Beyond ‘likes,’ ‘shares’ and funny videos: CNMI delegate optimizes social media to keep the public engaged

Kimbery King-Hinds

By Jayvee Vallejera

Recognizing that people are flocking to social media these days, CNMI Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds and her team are marking a new trail with short-form videos that aim to widen their reach, get more information out, make people smile—or LOL—and ultimately connect with more constituents.

Minute-long videos, called reels, showing politicians doing statecraft is now standard in the age of social media, such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and X. But scripted influencer-esque videos with humorous twists? These make King-Hinds an outlier among members of the U.S. Congress.

“I love the CNMI and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help our community—even if it means sometimes acting silly,” King-Hinds said, explaining the lighthearted and funny videos her office has been posting on her Facebook and Instagram pages.

One video clip shows the Northern Marianas delegate digging through her purse for her passport, which she thinks is the world's hide-and-seek champion.

Another video, titled “Social media vs reality,” shows the delegate and her staff doing a parody of The Tonight Show’s musical segment. King-Hinds lip-syncs to Natasha Bedingfield’s hit “Unwritten,” while one employee bangs on a gavel and another blows on a conch shell.

The goal is to create a brand that identifies the CNMI delegates as unique and approachable and to showcase her outgoing personality, said Ali Ogo, King-Hinds’ social media coordinator.

“Because if you actually get to know her, she's very outgoing. She loves the camera and she's a big supporter of influencers out there. So coming from our point of view, we wanted to showcase them,” he said.

King-Hinds said she gives her team as much creative freedom, and I trust in the product they want to deliver.”

The funny videos, posted on Fridays, are King-Hinds’ way of wishing everybody a happy weekend. Serious content related to the delegate’s work in Washington, D.C., and in the CNMI is posted on other days of the week.  

King-Hinds assumed the CNMI seat at the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 3. She is the second person to hold this office. Previously, she served as chair of the Commonwealth Port Authority.

Kimberlyn King-Hinds was born and raised on the island of Tinian, where she developed a deep connection to her community and culture.

King-Hinds’ office also issues weekly newsletters and posts press releases on her social media sites, but getting more people, especially the younger crowd, to subscribe to the newsletter or read the press releases is the bigger challenge. “The issue is how do we get our community, especially the younger generation, more engaged,” she said.

That’s where the funny videos come in. “How people consume news and information is so different these days, and we have to adapt to the changing dynamics. We want to reach as many people as we can and provide them with as much information about their government and the work that we are doing at the federal level,” she said.

That means creating content that attracts traffic to her Facebook and Instagram pages. More traffic could potentially lead to “likes” and “shares,” which could then be converted into newsletter subscriptions.

In one comedic skit, King-Hinds exits her office to announce to the staff that she has just finished using the bathroom, poking fun at her employees for reporting every trivial movement they make, such as filling up their car tanks or stocking the fridge.

A previous reel shows the congresswoman playfully sneaking away with an employee's empanada while he is on the phone.

The strategy drives significant traffic to the various social platforms, and more people view the serious information.

“At the end of the day, the point is to empower people with information. We are seeing it happening and that’s what matters,” King-Hinds added.

She also pointed out that the CNMI is going through hard times, and the lighthearted posts are meant to provide relief at the end of the week.

“Our ultimate goal is to share the joy or to spread positive vibes,” Ogo said.

“Everybody has their ways of running their social media page, and I think we just found our style,” he added.

The videos have different themes for each day of the week. On Mondays, they have Marianas Motivation, where King-Hinds cites a quote to motivate people to start the week strong and push through.

“And that's why our TGIF just ends with a laugh. So, we always shoot it out at the end of the workday,” Ogo said.

It’s also about transparency, said Oliver Manglona, King-Hinds’ director of constituent services. People want to know what the delegate is doing and how her office is helping the community, and the videos help with that.

He said the reels, which are uploaded to both King-Hinds’ Facebook and Instagram accounts, are a new way of reaching out to people in this digital age, “where people need to see something, need to watch a video to engage with the content.”

The funny reels may be the most popular, but they are posted only on Fridays to cap the week with something that will make people smile.

The videos with a more traditional spin are posted on other days, with the reels showing King-Hinds’ appearances on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and her other activities in the U.S. Capitol.

In a reel where she expressed support for her H.R. 3400, the TRAVEL Act, King-Hinds said it is a vital step toward improving healthcare access for veterans living in U.S. territories, including in the CNMI.

And with public engagement now measured in clicks, impressions, likes and shares, the congresswoman's office found that more people are engaging with King-Hinds’ social media pages, said Manglona.

“We're finding that people are not just seeing the funny content, but they're reading and viewing our other content,” he added.

The reels are connecting even with older audiences, he said. Many constituents have been quoting lines that King-Hinds had said in interviews that’ve been posted on their social media platforms.

“Hearing from the public about how nice it is to have the congresswoman [who is] more accessible on the platforms creates a bigger audience. And it gets the messages out more to the public,” Manglona added.

(This article has been updated with comments from CNMI Del. Kimberly King-Hinds.)

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