Mayor’s Twitter account is the real deal
A self-described social media skeptic, Mayor Baldelli-Hunt says she has joined Twitter to share with constituents
WOONSOCKET — One need look no further than @realDonaldTrump to appreciate how political figures have seized social media as a platform for speaking directly to their constituents – often sidestepping the filter of the mainstream press in the process.
But President Trump is hardly unique. From governors to the councilors of the teeniest towns in the USA – elected officials have commandeered digital ve- hicles like Twitter and Facebook to tell their stories and show their photos to the world.
And now – after a long and conspicuous absence – you can find @MayorLBH in the digisphere, too.
“I feel really cool because I’m not a tech person,” says Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt. “To me, this is big.”
While peers who hold elective office in not-so-far-away places are old hands on social media, City Hall’s chief executive is a reluctant latecomer to the game and still views her debut on Twitter as something of an experiment. She hopped aboard just over a month ago despite mixed feelings about social media, especially Facebook.
Although constituents might have noticed when, about five years ago, a Facebook page materialized with the apparent intent of promoting her campaign for mayor, Baldelli-Hunt says it was a fake. The page was created by an opponent for the purpose, she thinks, of portraying her social media skills in a manner that a
certain tech-savvy sector of the electorate might find unflattering.
Baldelli-Hunt still has no Facebook page, personal or otherwise, and seems un- likely to launch one anytime soon. She says there’s no denying certain platforms have value, but they’re also easily manipulated and abused.
“There are members of society who choose to use social media as a tool that can be harmful – it has led some people to take their own lives,” she says. “It’s powerful, but it’s a polarizing power.”
Despite her misgivings, Baldelli-Hunt is cautiously optimistic that she can run a Twitter page in a way that keeps her followers apprised of city happenings without becoming a magnet for malicious feedback or controversy.
Officially, Baldelli-Hunt says, @MayorLBH is a personal account – not a municipal one. Though, when you’re the mayor, the personal and the civic tend to cross paths.
“I’m sharing things I feel are important for the community to know,” she said. “Even though it’s my personal account, it’s my life.”
In recent days, for example, Baldelli-Hunt’s tweets have included an entry under the heading of “Woonsocket Urban Art,” with a photograph of an old-fashioned bicycle, repainted from spoke to sprocket in a bright shade of lavender, and a bouquet of bright flowers spilling out of the basket mounted to the handlebars; a shout-out to the Blackstone Valley Prevention Coalition for donating first aid kits to the Woonsocket Little League; and another photograph of opening-day ceremonies for the annual Bocce League, which is overseen by her uncle, former Mayor Charles Baldelli.
“Don’t be a couch potato,” says the tweet, borrowing her uncle’s prescriptive health mantra. “Be a hot potato.”
It may be a personal account, but Baldelli-Hunt says it also helps fill a gap in the city’s public relations arse- nal that opened up when the City Council cut funding for the administration’s business outreach and public relations liaison last year. When it made the cuts, the council’s argument was that the mayor was using the position to promote her own political interests – a job that taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for.
But Baldelli-Hunt says cutting the position was “unfair” to the individual who held that job, Blake Collins, who is now working as a campaign aide to former U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha. A Democrat, Neronha is the only announced candidate seeking to succeed term-limited Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.
Refuting the justification for cutting the position, Baldelli-Hunt says that, above all, cutting off City Hall’s public relations arm was unfair to residents because the result is they are less informed than they should be.
While she is still opposed to maintaining a personal Facebook page, she says the city could surely benefit from one – just as the Woonsocket Police Department does. But the WPD has something that the city doesn’t that makes the social media presence feasible – and that’s someone to maintain it. Without an individual whose duties includ- ing replying to comments or updating the site with relevant, new information, it isn’t practical for the city to have a Facebook page, the mayor says.
Even Baldelli-Hunt’s Twitter page comes with a disclaimer of sorts to indicate that it’s not a forum for debate.
“This account is not always monitored for replies,” it says.
The account @MayorLBH does owe a debt to Collins, however, because he launched it under another handle in June 2016. It had lain fallow for months – until Baldelli-Hunt reactivated it with a new handle on April 25.
In that comparatively brief time, Baldelli-Hunt (as of Friday, anyway), had tweeted 42 times and her list of followers is growing fast.
She was watching the Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers a few days ago when realized that she had reached a Twitter milestone. She was glancing at her phone to Tweet an exciting development in the game when she noticed it.
“I got my 100th follower, who happens to be my mailman,” she said. “I thought that was pretty cool.”