Twitter for Politicians

Twitter for Politicians

Why twitter?

It is the responsibility of and in the best interested of politicians to communicate with their constituents. There are over 18 million people on twitter and they would like to hear from you.

Like any other outreach method there are good ways and bad ways to use twitter. Here are a few best practices.

Choose an @Username

You can use your own name or a combination of your name and your title. If you are running for office you can add the seat you are seeking.

Separate your campaign twitter from your elected twitter, if you have to to separate your money you should separate your online presence as well.

Examples:

Who should tweet?

The politician, the campaign manager, a senior staffer or a lowly intern. Twitter works really well when the head guy tweets but only when the head guy likes and understands tweeting. You can take a horse to twitter but you can’t make him tweet. The same concept applies to a manager, staffer or intern. Make your decision based on who understands twitter and can do it well. If someone other than the head honcho is tweeting make sure and mention that. Using the ^ED or ^BJ method at the end of a post to denote who said what is a good way to go about it if you have multiple authors for one account.

When should you tweet?

The answer is whenever you want. Twitter is informal so you can be informal on twitter (as informal as you would be talking to a supporter on the street). The best time to tweet is when you have something to tweet about.

Example:
  • During legislative session
  • During a campaign event
  • Before and after an interview
  • When your favorite sports team wins or loses
  • At your kids piano recital
  • When you visit a local business (link to their website)
  • When you read a good article on some issue
  • Reply whenever someone asks you a question
  • If someone tweets about you join the conversation
  • If someone tweets about an issue join the conversation

How do I get more followers?

Tweet others as you want to be tweeted. Follow people who would be interested in what you have to say and they will probably follow you back. If you are a state senator find other state senators on twitter, have twitter conversations with them and follow people who follow them. Find bloggers in your area, follow and tweet with them.

Don’t hide your twitter under a bushel, let it shine!

Put a link to your twitter profile on your website, email signature, facebook page, mention it on tv etc. People who also use twitter will see the link and follow you. However if you haven’t updated in 3 months I wouldn’t brag about it. Which leads to our next question.

How often should I tweet?

Bare minimum you should tweet a couple times a week, any politician can find that much to tweet about just by using press releases, youtube videos, blog post or radio interviews for that. At the maximum tweet a hundred times in a day, not every day but if there is an important bill being debate on the floor then tweet the heck out of it. A good example is Rep Bryan Cutler livetweeting PA budget.

Here are 4 levels of twitter users in politics with some examples

Hard Core tweeter (best)

Has good content, good links and engages with other twitter users.

Two way tweeting (better)

Engages with other twitter users, answers questions and talks with people.

One Way tweeting (good)

Had good content and tweets often about issues but doesn’t engage with other twitter users.

Glorified RSS feed (poor)

Dumps blog posts, press releases, media links, into twitter and ignores it the rest of the time.

Twitter Tools (

The Power of Twitter Search

Want to know what people are saying or not saying about you? Set up twitter searches for your name, your opponents names, elections, bills, issues or whatever else you want.

Every politician should already be running google alerts for all these things just set them to run in twitter as well.

Use Twitter lists

Other people have already made really good lists or media, elected officials, policy wonks etc. Find those lists and follow them.

Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

Give away free stuff, bumper stickers, t-shirts, books, sign and send, nothing gets people more interested than free stuff.

Don’t use up all your characters. You have 140 but only use 126 and leave room for people to retweet.

Retweet your supporters, don’t hog the microphone hand the microphone around to your supporters.

It’s not personal it’s twitter. Have a thick skin. 140 characters forces people to get to the point which means you either #fail or your #win and if no one tweets about you then that counts as #fail. To get a picture of how thick your skin needs to be search the term #fail and see what comes up.

Test Test Test. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Use bit.ly to track clicks and see which things people click on and which ones they don’t.

Be opinionated, twitter is a #fail or #win world so don’t be afraid to stir up a little controversy. If you do stir up a hornets nest write a blog post or an op-ed piece and fully explain your position.

Ask questions such as “how could I tweet better”

Have fun and be yourself, being authentic and real goes a long way online and twitter is not an exception to that rule.

Final Thoughts

You may think twitter is just the latest shiny toy and you’re right but remember that the people who are on twitter are the go to sources of information (the information mavens) for their friends. Would you rather directly influence 100 people or influence 10 people who have influence over 100 people each. In order to have that kind of influence you need to give up control of your message. It’s a new way of thinking but worth it.

See you on twitter!

Sincerely yours,

@ethanD

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