The secret of the success of Ocasio-Cortez social networks

The Democrats were not really thrilled when Ocasio-Cortez overthrew the seasoned legislator to become his next speaker at a Democratic primary last year and marked his first day at Capitol Hill in participating in a sit-in in the Pelosi office. But more and more, if reluctantly, they seem to have concluded: "If you can not beat them, join them".

Party leaders appealed to Ocasio-Cortez to lead a social media training for his House colleagues last week, and presidential candidates seem to scream at his cookbook that features Instagram, spreading cracking beers in their kitchens, getting their teeth cleaned and other vignettes of their daily lives.

"This change is exciting for us because it demonstrates an understanding by these more authentic and native campaigns than their digital content, plus online audiences are likely to engage with it," wrote the digital democratic society ACRONYM in a newsletter informing subscribers of the trend of "the occasional" campaign video "".

After all, politicians are in a sales business. Their product is themselves and their ideas, but many voters do not buy it because of the meticulousness with which they are presented for years.

"People have extremely well developed bullshit counters," said Rep. Jim Himes, D -Conn., Who helped run the social media seminar with Ocasio-Cortez last week. "Almost all real tweets will involve a bit of risk.This will involve opening up a little kimono in a member's private life because a small risk is genuine."

Himes, a White 52 Goldman Sachs, president of the centrist NDP coalition, has a very different appearance and sound from Ocasio-Cortez, a Latino-born Latvian socialist democracy.

But Himes said that he and Ocasio-Cortez, who had not responded to a request for an interview, had both offered similar advice to social media. His colleagues, whom he acknowledged that they were very late to catch up.

"We were both trying to get this message out:" Speak like you, be a human, "said Himes." All you can do to bridge the gap between the politician in power, drained, tested , and the people. "

That's not to say that you have to imitate Ocasio-Cortez -" You do not have to be at the hip, in fact, that's it. " is probably disastrous to be fashionable, "joked Himes – but rather, as the old advice on dating says, be oneself.

So, Ocasio-Cortez publishes videos of herself dancing and sliding flat heels in the subway Himes shares photos of him taking syrups on maple trees and sampling her mead prepared at home .

John Dingell, 92-year-old former Michigan congressman, and 85-year-old Chuck Grassley. Former Republican Senator from Iowa, both tracked them on Twitter by leaning into their character to get out of my garden. Once Grassley declared to the world: "I now have an iphone", while Dingell was thinking about the Kardashians.

Politics is more and more an exercise in digital marketing and content creation that must compete with everyone from teenagers to mainstream media .

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Has his own talk show and the former rep, Beto O 'Rourke, starred in a low-budget reality show on his campaign in the Senate. last year, broadcast live for fans by his staff on Facebook. 19659007] Robby Mook, the former head of Hillary Clinton's 2016 election campaign, said he was advising candidates in the Democratic presidential election in 2020 to modernize their way of thinking beyond from politics to the old, in Iowa or New Hampshire.

"This campaign is national and its headquarters is cyberspace," he said. "You have to build ground operations in these early states, but Bernie Sanders had virtually no organization in Iowa, Donald Trump was not working – both came in second."

Ocasio-Cortez is not the first politician to "socialize". media.

Nearly ten years ago, when he was mayor of Newark (New Jersey), a Democratic senator, Cory Booker was famous for coming to the door of his constituents with a snow plow, diapers or whatever he would have told other people on Twitter.

"If Cory Booker is very good on Instagram with regard to politicians, the atmosphere is still sometimes as if your Bible studies leader was making you visit university campuses," wrote Katherine Miller of Buzzfeed. "Ocasio-Cortez uses Instagram as the rest of us – reflexively, incidentally."

And there will be many others from where she comes from.

Before the swearing-in of the new Congress this month, the average age of its convention The 115th Congress was one of the oldest in history and, on average, 20 years older than the American general public.

The 101 new members of the 116th Congress, however, include 26 millennia (up to six at the last congress), and another 18 GenXers. Boomers still make up the majority of lawmakers (about 54%), but their ranks are declining rapidly, according to Pew.

At the same time, the millennium generation is expected to outpace the baby boomers this year, as a share of the total US population, and 85% of them use social media, compared to 57% baby boomers.

The questions flouted by lawmakers to technical officials in recent hearings have shown how many people in Congress are dismally unaware even of the basics of technology that is now an integral part of technology. the life and political reality of tens of millions of Americans.

So it's not surprising that Democrats turned to their youngest new member for advice, just as grandparents could ask their grandson to help him put in place Facebook.

It's the future, even proponents worry about some pitfalls.

Rep. Ted Place, D-Calif., Has built a huge social media after the rise of the "resistance" anti-Trump with sharp and timely tweets about the scandal of the day that have earned him nearly a million dollars. ; subscribers.

not always possible to know if a joke will land effectively on Twitter, even for Location, who cited a recent tweet that he sent to make fun of Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Where sarcasm did not passed on to some of his followers. 19659007] "The elected are just people, like everyone else," said Lieu. "We have our strengths and our weaknesses and we are only people."

Others have argued that politicians who are superficially charming on social networks are denied the substance of their work.

This is an argument that conservative critics, Ocasio-Cortez, referred to some facts and figures, especially when the Washington Post's fact-finder gave him four "Pinocchios" for tweeting a mutilated comparison of the Pentagon's waste costs. with one from a Medicare for All health plan.

Some, left, claim the same argument against O 'Rourke, fearing that progressive voters do not see the centrism that has crossed his political career because they think he's cool.

Ocasio-Cortez summed up his formula in a tweet debut of his campaign: "Bernie + Cardi = @ Ocasio2018." Cardi is Cardi B, the rapper went viral last week for explaining the government's closure in a video of the NSFC (Not Safe For Congress).

Should the social media policy be more like Cardi B? Many are probably uncomfortable with this.

"It's a bit like love," Himes said. "You want to be real, you want to be honest, but you still want to leave some mystery out there.I am not sure that the photographs of dentists forcing my mouth leave enough mystery."