Twitter and Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar has yet to find herself as a frontrunner in the race, though she has polled well enough to make it onto the debate stage. This good but not great performance can be seen on her twitter account as well. Twitter is one of the best Information and Communication Technologies to communicate with your supporters. Yet, Amy only seems to know how to communicate to them. Her campaign is supported by donors and PACs, meaning she does not have the non hierarchical and grassroots campaign that could truly benefit from twitter. She does cover the basics of a text number in her bio, a link to her website, and a pinned post about donating. But the rest of her tweets rarely link to her donation page or repeat her text number. None of her tweets seem to encourage supporters to share their support, utilize a hashtag, or engage with the candidate.

This lack of call to action is her biggest missed opportunity. If she engaged more with her followers, and in turn asked them to engage with her, she’d develop a more connected, enthusiastic support base like Bernie Sanders. In fact, Klobuchar seems to be targeting the less enthusiastic, moderate democrats. She advocates for gun reform and housing but holds back on progressive policies like college debt forgiveness. While progressives might not be her target, this makes her palatable to centrists or even disgruntled republicans.

Klobuchar has developed a institutional campaign. Her supporters are never encouraged to create their own content or interact with one another. Story of self is occasionally utilized when discussing her voting and polling track record, but she doesn’t seem to touch on her personal story. Interestingly, she takes the time to promote other stories on her platform, even if they haven’t endorsed her. She will retweet and share articles that highlight differently women and their accomplishments. This ranges from female executives at NASA to the first African American ballerina. These tweets add a story to her campaign, but it still does not cover her own story or her supporter’s story. While an interesting tactic to seem empathetic, there isn’t any risk involved in empowering notable well-respected women. There isn’t much risk taking at all. There aren’t any controversial policy takes or attacks on other candidates. A couple of tweets highlighted a funny face she’d made while two candidates were arguing over her during the Nevada debate. But a small attempt at a meme does not constitute a risk.

So what does Amy actually DO on her platform? Most of it is utilizing the “Story of Us” political logic. She advertises herself as a symbol of unity for the democratic party. Her quotes and debate outtakes use the times she is uniting the party as oppose to attacking another candidate. This creates an image of moral superiority. She is the candidate that is too mature for the inner party fighting, she doesn’t lean towards any extremes, and these assets mean she is the only one who can defeat Donald Trump. Overall, Amy Klobuchar utilizes Twitter to promote her own brand with the bare bones of outreach. She should work on building a grassroots community to support her tradition campaign strategy. Twitter does have digital media strategists that world with political campaigns to improve their performance. Perhaps her campaign should look into a new consultant.