New Jersey mayor gives Scott advice on social media

Less than a week after his “Twitter town hall,” Rick Scott is getting critiqued by a fellow politician who many describe as a social media guru.

With more than 1 million followers, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker has turned the microblogging site into a public service phenomenon. (By comparison, Scott has 6,899 followers.) Time magazine even called Booker a “social media superhero” with a Twitter feed that read “like an action novel” in the wake of the area’s so-called snowpocalypse.

On his blog, Kevin Cate (the former spokesman for Scott’s 2010 rival, Alex Sink) reached out to Booker via Twitter for his advice on how to properly use social media in the political realm. Cate received his answer in a series of direct messages from Booker, whose Twitter handle is @CoryBooker:

You get more control when you surrender control. Social media allows you to shape media. Give yourself over to authentic communication and traditional media doesn’t shape your words as much as you shape traditional media’s ability to shape them. (Be) proactive, transparent, authentic. We are just now exploring this world but it is opening up a deeper way to connect, serve and express ideas/ideals.

Calling the “Twitter town hall” an effort to distract the public from Scott’s “closed-door relationship with the Capitol Press Corps.,” Cate said the event was an effective PR stunt but was “far from an effective use of the medium.”