Rubio Amplifies Positions, Defines Brand Through Twitter
As Twitter continues to grow in popularity, lawmakers across the aisle are leveraging the power of this digital channel to engage with their constituents. Senator Marco Rubio, who has drawn over two million new followers since early 2017 and has grown his audience to roughly four million users, is one lawmaker who is using Twitter to expand his reach.
Senator Rubio has found great success in using Twitter to amplify his policy positions and define his public brand, and his engagement on the platform demonstrates his deep understanding of how to cultivate a continuous content stream and optimize Twitter’s unique functionality.
Senator Rubio‘s first tweet each morning includes a bible verse, which allows him to reiterate his commitment to his faith and provide an uplifting start to the day for many of his followers. He also makes use of Twitter’s hashtag function far more frequently than most lawmakers, which helps his tweets appear in more search queries and draw higher engagement across a range of topics. In the tweet below, Rubio uses four distinct hashtags (#Florida, #HurrianceMichael, #Sayfie and #FloPol), each of which is likely to draw unique audiences to his post about an event he hosted to help support Florida’s small businesses.
We had a very productive hearing in Panama City, #Florida yesterday. Lots of good ideas & suggestions on how we can support small business recovery from #HurricaneMichael
https://t.co/jOVjxiLamN#Sayfie #FlaPol
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 15, 2019
Senator Rubio also understands how useful Twitter can be for reaching underserved communities across the world. To highlight his efforts to support the people of Cuba, he unveiled a second Twitter account in July (@MarcoRubioCuba) that he uses to communicate directly with Cubans living on the island. On this account, he draws from his Cuban American heritage and communicates exclusively in Spanish, offering commentary that demonstrates his awareness of the issues and concern for the Cuban people.