If you’ve ever wanted to see Derek Green taking the polar plunge, Jeff Brown dancing in the aisles of ShopRite, or Allan Domb wearing Jason Kelce’s Mummers hat from the 2018 Super Bowl parade, you can find it all on TikTok.

At least half of Philadelphia’s mayoral contenders this year have profiles on the popular video-based platform to promote their candidacy, and the vibes are… interesting.

Pretty much all of the candidates actively use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep people up to date with what they’re doing on the campaign trail. But while their Insta followings range from 639 to 18k, their TikToks haven’t yet caught on.

A few mayoral hopefuls haven’t even launched an account on the video-sharing platform, which is increasingly popular among millennials and Gen Z. Of those that do, none have more than 250 followers. Only three candidates have posted more than five videos. Some garner engagement by reposting to Instagram, but on the app itself, most have just a few hundred (or a few dozen) views and maybe a handful of comments.

Making TikTok work for political campaigns isn’t easy, digital communications and social media strategist Annie Wu Henry told Billy Penn. 

“There’s a lot of helpful uses for social media if it’s used correctly, but it’s not just a copy-and-paste formula,” Henry said. The 26-year-old Philly resident, who said she works for progressive organizations, was widely credited with boosting John Fetterman’s social profile during his successful run for U.S. Senate.

TikTok can be especially useful in reaching younger voters. A quarter of adults under 30 said last year they regularly get news on the platform, according to the Pew Research Center, and around half of people aged 18 to 29 used it in 2021. Overall, 1 in 5 adults used TikTok — fewer than Facebook or Instagram, which were used by 69% and 40% of adults, respectively. 

But the app has featured in campaigns and skyrocketed some formerly low-profile politicians to online notoriety, like U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson of North Carolina, who now has nearly 400,000 followers.

The key, Henry said, is to make sure there’s “intention and reason behind” what a campaign is posting — and to make sure the format fits the platform. Vertical, high resolution, short-form videos are usually the best for TikTok, and capitalizing on memes and trends can help a video go viral, or at least garner attention.

For a municipal election, Henry advised, campaigns would do well to concentrate on showing up on “For You” pages of people who actually live in the city.

“Get on Philly TikTok, get in the algorithm in a way that it’s going to be pushing you out to all the people that are in Philadelphia,” she said, “in the same ways that Eagles content and the stuff that was happening on Broad Street after winning the conference championship game [were].”

Staying true to the candidate is also critical. “The second you’re trying to cater to other people, it becomes not authentic,” Henry said.

A mismatch between the platform and the “spirit of our candidate and campaign” is why Rebecca Rhynhart’s campaign hasn’t launched a TikTok account, a spokesperson told Billy Penn, though it’s regularly active on many other social platforms. Cherelle Parker’s campaign has also passed on TikTok, digital director Nandi O’Connor said, but is using Instagram reels in a “comparable way.” For Helen Gym, a future TikTok account could be in the cards, per spokesperson Harrison Morgan.

Of the mayoral candidates that are using TikTok, each has their own particular style, or is starting to form one — from Green’s day-to-day explanations of life on the campaign trail, to the Domb campaign dipping its toes into trends, to Jimmy DeLeon’s sole post, a straightforward clip of him speaking at a mayoral forum.

We’ve looked through all their campaign accounts so you don’t have to. Here’s a review of what we saw.

Followers: 9
Posts: 6
Last posted: Feb. 13

Most popular post: Domb knocking on doors and asking Philly residents to vote for him (1,043 views, 113 likes). None of his posts have comments.

Our take: Getting the hang of it. While his first two videos were a bit overproduced and didn’t appear made for TikTok, the more accurate attempts are vertical and make use of popular trends like “things that just make sense.”

Social strategy: The campaign is using its social media channels, TikTok included, to share conversations with people across the city and to show off more of Domb’s personality, said digital director Lindy Wittenberg. “Our social media gets to show a side of Allan not everyone sees — speaking with strangers, supporting small businesses, and visiting neighborhoods in Philly,” Wittenberg said.

Followers: 5
Posts: 1
Last posted: Jan. 27

Most popular post: The lone post is Quiñones-Sánchez introducing herself. “I’m Maria Quiñones-Sánchez. I’m running for mayor because there’s nothing wrong with Philly that we can’t fix together,” she says (217 views, 6 likes).

Our take: Too soon to say, but the initial attempt seemed better suited to the platform than some of the other candidates, and her signature campaign colors — blue and yellow — visually set her apart.

Social strategy: The campaign is using the platform to “directly engage with multigenerational voters in ways we haven’t been able to access before,” said campaign spokesperson Sheila Ballen. “Maria is a dynamic person and an engaging speaker with a strong track record in leadership,” Ballen said. “She has bold policy ideas that we want Philadelphia voters to hear about directly from her.”

Followers: 224
Posts: 8
Last posted: Feb. 13

Most popular post: Used to be a now-deleted play on the popular “He knows Barack. I love Barack” TikTok meme using pictures of Jeff Brown with the Obamas, which abruptly transitions into an “I’m voting Jeff” advertisement for his mayoral candidacy (513.8k views and 1,246 likes as of Monday). Now that that video’s gone, the most viewed post is a 2021, pre-campaign video of Brown dancing with restaurateur Saudia Shuler to “All the Way Up” (2,413 views, 43 likes, 2 comments).

Our take: In flux. Prior to Tuesday, the Brown campaign’s presence came across as pretty lighthearted and TikTok-ish. There’s still some upbeat content — like using Taylor Swift’s “Karma” to promote picking up the “damn trash,” or TikTok dancing in the aisles of ShopRite — but there’s not really enough campaign-related content to make a good judgment.

Brown has deleted some of his posts in accurate days, including a video of him challenging NYC Mayor Eric Adams to a bet on the Eagles’ playoff game against the Giants last month. The account’s likes were also made private after Billy Penn asked about them. As of last week, @jeffbrownformayor had liked a video of TikTok it girl Alix Earle dying her hair and a 5-minute video that claims to reveal “The truth about UFOs.” It’s not clear who tapped the heart — the campaign says both Brown and the campaign’s digital director have access to the account.

Social strategy: “Our TikTok presence is guided by Gen-Z members of our team who work to link pop culture moments with Jeff’s message and Philadelphia’s values and concerns,” Brown’s campaign comms team told Billy Penn. “We also take note of the viral #phillytiktok hashtag, which is one [of] the highest used on the platform.” Moving forward, the campaign is hoping to spotlight Brown’s “personable nature” and the neighborhoods he visits.

Followers: 15
Posts: 11
Last posted: Feb. 13

Most popular post: Green putting together gun safety kits on Martin Luther King Day of Service at Girard College. “I’m working hard. We’re going to make it happen,” he says in the video (645 views, 153 likes).

Our take: Dad vibes. The account shows him in interviews, donating blood, visiting small businesses, and volunteering, plus a few montage reels set to tunes like “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky. His TikToks are earnest — and among the mayoral candidates, they’re performing most consistently, with videos generally getting over 100 views.

Social strategy: The Green campaign is using the platform as a way of “meeting people where they are” — particularly young voters — and showing “the human side of Derek, and to break down the barriers that exist between politicians and voters,” said campaign spokesperson Frances Patano. “Yes, Derek is a former at-large councilmember,” Patano said. “He is also a Marvel fan, a dad joke enthusiast, and a dancefloor regular. Philadelphia is a city with a big personality, and TikTok is a way to show how Derek can match that.”

Followers: 69
Posts: 3
Last posted: Jan. 11

Most popular post: A picture of a person sleeping on the floor of a Broad Street Line car set to the tune of “Aesthetic” by Tollan Kim (414 views, 3 likes, and 3 comments — with two of the comments coming from the @warrenfuzzybloom account).

Our take: “Windows Movie Maker” meets “in with the kids.” The videos consist more of pictures and slideshows than genuine videos, but they’re set to popular TikTok audios like “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy and “Sunroof” by Nicky Youre and dazy.

It’s not quite clear whether the Bloom campaign actually runs the account — Bloom didn’t respond to Billy Penn’s requests for confirmation, and he doesn’t link to it from any of his other social media — but the content is similar to some posts on his Instagram and Facebook.

Social strategy: Bloom didn’t respond to Billy Penn’s questions. But @warrenfuzzybloom did leave a comment on one of the account’s TikToks saying that “word of mouth still beats all technology. Just remember to do the right thing and Vote for Bloom in the Spring first May 16th 4Mayor.”

Followers: 126
Posts: 1
Last posted: Jan. 20

Most popular post: The sole video is DeLeon speaking about his plans to fight gun violence at a January candidates forum in Germantown (704 views, 75 likes, and 13 comments — most of which are messages of support like “Good to see U on Tik Tok James D”).

Our take: Too early to tell. His single video performed relatively well compared to other mayoral candidates, but it was filmed horizontally and was a clip from a forum, so not created specially for the platform. 

Social strategy: The campaign’s plan is to use TikTok “to get the information of his mayoral administration initiatives and reforms out to the public,” said spokesperson Jarred Rigmidan, while acknowledging DeLeon is still new to the platform. “We also look forward to the feedback that comes with sharing these ideas as well and hope to win over any naysayers to his ideas with a mutual beneficial outcome,” Rigmidan wrote.

