Promoting the Emotional

With a new election coming up, I've become weary of of not people posting political issues on Facebook and Twitter such as articles on propositions, or who they are voting for as president, but of the conflict people bring upon themselves of stating they themselves are annoyed of reading peoples opinions on social medias (which they themselves also do, most of the time). If social media is not a paradigm of platforms to voice opinion and reach out to others, then what are most social medias for? However, its a long known rule, one has to be careful when discussing politics. 

 This new election is going to have a large impact on the type of company I work for. Being in an economy recovering from a financial/housing crisis, regulations, committees, organizations, and politicians will all affect housing/home buying guidelines. As a marketing director for a mortgage company, I feel that I am obliged to try to create awareness for our followers on which candidate/proposition will mean what for the housing industry. However, promoting politics as a company or brand, is much trickier than as an individual - the stakes are much higher. Since I do not fully understand the market my company is in, I asked my boss to write a matter of fact, no opinion or slant article on Obama's "Mortgage Refinance Relief Plan 2012" and  Mitt Romney's “Securing the American Dream and the Future of Housing”.  His reply was unexpected and dissatisfying, saying "Mitt is a Twit". Even though we have all the same political views, I thought this was funny; however, it did not produce the results I wanted to distribute to our followers. While I do not think my boss would ever publicly through our company try to promote or sway others to vote Obama, I believe he could not feel comfortable writing anything about Romney's platform. So far for my job, I try to find objective articles written on reliable mortgage/news blogs and post the links to our social medias, just in case followers want to read them.

There are some who do not want to be objective with politics, and there are some who cannot read about people's opinions that are different from their own. However, one can not expect people to stop discussing the election and propositions online. It is inevitable. One of my issues though, is how much information there is available. I am not very familiar with politics, and growing up with a very conservative Republican father, made me stay away from them. However, since being at my job I try to keep up with housing issues which tie in with politics, corporations, and government run identities who monitor the industry. The more I read, the more I get confused. Twitter especially, has made it easier for someone like me to not only find political information, but want to learn more so I can keep up with all of the conversations going on in the nation. If this is how social media has affected someone like me, who has never been interested in politics before, I can only imagine its amped a huge amount of other people up as well. I still remember the beginning days of "Rock the Vote" from MTV using very famous celebrities, and I think Facebook, Twitter, and others have gotten younger people to be engaged much more successfully. Youtube has also had an incredible impact on the elections, especially the 2008 elections. It is so nice to be able to watch short sections, or see debates on Youtube when I do not have the time to watch TV. When it comes down to it, it is everyones' personal prerogative whether they voice their opinions, but at least people have to opportunity as well as see others views.

Image from http://mashable.com/2010/06/09/political-campaigns-social-media/