Daniel Lurie’s Viral Mayor Strategy

San Francisco's Mayor as Influencer in Chief San Francisco's new mayor Daniel Lurie isn't just running City hall, he's running a social media channel. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lurie's Instagram following has soared from under 20,000 to more than 180,000, generating roughly 21 million monthly views. Wow, I wish I had that many. His TikTok presence is growing as well. His feed is packed with coffee shop drop ins, drain clearing videos, small business shout outs, and his trademark line, let's go. San Francisco supporters call him the city's chief marketing officer, arguing that his upbeat post helps sell a comeback story to younger residents. Laurie says social media takes probably 2% of my day and allows him to speak directly to San Franciscans. Critics, including former rival Aaron Peskin, say his constant content creation risks distracting from government. As Peskin put it this I've got to be on TikTok three times a day thing does not supplant you having to run a competent government. Voters will ultimately decide whether they're getting a mayor or a full time influencer. Or both, I guess. So what's the real message here? The San Francisco mayor is apparently a king of Instagram and TikTok and is doing well. Who does he remind me of? Donald Trump. Also the master of social media. Anyone who aspires to run for political office, to wield power in the modern world needs to realize it's no longer a luxury to be a good communicator or to be on social media. You got to be really good at it. You've got to capture attention on a daily basis if you want to make a difference. And if you want to, you even want to get into office the first place. Let's dig a little deeper here. So again, I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. I'm not here just trying to score cheap political points. I call it like I see it. And this San Francisco mayor by no means is a Trump supporter. It's San Francisco. By San Francisco standards, he's seen as much more of a centrist than the previous mayor, but he's certainly no Donald Trump supporter. Okay, but they are alike and that they both communicate regularly, frequently in social media. And Donald Trump, whatever his flaws are, and they are many, he clearly understands how to get attention, how to focus attention on what he thinks is important. That is arguably the single most important skill if you want to be a successful politician in 2025, 2026 and for the near future. It's a necessary skill. So I've been saying this for a while now. I'll say it again now. I think my advice to anyone who wants to be a politician, whether you want to run for city council, whether you want to run for a student body president at your college or high school, start a podcast, start posting content daily. You don't have to do a daily podcast, but you need to be someone who puts a spotlight on issues you care about, people you care about. Now, as a mayor, it's a fantastic tool because as a mayor, you're supposed to be the champion for your city. So simply spending some time walking around, going to small businesses, putting a spotlight on them, maybe getting them a couple extra customers, making them feel good is a great thing for a mayor to do or any executive to do. But this could be done by someone on city council or state legislative races or congressional races. So the days and again, let me be fair here. This is one area where I do think Republicans currently are being smarter and more tactical. They see their leader in Chief Trump master the media communicating constantly. They're going on podcast unfiltered, whereas a lot of Democrats are. Still, let's stay buttoned up, let's focus group test it, let's poll it first. Let's not say anything that could be off message. And they're not as free flowing with their ideas and this constant stream of content that many Republicans are. So I think the Democrats, many of them realize it's a mistake they are attempting to make the change. But this is advice I would give to someone of any political party, whether you're a Green, a libertarian, whatever. If you want to have influence, if you want to build a following, don't just do the old playbook of raise a bunch of money and run millions of dollars of ads three weeks before the election. You need to be out there following 365 days a year, communicating with people, putting a spotlight on things that you think are important. Some more facts on this situation. The mayor, as I mentioned, has seen his Instagram following go from 20,000 to 80, 180,000. He's not exactly Kim Kardashian, but that's pretty good for a politician. And according to the times, he's getting 21 million views a month. That's nothing to sneeze at. 62% say a new city poll says 62% think San Francisco is moving in the right direction. Wow. There are a lot of national politicians in America who'd love to see polling data look that good. This is up from only 28% last year, so there's a 40% swing now. You could say, well, he's in the honeymoon phase, maybe, but maybe it's because he's able to communicate on a regular, consistent basis and he's very free flowing and he's talking to celebrities, he's talking to local businesses. It's not just hardcore policy all the time. I think that's pretty smart. He's mixing it up with small business promos, civic chores, feel good moments, spotlighting people's dogs and can this go too far? Yeah, you can make a case, as we'll talk about in a show later this week, that it can definitely go too far. If you're sitting there tweeting 400 times till midnight, as a current well known politician has been doing from the White House, it can be too far. But you have to be as a politician, you have to be in your own times. If you were running for office in the age of Lincoln, you needed to be able to stand up and give a speech for 45 minutes, listen to someone else give a 45 minute rebuttal and do three, four, five hour debates. That's not a skill that's needed anymore. What is needed is the ability to do exactly as this mayor is doing. Communicating incessantly on social media and doing it in a way where people associate you with progress, with good things. That is what is important.