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Microsoft is holding a special media event TODAY where it is expected to unveil a number of announcements around AI across various Microsoft products. Sadly, the event will not be livestreamed, but we’re on the ground at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond to cover the news as it happens, and we’ll be live blogging it all here.

So if you want to keep up to date on the very latest news coming out of Microsoft today, be sure to bookmark this page and return at 10AM PST / 1PM EST / 6PM GMT as that's when the event begins. In the meantime, here’s a recap of what we know so far about Microsoft’s AI efforts.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a huge $10 billion partnership with OpenAI, with plans to enthuse many of its products with AI technology over the next handful of months and years. Microsoft Teams Premium is already shipping with AI enhancements such as meeting recap and highlights, which will automatically write up meeting details and key points, and send it to all participants once the meeting ends.

Additionally, a new version of Microsoft Bing was accidentally put live late last week, which revealed new AI based features with ChatGPT integration. The new Bing featured a chat box rather than a search box, and you could talk to the search engine like a person to find information and search for web queries using natural language.

We’re expecting Microsoft to officially announce the new Bing, as well as a handful of other AI-enhanced products at the event today. Where else might we see AI? Office is a likely candidate, and perhaps we’ll even see how Microsoft is planning to enhance Windows with AI. This is something Microsoft Chief Product Officer, Panos Panay, teased would be a focus for Windows in the future at CES 2023 earlier this year.

Good morning! We’re all prepped for the Microsoft event later today. We'll be on the ground at Microsoft's headquarters nice and early to cover all the announcements, so be sure to bookmark this page, and return at 10AM PT / 1PM ET so you don’t miss any of the news.

9NEWS asked all 17 people running for Denver to answer the same policy questions.

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UPTOWN — The area’s housing needs, transit infrastructure and public safety were debated at a forum of 46th Ward candidates Tuesday.

Six candidates are running in the open race to replace a retiring Ald. James Cappleman (46th), who served three terms in the office. Five of the candidates participated in a forum Tuesday at the Preston Bradley Center, 971 W. Lawrence Ave., held by Uptown United and the Uptown Chamber of Commerce.

The forum included discussions about ways to support the neighborhood’s economic growth, how to handle development in the ward, ways to Strengthen schools and their ideas for boosting transportation and mobility in the community.

The five participating candidates were scientist Marianne Lalonde, community organizer Kim Walz, community organizer Angela Clay, bartender and union steward Roushaunda Williams and real estate broker Michael Cortez.

Patrick Nagle, a federal chief administrative judge, was out of town for work and could not participate, he said. Uptown United will pose the same questions to him Friday. This story will be updated with his responses.

The candidates will square off in a Feb. 28 election. If no candidate secures 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote earners will proceed to a runoff April 4.

Here is, in their own words, how the candidates answered questions at the forum.

How will you balance the needs for continued development and investment in Uptown with the need to make sure that Uptown remains affordable?

Michael Cortez: “I think the most important thing is to keep the the 20 percent of new developments [affordable] and just promote the area, making it more affordable for builders to come in.”

Roushaunda Williams: “We need to create good jobs, right? That should be one of the things that we are paying attention to, because not being able to afford where you are living starts way before people are homeless.

“We also need to make sure that we are paying attention to what types of developments are coming in and their impact in the community. We need to make sure that we are definitely in real deep and understanding what people need.”

Angela Clay: “When we are thinking about development in his ward, we need to think about it as development without displacement. The community and culture that has always been here and will continue to be here thrive off of the affordability aspect that we have in the 46th Ward.

“We need to make sure that, again, we are building housing stock that is going to make sure that all of our ward thrives. We are a community of elementary schools. Families rely on affordable housing. … We need to make sure that we are developing equitably and with everyone at this table. We have a say in how we want to build our community and we have been left out of that process for a very long time.”

Kim Walz: “In order to deal with affordable housing conditions, we have to look at this systemically. … We really though have to have a conversation about how we’re helping the unhoused.

“We don’t have enough short-term solutions and we don’t have enough long-term housing solutions to help those who are going through this crisis. … We also have 20 to 30 percent less shelter beds than we did before the pandemic and there are no plans to get it back to this original rate. So as we talk about affordable housing, it’s not just about rents, but it’s helping individuals get into homes in the first place and I’m committed to both of those as alderman.”

Marianne Lalonde: “When we think about building more affordable housing in the ward. I think it’s really important that we do it with wraparound services. This will help advance economic upward mobility.

“Not only are we thinking about more affordable housing and keeping housing affordable at every level, what we need to think about are resources for shelters in our neighborhood. … We have the opportunity to add more resources on the North Side. It’s our responsibility to be doing that to maintain the character of our ward but also to make sure that everybody has the space throughout the North Side and access to the services that they are accustomed to.”

What policies and practices do you support to Strengthen mobility and safety for all pedestrians, cyclists and CTA riders?

