techPresident - Twitter Update: Edwards Leads -- Obama and Clinton Follow - Comments

Ask the campaigns

ari — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:14:01 -0400

Could you ask the Obama & Clinton campaigns if those are official twitter accounts (and if so, why they aren't updating/promoting them).

It seems like the campaigns should experiment with twitter.

It would be particularly good to alert supporters of media appearance (like Obama's Monday on Larry King).

Campaigns could also start or encourage local-based twitter accounts (hint - start with San Francisco) and people in those areas would find them (particularly if they were friends of the main twitter account).

The Edwards campaign just posted this, "(from staff): Thank you all for the twitters and direct messages of support for Mrs. Edwards and Sen. Edwards."

I think this is the first time they've used from staff. There has been a lot of tweets about the Edwards, probably more than if his campaign weren't on twitter.

http://ari.typepad.com blog

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http://del.icio.us/tigerbeat interesting articles & sites

http://twitter.com/tigerbeat

SMS

Lynne d Johnson — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:01:48 -0400

shelbinator -- I agree with your points about SMS for candidates to a certain extent. By using Twitter, the candidates are tapping directly into the Web 2.0 community, and I believe that's a community they're after in the '08 election. Yes, it's kind of like marketing or a press release, but it works to make that connection, whereas the candidates end up getting blogged about. The Web campaign, overall is weighted on the candidate's team's ability to creatively use the tools that Web 2.0 affords them.

On another note, as for candidates using the general powers of SMS, lets look at Edwards for an example. I'm signed up for Edwards SMS from his site, and that was mentioned in his YouTube video announcing his candidacy. I've not received more there than a welcome message. Yet, on Twitter, I have an idea of what's going on on the campaign trail. It keeps Edwards on my mind. It makes me go and check out his website. It keeps me connected and updated.

MoBiden

shelbinator — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:55:56 -0400

There's an unofficial Joe Biden Twitter account as well, and uh, one completely unpaid/unaffiliated Biden fan/techie will use it to relay news blasts from the official campaign as time allows (or until the campaign asks for the keys).

I've already commented elsewhere on here that a few advanced features would make Twitter much handier, such as the ability to target a radius from a certain ZIP code or something ("I'm coming to your town tomorrow!") -- but then, there are plenty of mobile SMS-blast services that presidential campaigns could afford to hire that handle geodata for them, so it really still seems like Twitting at your supporters is just for the warm fuzzy and occasional useful news blurb.

Twitter Update: Edwards Leads -- Obama and Clinton Follow

Lynne d Johnson — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:30:32 -0400

Twitter became very popular the past couple of weeks, as all of the A-List bloggers, and folks attending SXSW in Austin started signing up and inviting all of their friends. Because of this, Twitter has proven itself as a great means by which candidates can make connections with potential voters.