The politics of ‘like’

Earlier last week I was mildly a-mused to receive an e-mail informing me that Manuel DeliaPN was following me on Twitter. For those of you who are not familiar with the man himself, Delia is Austin Gatt’s sidekick. And if the bumph on his website is to be believed, practically singlehandedly responsible for the efficient running of the country – a sort of bearded Clark Kent wearing a Nationalist-blue shirt instead of a cape.

Politicians refuse to realise that the preferred form of communication online these days is the conversation, not the sermon- Claire Bonello

Delia lists the construction of Smart City, roads, information technology and public transport as things he has been responsible for. His link-rich website is full of galleries of launches, inaugurations and the like. There are quite a few clips and photographs relating to the ‘before’ Arriva introduction phase – not so many of the ‘after’ stage. Well I guess that stands to reason. Nobody – least of all a budding politician – would want to publicise his least glorious moments. And the advent of Arriva was not Delia’s shining hour.

Delia’s appropriation of the PN suffix to his surname shows us, he is ready to burst in onto the political scene and – as per his words – fill in the void left by political giants. Like other politicians he’s gone the whole hog insofar as social media is concerned.

His site points out the myriad ways where we can find Delia (in the virtual world of course). If the site itself isn’t enough to sate your desire for all things Delia, you can get a further Delia fix on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and now even on Youtube.

Say what you will about the Delia beard (more bird’s nest than Brad Pitt), the weird prizes to draw in supporters (pressing ‘like’ on his Facebook page could have you in the running for a meal for two) and the self-evident statements (“Nationalists want to be represented by a Nationalist”), he’s certainly embraced social-media with an Obama-like fervour. If anything can be tweeted, updated or uploaded online, you can bet that Delia will be doing it.

It got me thinking about how effective the use of social media can be as a political campaign tool. Does online ubiquity translate into more votes? Does higher visibility equate to greater popularity? And is online proficiency an accurate measure of the candidates contesting the elections? Are politicians simply taking on the armoury of social media and continuing as per usual?

Despite all the fuss being made about how the new electoral battleground is a digital one, I’m a bit sceptical about it all. I’m still not sure if local politicians ‘get’ social media and how it can be used as an effective communication and campaigning tool. That’s because many of them persist in using new media in exactly the same way as the more traditional media forms. Even Delia – the Great Communicator himself – is guilty of these shortcomings.

One sure indicator that politicians don’t recognise the signs of the times – no matter how connected they are – is their refusal to realise that the preferred form of communication online these days is the conversation, not the sermon.

Unless you can somehow get people to engage and interact with you online, your plethora of platforms in the ether, could just as easily be replaced by half a dozen cardboard sheets hung up at the każin. Treating your Facebook wall simply as a bulletin board to inform the world at large that you will be carrying out house visits in Żurrieq is hardly going to get a two- or multi-way debate going, is it?

And a politician can have a website with all the bells and whistles, but if he persists in communicating by means of glib phrases and buzzwords, then that’s a sure sign that he has no idea of how to get through to an increasingly media-savvy and clued-up electorate which will see through their pretentiousness and ridicule them.

A case in point was Delia’s comment about the Malta stone being used for the façade of the new Parliament House. He uploaded a photo of himself looking at the stone blocks in a very officious manner, and tagged them the “building blocks of democracy”. It seems that he wasn’t online long enough to notice the hoots of laughter and ridicule the comment attracted.

That’s because there is a cohort of voters who can see through the swanky social media quackery of some candidates and realise that there’s not much substance underneath. They figure out that it’s all sizzle and very little sausage. Whether this cohort is big enough to have a bearing on which candidates are elected, is one of the most interesting aspects of this electoral campaign.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt