Governor Patrick's team has been getting SM help from supporters

The third of four gubernatorial candidates we’re profiling for BostInnovation’s “Candidates & Social Media” series is Massachusetts’ sitting Governor, Deval Patrick. After much coordination – we were able to catch up with staff from Patrick’s team to get their responses to our Social Media Q&A.

These responses were provided by Joshua Gee, Patrick’s Social Media Director. To learn more about Deval Patrick’s campaign for reelection and his stance on the issues, visit the campaign website, Facebook, or Twitter.

In case you’ve missed it, we’ve already profiled Republican Candidate, Charlie Baker, and Independent Candidate, Tim Cahill. Check out the past interviews to see how the candidate’s Social Media strategies stack up.

BostInnovation: How has social and new media changed the campaign landscape?

Joshua Gee: Social media continues to change the campaign landscape. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook rely on immediacy and intimacy, which has placed new demands and challenges on us to create compelling content and respond quickly to breaking issues. Social media allows endless ways to engage with supporters and potential voters and increases their interactivity with the campaign. While it can be a lot of work, the fact that anyone can post a question on our Facebook wall or tweet at us and expect a response quickly is pretty cool.

It has also empowered our supporters to run their own campaigns. For example, any of our supporters can use their social media accounts to act as a combination advocate/pundit to their own network and discuss the choices in this election. Obviously our opponents can do the same thing, but citizen empowerment is something the Governor believes in very strongly. More voices in the public debate is a good thing for the Commonwealth. (more…)