaker of the House to create an independent social media presence that is geared in connecting with people that want to engage with the Speaker regardless of who is, or who will be in office.

I hope the next Speaker will follow a much more structured approach in connecting with people online.

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