Kim Walz: “We have to have more protected bike lanes throughout the city and throughout the ward so that individuals can feel safe biking to work, biking for recreation, biking to visit their family.

“We also have to Strengthen our public transit. People are dramatically impacted by ghost buses. They don’t feel safe in the CTA and that’s making ridership decline which is bringing revenues down and creating a perfect storm of unsafe conditions where we can’t afford improvements. There is a complete lack of accountability between the City Council and the CTA. As alderwoman, I want to demand that we have safer trains including unarmed conductors, public safety officers in areas where there’s a lot of crime and helping deal with the unsanitary conditions on the train.”

Marianne Lalonde: “This all comes down to staffing and CTA is incredibly short staffed now. We’re not seeing the reliability or the safety on the CTA that we’re used to. Bringing the CTA back to pre-2020 staffing levels can be done by partnering with City Colleges, UIC and others to create job placement programs to better recruit good workers to stay at CTA.

“When we think about pedestrian and bicycle safety, one of the plans that I’m a fan of is Bike Grid Now. It’s 450 Miles of protected bike lanes throughout the city. When we think about our ward, I think we have opportunities to add them down the full length of Broadway, on Lawrence [Avenue], which is actually the US bike route, and possibly on Addison [Avenue].”

Michael Cortez: “There’s two problems with the CTA. They’re not on time, and there’s not enough safety. I felt so safe when they used to have the canine units and our police on board. There’s barely any of that anymore. That all needs to come back.

“I’m a bike rider myself and I’m really for the bike lanes but there are an awful lot of bike lanes. I think it should be main thoroughfares, the streets that can fit bike lanes, and then maps that actually show the bicyclist where the routes could be.”

Roushaunda Williams: “I understand that the CTA is shorter staffed right now, and that can be challenging, but we have to hold CTA accountable. If my son can order a pizza and track it from the restaurants to his mouth, we should be able to do a better job at being able to track our bus.

“Also, a good campaign can be so beneficial in so many ways. We don’t want another child or anyone to get hurt because of bike lanes not being safe and drivers not paying attention. We need to take our opportunities to run a great campaign for biking. It can look something like, if you bike here, I’ll provide you 10 percent off your ice cream.”

Angela Clay: “When we’re thinking about CTA, the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is why is it now our mental health hospitals and our shelters? When we’re talking about us not feeling like we are protected on our public transportation, we first need to look at why are people sleeping on the trains? We don’t have enough access to affordable homes, to shelter beds and to safe spaces for people to actually grow.

“Secondly, we also need the bike grid. … We need to fix the Sheridan Red Line stop. It is a deathtrap for a lot of our neighbors. This is an issue that is been in our ward for so long and I really want to tackle it.”

What are the most pressing safety issues and what strategies would you implement to build a safer Uptown?

Marianne Lalonde: “The police aren’t doing a good enough job solving crimes. We need to have a higher detective capacity to increase this case clearance rate.

“We need to invest in violence-prevention programs. We’re very reactionary with what we do now. I’d like to invest in Communities Partnering For Peace, that’s the street intervention program, as well as the Peace Book ordinance which is an intervention program driven by young people, and [the proposed ordinance] Treatment, not Trauma.”

Michael Cortez: “The problem is there’s just not enough police. We need to bring in more police. And they have to be police that are trained, respectful to the citizens with no force.

“I also think we need some more cameras. … And not only that but have cameras in the alley.”

Roushaunda Williams: “I think everything is partly solvable by good jobs, right? The have-nots are going to seek ways to feed their families. We can help them out with that. We can make sure that our ward is spotlighting great programs where they can get good jobs.

“I would love to actually bring back the campaigns, the little signs that say ‘we call the police.’ I don’t know if any of you remember that, but I think that that was very helpful in a lot of communities and I would like to see that.”

Angela Clay: “We need to make sure that we are having meaningful relationships with the people who are we are paying to protect and serve us. That means getting out of your car. That means talking to young people.

“We need to make sure that we are properly setting our police officers up for success because right now they are responding to mental health crises that they are not equipped to handle. We have an ordinance called Treatment, not Trauma, that will send a mental health personnel to the scene of a mental health crises instead of a police officer. … We also need to make sure that we are engaging with our young people.

Kim Walz: “Public safety involves two things, one feeling safe in your community and to feeling safe in your interactions with police officers. Not only do we have to fill the 1,500 vacant position to the police department, we need more detectives and evidence technicians to actually solve crimes.

“We also have to talk though about feeling safe with the police. … The resources and options available to the police are limited and they’re not trained to deal with these [mental health] situations. That’s why I would be so excited as alderwoman to help expand the pilot program that brings mental health professionals to these calls. We have to Strengthen the training that’s being mandated through the consent decree and actually follow the consent decree.”

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