AARP Begins #WW2K Social Media Effort for Virginia Congressional Races

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RICHMOND _Virginia voters will have a chance to publicly ask candidates for Congress and U.S. Senate questions and the office-seekers will have the opportunity to answer those questions in a continuous open forum between now and Election Day.

 

AARP Virginia today unleashed its 2014 voter engagement campaign, called We Want to Know. The effort, conducted last year for the gubernatorial and state legislative races, will be conducted entirely through social media. The initiative gives voters across the state an online venue for asking the candidates questions about the issues that matter to them. All candidates running for Congress and U.S. Senate in Virginia are being asked to answer the questions publicly via Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #WW2K.

 

“Voters across the Commonwealth can participate and engage with the candidates through social media,” said AARP Virginia State President Bob Blancato. “This gives voters the chance to ask their candidates about issues important to them and their families.”

 

We Want to Knowis a grassroots social media effort conducted by AARP volunteers and voters across the state. AARP volunteers will attend election-related events such as candidate town hall meetings, forums and debates as well as fairs and festivals. Using “Flat People” props that are life-sized cutouts of actual AARP volunteers, the advocates will give voters the opportunity to write down their questions for the candidates on a white board, take the voters’ photos posing with the Flat People and post the pictures and questions on Twitter and Facebook. The candidates will be asked to answer the question by replying to it publicly. Using the hashtag #WW2K, the questions will be easily located on Facebook and Twitter.

 

“This effort will give voters a chance to see their questions answered,” Blancato said.

 

All candidates for federal public office in Virginia will be targeted by the #WW2K effort.

 

Voters can participate in the effort on their own, without attending a public event where AARP volunteers and the Flat People will be working.

 

“If a voter asks a question on Facebook or Twitter and uses the hashtag #WW2K while tagging AARP Virginia, we will make sure the candidates get those questions,” Blancato said. Instructions on how to participate are at www.aarp.org/va.

 

AARP Virginia’s Twitter handle is @AARPVa and the Facebook page is located at www.facebook.com/aarpvirginia.