I posted a while back that I did not have the same enthusiasm as others when it came to Twitter . I changed my approach, as I said I would, and it makes more sense now. I find myself on it as much as friendfeed now. But I'm not going to write about my new found love of Twitter today. Instead, I'm going to write about someone I found on Twitter over the weekend...Congressman Roy Blunt (@royblunt ) (R - MO).
I interned on Blunt's staff in 1996 when he won his first House election. It was my senior year in college. I had a lot of fun on that campaign and met a lot of interesting people. Career decisions lead me out of politics, and it's something I regret I am not involved with anymore. While I enjoy my days spent in technology and marketing, politics still gets me going more than anything. So running across Roy Blunt on Twitter, tweeting his schedule as he announced his Senate candidacy, was a good find... but also kind of a shock.
I don't know why it shocked me, but it did. I starred at the screen for a minute then did a quick scan of the few tweets there. It looked real enough. First tweet was 2/19/09 - so looks like he fired this up for his Senate run. I immediately thought about how much Obama's use of social media changed the way campaigns are going to run. These guys are all going to have to start communicating with us in new ways. Most importantly they are going to start having to listen to us in different ways...like Twitter. I liked the idea that Roy Blunt got it.
Then that's when I looked up at his stats: Updates: 9 - Followers: 80 - Following: 0.
Zero. He's not following anyone. He's not listening to anyone. Never mind, maybe he doesn't get it yet.
I decided to see if I could get Roy to communicate with me, since he won't be following me it looks like. So I tweeted this:
"@RoyBlunt I interned on your 96 race (Wally). I'm in KC. Want to talk about what I can do on this race. DM or email (ww@wallacewilson.net)."
I sent that on Sat, and so far have not heard back. It's odd for a politician to ever turn down help. I bet if I filled out his online form offering help, I would get at least a standard "Thanks for your support, please donate.... But I just offered to help on Twitter and got nothing back. That tells me he's not paying attention to what Twitter is saying to him. Right now it's all one way communication.
I don't want to harp on Roy too much here, because he gets it more than most of his colleagues. Or at least he gets that he needs to get it. There is only one other Missourian on twitter and that is Sen Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc ). She is only following her own communications director (@adriannemarsh ) so I'm not sure she gets it yet either. But Sen McCaskill is in tight with the Obama crew (as tight as they allow you to get I would imagine). So she's probably not too far from getting it. Plus, she gets how to tweet. She gets the idea of communicating with us and how to do it. Go read some of her page. Too many politicians on twitter think it's there for them to just post links to their web site.
Roy seems to get this part as well. He's communicating what he is doing and not just shoving tired press releases at us on a different channel, or telling us to go look at his website. He also has not asked for money yet. He's building a nice level of trust here to start. But sooner or later, he's going to have to listen to people as well. He's going to need to start following before people realize how one way the conversation is and tune him out. He's going to have to "get" twitter.
You want to see someone who I think really gets it? Check out John Ensign (@johnensign ) (R- NV). Two things tell me he gets it more than others.
1. He is following more people (1,318) than are following him (1,256).
2. Look at all is @ messages to others.
These two things tell me (or at least make me believe) he is on Twitter to listen and communicate. This is where Roy (and most politicians) need to get. Now I'm not saying Ensign is a great guy or his tweets are super insightful. I don't know him at all. I'm just saying it looks like he gets Twitter and how to use it.
Does Roy Blunt get it? Not yet, but he looks like he is on the verge of getting it. I would love to help him get over that hump. I'm not going to fill out a form or email him yet. Let's see if he (or more likely his staff) can find this blog post. If they are serious about running, they better be monitoring the web for stories and tweets (a simple RSS feed of a Google Blog Search will do it). If they find me by the 5 PM on 2/24/09 I'll make a small donation of $50. That gives them more than 24 hours. That's an eternity on the real time web.
I'm a little worried that maybe Roy just doesn't have a staff in place that understands the web and how to use it. Twitter is a great start but the website (www.royblunt.com) is in sad shape (even with the social effort that is being displayed at the bottom of the site). They already dropped the ball coming out of the gate with what appears to be a rookie mistake like not securing domains . And I can't find a real blog yet (which I still think is very important when it comes to campaigning and governing). But I'm cheering for them and I hope they get it. And if they need any help, hopefully they have figured out where to find me.
0 comments:
Post a Comment