In one of my previous articles, I wrote on how to get a campaign job and what to expect on your first campaign. In this article, I will inform you on how to make sure that your social media habits do not derail your career.
Social media guidelines
How to start
Campaigns want organizers to have a social media presence. An organizer using their personal twitter to advertise events is key to actually getting the word out to people. Many organizers run into a problem where they cannot separate the campaign with their own views. Once you get hired you should put the following words on every single piece of social media you have: Any views presented on this account are my own and are not representative of the views of my employer. That statement will save you a lot of trouble in the long run.
Be selective in posting
The second thing that I would recommend people do is to just stop tweeting or posting things not related to your job. This is hard, but you cannot get fired for saying something messed up if you do not tweet, like, or post things. Think about how many times various politicians have gotten in trouble with some group or another for liking or retweeting something from a group that has sketchy views. You can avoid this if you just do not use social media personally. However, this is very difficult for younger people to do. This means that you are going to have to do some due diligence. Research people you retweet, or just stick to the verified people. You can rarely go wrong with verified people.
Police your language
I have seen numerous organizers fired because of things that they posted on social media. Usually, it is because something that you posted years ago that can be unfavorably described as racist, sexist, or homophobic. Campaigns do not want to be associated with any of those categories. If the campaign is ok with that it is a big red flag. Otherwise, I would make sure nothing that you post could be constituted as any of those categories.
Think before you Tweet
The final thing that I would recommend is to keep your future in mind. Never talk bad about a politician in your party unless everyone in the party is going after them. Never attack other organizers that work for different campaigns. Even if you hated their candidate and thought what the campaign did was scummy do not attack other organizers.
You do not realize how small the world of politics is. Many of my friends and former co-workers have moved across the country working for different campaigns. Some of my friends are blue dogs that worked for Bernie, and some are progressives that worked for Bloomberg. If you get a second job you will not know where your supervisor will be from. Most people jump from campaign to campaign. It is easy for your potential manger to be one of the people you decided to attack. This can prevent you from getting a job in the future. If you are unlucky it can also burn your bridges with certain parts of the party.
Conclusion
Be careful of what you post. When you are an organizer you are one of the public faces of the campaign. If you become a liability because of your actions online campaigns will replace you. However, if you follow all of these recommendations you should be good.