Face of social change

With her light hair and political leanings, Harbath led digital strategy for the 2008 Rudy Giuliani for President campaign - there is an obvious similarity and it's easy to make a simple comparison.

But, in a town where boxed sets of Aaron Sorkin's hit show are as common as public service lanyards, Harbath's insights in to real life and politics in DC, shatter the illusion.

"What's true about it is how much people care about things they work on and how hard they work,'' Harbath says.

''It's very hard to do a walk-and-talk in the West Wing because it's not all glass and windows - it's much smaller and if you ever go there it's not how it works.

''And campaigning is not that much fun.''

Though on occasion she has missed a motorcade during a campaign and had to find her own way to the next stop - the same scenario that faces the characters in season four's 20 Hours in America, and incidentally Harbath's favourite storyline.

''I could recite many episodes. We often ask ourselves this is so much like the West Wing, is the show based on our real lives?''

Originally from Wisconsin, Harbath studied journalism and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and planned to become a journalist before getting her first taste of politics during a 2002 campaign.

''I caught the political bug so when I graduated everyone told me that if you wanted a job in DC you had to move out there.''

In July it will be 10 years since she made the move and started work on the perfume counter at Macy's. But within a month she was hired to work as a communications assistant at the Republican National Committee.

''Being a bright-eyed college student I wrote this long memo about everything we should be doing online in late 2003-2004 and my boss was like 'great it's all yours' so we had no budget and I ended up learning how to build websites and I really really loved the digital side and communications side and throughout my career I've woven in communications and digital.''

In 2011, Facebook lured her away after she directed the National Republican Senatorial Committee's digital strategy during the 2010 election cycle. ''I was headhunted.''

Now Harbath is the Republican go between for the company and conservative politicians in the US. The company also employs a Democratic ''manager for policy at Facebook'' (Harbath's official title).

Facebook brought the 32-year-old to Australia to share her experiences working on the 2012 US presidential campaign with local politicians.

But she refused to say which politicians, offices and staffers she has met with.

''We had a lot of interest here from the different parties and offices and I took a week where I could be here and do workshops. We are meeting with all four major parties, Labor, Liberal Nationals and Greens.''

Overall, she rates Australian politicians' social media savvy as high, though most could connect better with voters online, she said.

In the US politicians are using Facebook to answer voters' questions.

''They call it Facebook Friday and people write in the comments and they set aside some time and answer the questions, because they are busy and obviously can't spend lots of time online.''

Her best advice to politicians is to stay flexible.

''It's changing rapidly. In 2010 there was no advertising on mobile phones, even in 2012, and when it started people had to be flexible with advertising budgets.''

She says even the way people watch television has changed with the ability to download whole series and watch episodes back to back - a trend which impacts advertising. While Facebook, which was primarily a desktop application, is now used on-the-go with about 75 per cent of people in Australia logging-in on mobile phones.

''Things are changing, not even every six months but three months - new products either that we're coming out with or Twitter. Every election is going to be a revolutionary one. The technology that is going to be available in the 2014 election or even the technology that is going to be available by the time the election happens here in September, it will be very different to what we are seeing now.''

And even though she works for Facebook, she says there are benefits for politicians using Twitter. ''I don't think it's an either-or, but there are 12 million Facebook-users compared to 2 million Twitter-users in Australia. With Facebook you are going to get a bigger block of the Australian electorate. Twitter is really good for real time but Facebook is around longer. Both platforms have different strengths.''

As for how influential social media is on voting, Harbath says decisions aren't made on the basis of tweets or posts.

''Family and friends are the most important factor in voting. In 2012 the Obama campaign used that well to get friends of people who lived in swing states and encouraged them to get out and vote.''