This piece is an essay I wrote that looks into the communication strategies that the senator uses to stay relevant wit his voters. Some examples of his communication outlets are Facebook, Twitter and campaign websites. The paper looks into all of his media outlets that he uses and analyzes the ways that the senator uses these outlets to get information to his followers/voters.

By Sam Martin

Hawaii State Senator Brickwood Galuteria is running for his second term as state senator. Senator Galuteria represents the 12^th district which, includes Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kaka’ako, Downtown, Chinatown, and Kalihi Palama. He was elected to office in 2008. Galuteria serves on four major committees, Ways and Means, Education and Housing and Public Safety and Military Affairs. He also was elected to vice-chair of the Committee of Tourism. Since Senator Galuteria is running for re-election he has a slight advantage over the other candidate in that people already know who he is and what he brings to the table as a politician. However, that does not mean that he can afford to slack in promoting and keeping himself relevant with the public.

There are many different ways that candidates can promote themselves and their campaigns, social media, television, and personal appearances are all ways that a candidate can accomplish that. In today’s society social media has become a thriving tool, people can keep in touch no matter the distance, businesses can reach not only their local customers but also their customers in different states and countries. Also companies can advertise all over the world and since very large populations of people have social media, they reach the masses with simply the click of a button. Senator Galuteria has a wide variety of social media profiles so that he can reach as many people as he can; senator has the basic two social network sites, Twitter and Facebook.  Also senator has a profile on LinkedIn which is a social networking site for business men and women, the site allows them to make a profile and contact friends, colleagues, and anyone else they may have either done business or are interested in doing business with. From researching Senator

Sen. Galuteria answers questions on a live webcast. (Photo courtesy of http://article.wn.com/view/2012/05/30/Hawaii_US_Senate_Forum/)

Galuteria’s various social media sites, I noticed that he has a different use for each site in terms of the information he posts.

Facebook, for example, the site that sits at the top of the social media mountain is the site that senator is more involved with than Facebook’s social media counterparts. Senator has two pages on facebook that he uses for different reasons, one is more of a personal page and the other is a fan page where various people on Facebook can like his page and when he posts something it will show up on their news feed when they walk in. Galuteria has different uses for each page that he has on Facebook, the personal page he posts more personal things like articles he has just read or meet and greet events that he will be attending as well as personal statuses about what the senator has been up to. The fan page is used for more promotional reasons with posts that let followers know about political events that the senator will be attending or official news from the senate will be posted on the fan page as well as campaign news such as interviews and links to political sites. With both Facebook pages, a person can find information about Senator Galuteria’s happenings with ease.

Twitter, the other social media site that closely rivals Facebook is another social media site that senator has a page for, however, the senator’s twitter page is not kept up to date nearly as well as his Facebook pages. Senator Galuteria hasn’t posted a tweet since spring of last year.  Twitter is a good website for a constant update of what people do throughout their day, the social media focuses more on the present where as Facebook allows people to reach each other no matter how long its been or how far away they are from each other. When someone stops to update their Twitter, their page loses relevance to their followers because they suddenly have no reason to visit their page; unfortunately this seems to be happening for the senator. The inactivity is not due to a lack of followers, senator has a good amount of followers so it’s not like no one wants to hear what senator is up too. However, his twitter is somewhat non-existent so he does miss out on some of the people that he can reach through twitter.

His LinkedIn profile I believe has more business use for the senator than personal uses. Senator’s profile on LinkedIn allows him to communicate with his colleagues and anyone else that he is interested in doing business or they are interested in doing business with him. He can post information on his campaign on his profile and businesses can contact him with questions and or promotional opportunities.

Other ways that Senator Galuteria spreads the word on his campaign that is outside of the social media world is thorough television and radio.  Senator has multiple commercials out in TV land right now during the months leading up to the elections with

This is a behind the scenes look in the studio during the senator’s former morning radio show. (Photo courtesy of uluart.com)

information on his campaign and his quest to keep his seat in the senate for a second term. He also has advertisements running through the radio, which is beneficial for senator because he has a past in the radio business so people will recognize his name over the radio and be more inclined to listen to his advertisement.  Lastly, the senator’s campaign gets its word out in the community the old fashion way that is by pounding the pavement. All around the 12^th district you can find numerous signs and posters supporting Senator Galuteria in his campaign. With the large amounts of tourists that walk around district 12 everyday, many different faces see the senator’s campaign signs. Also Senator Galuteria takes advantage of personal interactions with his voters with numerous meet and greets as well as public appearances and community events. One of the reasons he does this is because one of senator’s strengths is public speaking.  So he takes advantage of opportunities to talk to the voters about his campaign and what he plans to do during his second term in office. Since Senator Galuteria is running for his second consecutive term, he is favored in his race for representative of district 12.