Town hall meetings, television coverage, and even radio broadcasts are not uncommon when a mayoral debate is taking place. But New Orleans citizens had twitter all abuzz with no holds bar conversations on Twitter during the recent mayoral debate. A variety of questions from public blight to crime were raised during the debate with the use of the #nolamayor and #NOLAMayoralDebate hashtags.

Tweet From NOLA Mayoral Debate

Because hashtags are searchable, the question begs to be asked: Will these candidates go back and analyze the (real) questions/problems posed by citizens? Just as businesses use Twitter to monitor what people are saying about their brand, so can New Orleans mayoral candidates. Not only can candidates get a first hand account on what issues citizens are concerned with but they can also get a true evaluation of how they did. Body language, public speaking skills, and authenticity of issues all play a part in who is chosen as the next mayor of New Orleans. Candidates can use this as a tool to adapt, tweak, and improve for upcoming public events.

As the race for mayor of New Orleans gets tighter, potential candidates can leverage social media along the hand shaking, baby kissing, and one on one talks. During this mayoral debate we could see peoples views on who the strongest candidate was, who they would be voting for, and even their thoughts on the lack of seriousness on certain issues. For a candidate in any election, getting feedback such as this (good or bad) from potential voters is golden.