The Impact of Boundary Management Strategies on Politicians' Social M edia Use

Social media have found avid use among today's politicians. These platforms provide some specific opportunities to political professionals, such as personalized communication directed at specific communities of interest. At the same time, the "nonymous" nature of social media communication is associated with some challenges, too. Users need to carefully consider which audiences to address and how to target their communication efforts vis-à-vis distinct user groups. Professional communicators, particularly, need to manage the boundaries between professional and private online self-representations. Based on impression management theory, we differentiate four types of boundary management strategies in social media. We conduct a survey among German members of parliament and analyze the prevalence of all four strategies, then test for effects of distinct boundary management strategies on social media use practices. We find that considering boundary management strategies helps provide a better understanding of how politicians chose to employ social media.