Q&A: Should elected officials engage on social media?

An Abbotsford city councillor weighs-in about his relationship with social media and whether those in power are responsible to engage with the public online.

Social media has changed information sharing. 📷 Joti Grewal

The leader. The liker. The lurker. The loner.

Those are the four types of social media users, at least that’s what one website suggests. 

Joti previously wrote about social media use by elected officials in the newsletter. Many readers replied saying they’d like to hear more from their local leaders. So the Current decided to ask an Abbotsford city councillor about how they manage social media while in office.

Coun. Dave Loewen could fall into three of the above mentioned user categories. He’s a ‘leader’ because he posts content. He’s a ‘liker’ because he may engage with another leader’s content. He’s also a ‘lurker’ because there are some posts he may read and find that they aren’t worth engaging. (The loner avoids social media altogether.)

Joti spoke with Loewen about his social media habits, the mental toll of keeping up with the technology, and what he feels a politician’s online responsibilities are to the public.

FVC: Would you say that you are actively on social media, that you're more aware of sharing or posting on social media?

Dave Loewen: Yeah, I’d say so. Since, say around 2011 when I first began with Twitter—I think about the same time, a little earlier, I was on Facebook. But from that time forward, I've been fairly active on four platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

FVC: Do you find that exhausting because sometimes it feels like some people tend to lean towards a certain platform? So do you feel maybe that you need to keep up with it all?

Loewen: No, I don’t feel that I have to keep up with all four. Like the LinkedIn, I’ve maintained primarily as a platform for the occasional posting of let’s say, a little—I don’t want to call an essay—but let’s say there’s an issue that I feel strongly about, I want to inform the public about, I’ll write up a couple of 100 word piece(s), and post [them] there. Simply as informative, or perhaps sometimes taking a position on something. But that’s how I use LinkedIn.

The others, I guess, I’m more—Twitter has been waning a little bit for me, simply because I realized that the audience is a particular or specific group that may not be the ones that I’m trying to reach. So I think Facebook and Instagram are the two main ones that I think the general public at large, from younger to older, would generally use—at least that's my understanding.

FVC: Can you speak to that a little bit more? Do you find your constituents gravitate towards one platform versus the other? Or like you said, if you’re trying to reach a younger audience, maybe you favour one versus the other?

Loewen: Well, it is my understanding, and I could be wrong, maybe you wish to correct me on that, but my understanding is that Facebook has become more used by an older demographic and Instagram by a younger demographic. So that’s my reasoning, to try to use both of them.

FVC: So you’re conscious of that, of trying to use both because you feel like it reaches a wider audience?

Loewen: That’s correct.

FVC: One of the things I found when I was going back through some of the social channels of those who ran in the election is that there were lots of—I don’t know how you wanted to define a lot—candidates who were more active on social media. You see candidates door-knocking, more active in the community, but then afterwards, it kind of comes down a little bit and maybe they don’t share as much if they did get elected. Do you think there’s a reason why people might do that?

Loewen: First of all, I’ve never door-knocked. I never have. I’ve done six elections and I've never door knocked. So I adopted social media in the latter years, along with signage and that’s been adequate. I think though, those who are trying to break in, for them, the door-knocking is more critical. I would just continue using my social media and perhaps a little more intensely during election, but it’s not like—I think some candidates may have adopted it as a tool for election and then basically, sort of dropped it. That’s my take on it, but I couldn’t say that for certain.

FVC: Do you think it is the responsibility of elected officials to be more available to engage or kind of promote when a council meeting is happening, or there’s a particular agenda item that maybe they promote before council is meeting about that decision?

Loewen: Well, I know I have in the past, on occasion, posted something. Say I know there’s something really interesting or contentious coming up, I will post it only because I know that it’ll draw some traffic.

And part of doing that I have to admit and confess is you want to attract more people to your channel. So if you can post those now and then, then you accomplish that. So that is part of the motivation for posting that on my part because I believe and I feel primarily that where people get their information on meetings is on our city website.

I mean, there’s thousands that subscribe to it. And by the same token there’s people like, for example, there’s one person I remember on social media she posted … that she was unaware there was an election after the election. And I’m asking myself, ‘Where has she been?’ That’s an extreme.

So I think people who are uninformed, to some extent, are not really that interested. And those that are know that they can find information on the city website. So I don’t see it as my responsibility to inform the public. In fact, I only have, I don't know how many hundreds of followers where it has thousands.

FVC: I wanted to ask you about the mental toll with social media. Do you find personally that it can be a challenge to try to keep up with those things? Or sometimes maybe you get negative reactions to some posts, or lack of posts? Has that been an issue for you?

Loewen: Two things: I only do as much as I feel up to. If I don’t have time, I don’t have time. It’s that simple. And I don’t feel guilty about it.

On the other question about public response and negative comments, being an elected official one has to have a thick skin. I learned that a long time ago. And I learned also a long time ago that for everyone who agrees with me there’s another person who disagrees. And I’ve had some negative comments directed at me, and one just has to ignore them, and not let it bother you. So I can see where some people who are more sensitive, do not want to attract that type of public comment about themselves and so they, I think they steer away from social media for that reason alone.

FVC: For those who might feel that they want elected officials to engage with them more online, what advice would you give them? Would you rather they write to you directly? Or, you mentioned earlier that the city websites are sufficient resources?

Loewen: Our contact information is public information, email, as well as, obviously, social media. I welcome any and all contacts, including the telephone number that you’ve just used. I have no problem when people contact me and I’ve gone out for coffee with people who asked to have a personal meeting. So I welcome that. And I think most councillors would.

We have a channel called Let’s Talk. That draws a lot of traffic and it’s really increasing in popularity, and people can engage city staff on various projects and issues. And we found that to be a very useful channel and we get a lot of information that way. But I’ve had people engage me on Facebook posts. Sometimes I will jump in on a conversation where I know that the information somebody’s posting is incorrect, and I will post the correct information. And that’s the other thing, what I like to do on my Facebook posts and otherwise is to steer away from opinion as much as possible and just post objective information. And people take issue with the facts, then I can always debate the facts. Opinion-related posts, I have less-frequently posted.

FVC: Is there anything else that you want to include about elected officials and their relationship with social media?

Loewen: Well, I know that some councillors, I'm speaking only from our own city council in the past, that some councillors personally believe that we should not be engaging in public on social media. I don’t agree with that.

I do agree that we need to be careful what we say and there are things that we’re not allowed to talk about, which are still confidential. And so that’s very understandable. And I avoid that. And if I make an error, I sure do hope I catch it before it’s too late. But as a rule I’ve been pretty good on that, I think. I know I’ve had people say to me on social media, ‘Well, Dave, I don't agree with you, but I appreciate your transparency and willingness to engage us here online.’ So I think people really appreciate it, even if they don't like you or don't agree with you, they appreciate the opportunity to engage with a councillor online.

Join the conversation

or to participate.