The Tri­bune recently pub­lished an arti­cle that dis­cussed how can­di­dates for Colum­bia, MO’s mayor and city coun­cil elec­tions plan to use Twit­ter and other social media in their cam­paign. I will be using blogs, Twit­ter and Face­book in my cam­paign for a few reasons.

The inter­net allows rep­re­sen­ta­tives to com­mu­ni­cate with cit­i­zens in a way that has never been pos­si­ble. While I will be going door to door, mak­ing myself avail­able dur­ing the day to meet with peo­ple per­son­ally, and other tra­di­tional cam­paign tech­niques; social media and the inter­net allow me to be avail­able to any­one, any­where, at any time. I am using these tools to open myself up and be as avail­able as pos­si­ble for any­one that has a ques­tion, com­ment, con­cern about Colum­bia, or just wants to hear what I have to say.

Using social media will also allow me to engage with all of Colum­bia. Tra­di­ton­ally, because of time lim­i­ta­tions, can­di­dates focus all of their atten­tion on the ward that can vote for them. I am per­son­ally engag­ing with the 3rd ward, but a coun­cil per­son rep­re­sents all of Colum­bia. Even if some­one can’t vote for a can­di­date the city coun­cil makes deci­sions that affect every Colum­bia cit­i­zen. There­fore I feel it is impor­tant to lis­ten to the entire com­mu­nity as well as my ward. Twit­ter, Face­book and my blog will help me hear what every­one in Colum­bia is say­ing, not just a select few.

I have never used any of these tools prior to my cam­paign but I rec­og­nize how many peo­ple have a desire to com­mu­ni­cate this way. It takes time to learn and per­fect these new ways to com­mu­ni­cate so I appre­ci­ate any advice or feed­back on how I’m doing. Rep­re­sent­ing a com­mu­nity means hav­ing a will­ing­ness to lis­ten to oth­ers, learn new things and adapt to new ways of doing things, even if it involves time. I have time to lis­ten, I have time to learn, I have time for Columbia.

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