US President Barack Obama speaks while standing in front of a monitor with a countdown message about the payroll tax extension December 20, 2011 during a previously unannounced appearance in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Obama on Tuesday warned the 'fragile' US economy could be impacted by a failure to extend a payroll tax cut, and called on Republicans to reverse their refusal to act now. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Image
WASHINGTON D.C. - White House officials launched a Twitter campaign Tuesday to put pressure on Congress to reach a deal extending the payroll-tax cut.
Using the Twitter hashtag #40dollars, the White House successfully got thousands of people to respond to explain what a $40 cut to each paycheck would mean to them personally.
Hashtags are used in tweets to group posts on Twitter that are all related. Forty dollars reflects about how much a bi-weekly paycheck would decrease for a worker earning $50,000 in the event no deal is made to extend the tax cut.
By far, the most common response was that $40 amounts to a tank of gas, but others wrote it's what they pay for medication or a week's-worth of groceries.
Courtney Powell of Aurora tweeted a failure to extend the tax break would mean "$40 not going [into] the 'baby fund' [or the money we're saving so we can start a family.]"
9NEWS got a peek behind the curtain of the White House's social-media planning in an exclusive interview with Macon Phillips, the President of the United State's Director of Digital Strategy.
"What's very important about a social-media campaign like this is that regular people are making the point about how this would affect them," Phillips said. "It's not us here in Washington trying to argue on their behalf."
On Wednesday morning, the #40dollars hashtag started "trending," which is what happens when Twitter's algorithms see a topic suddenly surge.
It's not easy to create that kind of surge, but the White House has 2.5 million Twitter followers to call upon.
Phillips says his team has managed to get a few Twitter topics to rise to the level of "trending" before - most notably when they began tweeting about the death of Osama bin Laden.
But unlike that event - which was simply spreading the news - this time it's about getting people to weigh in on a hot-button issue.
"Building some buzz about the issue generally means that more people are paying attention," Phillips said about the social-media strategy. "Our hope is that it actually impacts the conversation and helps get something done and gets Congress acting."
Despite some of the more dramatic responses to the $40 question, Phillips says some of the more mundane responses have an impact too.
"The guy in Parker [Colorado] who pointed out 'It's renter's insurance.' These are choices that aren't necessarily life-or-death decisions," Phillips said. "It's about the basic pieces of security middle class families look for. "
Strategists point out that President Obama is actively campaigning against Congress.
"I think campaigning against Congress is a tried and true strategy for presidents" University of Denver political science professor Peter Hanson said. "Congress is about as unpopular as it's ever been."
Recent polls show Congress has an approval rating of about 11 percent.
It's a strategy that Hanson says ultimately favors the president, even if voters are upset at both parties' inaction in Congress.
"This is not a fight the Republicans wanted to have," Hanson said.
Candidate Obama made headlines for his campaigns robust use of social media in the 2008 race. This campaign harping on a populist issue like the size of people's paychecks shows the Republican challenger will have to contend with a serious web presence again.
Above is 9NEWS' video of the Skype interview with Macon Phillips.
(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
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