1. Respond to news/rumors about yourself

Waaay back in Feb Seth heard about someone with a twitter account in his name and posted this response.

Which leads to this post. I don’t use Twitter. It’s not really me. I also don’t actively use FaceBook, and I’m not adding any friends, though I still have an account for the day when I no doubt will. I also don’t use Flickr or MySpace or Meebo.

He responded right away, personally, he cleared the air. Then he goes on to explain his reasons for not using twitter.

My reasoning is simple, and it has two parts. First, I don’t want to use a tool unless I’m going to use it really well. Doing any of these things halfway is worse than not at all. People don’t want a mediocre interaction. Second, I don’t want to add a layer of staff between me and the tools I use and the people I interact with.

Lesson: if you decide to use a new online tool, really use it. You can’t do it all so choose where you want to talk with people.

2. Like most rumors they tend to crop up over and over. Scobleizer on twitter propagated the rumor again and within minutes there was a response on Seth’s blog.

Seth’s Response

[This post is cynical. You've been warned.]

If you think that’s a friend of yours on twitter, don’t be so sure.
[...]
Online, rely on direct, personal interactions to be sure you’re seeing what you think you’re seeing. Trust, but verify.

If someone else is talking about you, join the conversation, join it right away, be real and use it as a lead in to teach something of value. Oh and motrin’s response isn’t something to copy (also a Godin hat tip).

So to all you politicians out there (and anyone else for that matter) people are talking – are you talking back?

p.s. in case you missed it I’m a fan of Seth Godin and I recommend reading all his books (especially Tribes)

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With the creation of KeystoneConservative.com I have shifted my focus onto Pennsylvania politics and I am continually searching for other like minded conservative bloggers in our great commonwealth. This may be old news to most of you but today I discovered Kerry benninghoff.

(photo from Mile89.com)

Kerry is the state rep for the 171st district and he also has a personal site called Kerry Beninghoff’s Mile 89 “The online journal of a plain spoken conservative” (he calls it mile 89 because Harrisburg is 89 miles from his home).

I spent a little time reading through his recent blog posts and liked what I read. Kerry’s tagline sums it up, he is a plain spoken conservative. Kerry started blogging back in August and this is why…

My friends at Centre Daily Times have been asking state legislators to dive in – to launch a blog and join the conversation. Well, with this first post friends, I’ve leaped. I’m a now a blogging legislator.

The online community is changing the public debate in so many ways. Bloggers are scooping reporters. Capitol insiders are plotting strategy from the opponent’s latest entry on MySpace or Facebook. Those 24-hour Google Alerts give voters the opportunity to track every public comment that’s found its way to the web. It’s all pretty mind boggling to me, but I’ve come to believe that transparency and access to the people who pay my salary is pretty important.

Read the rest.

Well Kerry it was nice to virtually meet you and I just want to say thanks for joining the conversation online, I hope more legislators will leap into the online world and embrace the transparency and access the internet affords.

p.s. If you are a PA state rep and want to learn more about this whole blogging thing email me ethan@keystoneconservative.com and I’ll help point you in the right direction.

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Is GraniteGrok, good content, off the cuff, feet on the ground, working hard as a responsible citizen.

If you are in New Hampshire you need to be reading the Grok, if you aren’t in New Hampshire well you still should.

http://granitegrok.com/

One great thing he does and it’s so easy more people should be doing it. He attends townhall meetings, asks questions and records it all on video. Can you imagine what our country would be like if more people did this?

If Keystone Conservative ever comes close to doing what the Grok has done then I will be more than happy.

Thanks Mr. Grok for your hard work and inspiration.

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