All It Takes is 140 Characters - Obama Takes a Twitter Tumble

With website like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram it’s difficult for anyone to shy away from the limelight, specifically, if you’re a presidential candidate.

These days, the public expects politicians to track every move they make through their social media. If they choose not to, they are not thought of as relatable. The people demand their representative to be ‘one of the people,’ and each politician does their part to fit that expectation.

Therefore, it is not surprising that both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have a Twitter account. Of course, the catch-22 is that it would be unwise to actually tweet from these accounts. The president and presidential candidate have much more important things to occupy their thoughts than to worry about whether they are generating enough tweets-per-hour. The voting population expects President Obama and Mitt Romney to have a Twitter account, but would be livid if they took the time to actually ‘tweet’ from it. For this reason, each man has a team of campaign officials to fill that role.

Because of Twitter’s wide spread impact on the population – Twitter scored its 500 millionth user in February – the opportunity to sway voters is recognized by both campaigns. This also means that the ability to maintain a positive public opinion is that much more complex.

Last Tuesday was the 11-year anniversary of the events of 9/11. Twitter feeds across the country were filled with lamentation over the lives lost on that terrifying day. Of course, the world turns to the president to receive words of respect and humility about the day, and President Obama did. At 8:46am, the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the President and First Lady bowed their heads in remembrance on the South Lawn of the White House. This was preceded, however, by a tweet at 7:07am from the @BarackObama account calling for more campaign volunteers.

The Twitter world took this tweet as a sign of disrespect from the President, and the opposing side took the tweet as an opportunity to further enhance their public opinion. Almost immediately, tweets were posted about each candidate’s first post of that day. Each post can be seen below.

Social media is a clever campaign strategy and an easy way to promote the ideals of a specific candidate. The overwhelming number of positives from social media, however, comes with a price. If the campaign officials are not paying attention, they could dramatically lose their candidate’s positive opinion in a matter of 140 characters.