Tom Steyer's Twitter by Corey McAuliffe

Receiving 5th place in the Nevada primary was, without a doubt, a huge victory for the Tom Steyer campaign for presidency. Not only was he able to climb above Amy Klobachar in the state but will also now be able to participate in the next debate in South Carolina. This being said, Steyer is still a longshot for the White House and hasn’t won a single delegate in the race yet. This blog post will evaluate the Twitter page for Steyer’s presidency run and highlight some shortcomings that run parallel with his campaign.

The page for Steyer’s campaign is called TeamTom (@TomHQ) and only has 2,689 followers as of the day of this post (https://twitter.com/tomhq?lang=en). The lack of followers compared to other campaigns is concerning, but even more concerning is the lack of engagement on the Twitter platform. On average, the account’s tweets are getting anywhere from 5-30 likes and 3-20 retweets: not the kind of numbers that you want to see if you are working in Steyer’s campaign.

I argue that the primary lack of engagement is due to an incomplete and inconsistent call to action plan. Overall, a majority of posts on the account are only factual and represent either policy plans or biographical information about Steyer. For example, take this quote from a tweet four days ago that read, “We cannot allow this country to go down the path of climate destruction. That’s why it’s @TomSteyer’s NUMBER ONE priority. #climate warrior #demdebate” (https://twitter.com/TomHQ/status/1230329612158169088). As is apparent through this and most of the account’s posts, there is absolutely no call to action strategy.

But then, out of nowhere, there will be a post that calls for very involved institutional engagement in the campaign such as a tweet from yesterday that writes, “Want to be a part of #TeamTom from the comfort of your own home (or wherever you please)? Calling voters is an important way of showing the strength of our grassroots movement. Sign up for @TomSteyer remote phone banking today:” (https://twitter.com/TomHQ/status/1231745810389487618).

In my opinion, mobilizing supporters is like stoking a fire: you must feed energy into the base repeatedly over a period of time to steadily grow in size and commitment. However, the Steyer campaign is feeding no energy into the fire but expecting participation and support on a highly involved level.

There really is no innovative, creative, or motivating way in which the Twitter account is used. One way that they could improve engagement and followers would be to make a tweet asking people to tag the account in a tweet on why they support Steyer and tease that they might get a thank you video from Steyer himself. Then, Steyer would use the campaigns account to send videos out to about 50 people which would help gain more followers and humanize him as a candidate.

However, the one thing that the account does very well is to project Steyer as a strong leader who values diversity, charity, and inclusion. Many of the posts focus on the charitable endeavors and large amounts of money that Steyer has donated to socially progressive causes such as lawyer fees for immigrants (https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/1230928688797143041). It is clear that his target audience is the Latino and black community, as he said in his speech after the Nevada primary, “as we get into diverse America we do better and better” (https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/1231400537888681985).

            If you are interested in looking at the Twitter account yourself, here is a link: https://twitter.com/TomHQ

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