On June 25^th, 2009, Mayor Willie Herenton announced his resignation and skeptics were put to rest as notable Memphians across the city began announcing their official candidacy for mayor. With most candidates came a corresponding Facebook page in the hopes of furthering their campaigns. As part of our Social Media Expedition we had hoped to jump on this opportunity and briefly interview these candidates about their use of Social Networking sites in their campaigns.

Our first attempt to set up these interviews involved a traditional phone call to the candidates’ respective offices, after which we were told to contact the office via email in order to request an interview. We continued our efforts as we were told and sent emails to both official and considering candidates; however, we received no responses. We then decided to contact the candidates through their Facebook pages in keeping with the Social Media Expedition. However, once again we received no responses. In one last effort, we sent a second message via Facebook to only the official candidates and within ten minutes received our first response. Reverend Kenneth T. Whalum Jr. provided us with the contact information we would need to set up a brief interview. While we have yet to receive responses from any of the other candidates, we hope that they too will respond to our last efforts as Rev. Whalum Jr. has.

Pages we visited:

Wharton: http://www.facebook.com/acwharton?ref=ts

Chumney: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=738925831

Carpenter: http://www.facebook.com/charlescarpentermayor

Lawler: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506080406

Whalum: http://www.facebook.com/kwhalum