You can now text Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has joined Community, the text-based platform that lets people connect with public figures and celebrities.
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The next time you have a question for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, he says you should just text him yourself and ask.
On Friday, Shapiro announced a new phone line for Pennsylvania residents to text back and forth with him and his office. The number is 717-788-8990.
“To best serve the people of Pennsylvania, we have to meet people where they are — and do it effectively and efficiently,” Shapiro said.
The two-way communication line is powered by Community — an SMS platform used by public figures, celebrities, and brands to connect with their audiences through a 10-digit phone number. Two weeks ago, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy joined the service, making him the first U.S. governor to launch a text line through the platform. President Joe Biden launched his account last summer.
The service works by having a host, the governor in this case, advertising a phone number for users to text and sign up for updates from. As noted by The New York Times, the service lets brands segment their audiences by location.
“Whether I’m visiting small businesses in Scranton, making a major announcement in Erie, or coming to your area to meet with you and your neighbors — I want to share it with you directly,” Shapiro said.
While Community doesn’t publicly release sign-up or client numbers, on the political side, its promotional list of clients includes Barack and Michelle Obama, New York Mayor Eric Adams, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.
The platform was cofounded by actor Ashton Kutcher in 2019 and has raised $110 million in investor fundraising, according to the Times. Shapiro’s office says the platform does not sell user data.
Corporations migrating to and putting financial backing behind Community marks a shift in the social media landscape as groups try to find ways to directly reach their audiences.
“I started out with Twitter and built a fairly large following on Twitter,” Kutcher told The Times. “But Twitter today is very different than what Twitter was when I originally started playing around it. The click-through rates are massively degraded — the number of people that actually see the post is massively degraded.”
Shapiro’s new public phone number is his team’s latest effort to reach audiences on new and non-traditional media platforms.
His digital team hosted background calls with local influencers and experts about situations including the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment and U.S. Supreme Court rulings. In March, Shapiro hosted a TikTok Live session with a Pittsburgh public schools teacher. On Earth Day, his office invited TikTok creators to the governor’s mansion to discuss agriculture and clean air and water.
In April, Shapiro signed an executive order establishing the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience, a commitment to streamline and modernize online services for Pennsylvanians.
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Most recently, Shapiro’s office worked with Alex Pearlman — the local comedian who goes by @Pearlmania500 on TikTok — to help disperse updates on the I-95 repairs. A livestream of the bridge rebuild became a viral sensation with thousands of viewers a day and an unofficial Twitch stream.
“No matter how you choose to access government, you need to know you’re going to get help, whether you’re walking into a building or sending me a text,” Shapiro said. “More importantly, I want to hear what you think, what my Administration and I can help with, and your stories. Shoot us a text.”