President Obama Seeks New Social Media Guru

February 15, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke

February 15, 2010 – It seems the Obama administration will have a new vacancy to fill on March 1, 2010. The position of the Barack Obama Twitterer/Facebooker/Social Media Ninja, currently held by Mia Cambronero, will become vacant. This is not to be confused with the official White House equivalent, which is apparently staffed by a whole different social media guru.

While I’m sure you’re completely shocked the President of the United States does not type his own Twitter and Facebook updates with his own calloused thumbs, focus on the possibilities this opportunity offers. In a matter of weeks, you could be tweeting and status updating in the name of freedom. Is their a cooler way to serve your country that doesn’t involve anything riskier than Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Just think. With a good attitude and some hard-tweeting, you might snag the official White House Social Media Guru position one day.

Lack natural motivation? No problem, this position has it built-in. Tweet or status update badly, and your boss won’t get re-elected, which means you’ll be jobless in less than three years. Worried about the pay? Don’t because you’re going to get paid to exclusively do what any other employer would fire you for doing (if they found out). Besides, you’re going to be serving your country via Twitter duty. No amount of money could replace the inner pride you’re sure to feel.

So if you are interested in this challenging, yet rewarding position, here’s a couple of things you must have:

- Excellent writing skills (Read: Your tweets must not be so boring as to cause mass unfollowings but also not so exciting they cause financial markets to fluctuate.)
- Excellent editing skills (Read: Appropriate use of complex terms such as LOL, ROFL, WTF, BTW)
- Strong organizing and campaigning instincts (Read: Can get followers to do stuff, like @aplusk and @Alyssa_Milano do)
- Strong attention to detail (Read: Can watch the character count move backward from 140 while typing and finish the complete message, leaving enough characters to allow for traditional retweets by followers without the need for Twitlonger.)
- Hard worker ready to put it long hours (Read: Not just a 9-5 desktop PC job – Must be willing to tweet and status update while in the bathroom, lying on the couch, and driving in traffic)
- Ability to manage multiple projects (Read: Skill in opening and alternating between four tabs or windows in IE8 – No cushy third-party applications like Brizzly or Tweetdeck allowed here.)

If these examples stirred the social media patriotism in your soul, head on over to the Organizing for America section of Barack Obama’s official website. There, you can get all of the details and apply. Good luck, and if the person who gets the job found out about it here, we’d appreciate if @BarackObama could follow @GeekShui, @gizmoalex, @popbunker, and @bladestorm61. (We won’t expect @replies. It will be honor enough just to be followed by the leader of the free world.)