When the Staff Tweets, Who's Talking?

Among the many innovations that social media tools have brought to the world of campaign politics are new ways to conduct opposition research.

Like any employer, political candidates have a vested, if indirect, interest in how staff members express themselves on personal social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

But in the hypersensitive and competitive world of campaigning, the question is especially sharply felt: How many degrees of separation are there from a legitimate campaign issue and a campaign staffer’s personal views posted on their personal social media page?

Dan Riehl's take on White House Tweets Spread President's Message....

Twit-in-Chief Now Using Twitter for White House Spin

Given that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs seems to get into trouble, often putting his foot in his mouth when he tries to speak in full sentences, I wonder if they didn't decide 140 characters was probably the most he could handle at one time? If Rahm is tweeting and you want to see it, you'll probably have to drop any profanity filters you may have installed. heh!

Don't be the Next Toyota: How You Can Use Social Media to Make a Difference in a Crisis

Over the last few weeks, I have been monitoring the Toyota recall and subsequent Congressional hearings as well as reading some commentary and articles on the subject. It is all very interesting to me for a number of reasons. Not only did I grow up in Motor City with family members working in all aspects of the auto industry, but I also directed the grassroots and public affairs efforts for the American International Automobile Dealers Association for a few years and we have a Lexus RX in the household fleet. I feel close to this situation and know firsthand how this crisis is creating a serious economic and confidence challenge to Toyota's numerous stakeholders.

Chris Pirillo Debuts E-Book: 140 Twitter Tips

One of our favorite geeks has just released an e-book on best practices for Twitter use.

Chris Pirillo's 140 Twitter Tips, a 14-page PDF, is a concise compendium of useful guidelines and helpful hints for every kind of Twitter user, from doing-it-wrong noobs to social media addicts. From the best time of day to get retweets to how to process public criticism, the e-book also covers a broad range of common issues users experience.

Twitter Analysis: Influencers Still Signing Up; Lots of Followers Doesn't Equal Lots of Lists

Twitter launched lists in October 2009 and this feature has quickly become an essential part of the Twitter ecosystem. The power of lists isn't just in their ability to organize your followers, they also provide an an insight into how other users use Twitter. The number of followers an account has might show its popularity, but the number of lists called, for instance, "most influential" or "essential", that it appears on reveals just how important that account is.

Check out this informative presentation from Altimeter - Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management.

And this is an oldie, but goodie, that I failed to share with you when it came out. Conservative blogger, Adrienne Royer, was featured in the Washingtonian's Blogger Beat last week...

The Blogger Beat: Cosmopolitan Conservative

Adrienne Royer’s love affair with politics started in first grade. The class was learning about the 1988 Bush/Dukakis race when six-year-old Royer thought, “This is so cool. We get to pick our leaders!” She wore pro-life buttons in elementary school and a handmade T-shirt that said, “A person is a person no matter how small!” A right-leaning political junkie was born.

In college, Royer traded in her puffy paint for a blog. She started her first site, Girl From the South, as a way to keep in touch with family and friends back in Tennessee. Two years ago, she decided to delve into politics. “Cosmopolitan Conservative sounded like a fun name,” she says. “I knew it worked when I told a liberal former colleague at happy hour one night, and he burst out laughing.”

Economist: A Special Report on Social Networking

Online social networks are changing the way people communicate, work and play, and mostly for the better - download full report - click here.

Social Media and Baby Boomers

A summary of Media Post's take on social media and baby boomers --

Include social media in plans to reach Boomers: it is clear that social networks are not a passing phase for Boomers. Like others, they are finding that online social networks enhance their existing relationships.

Tea Party Trying to Organize Offline

Tea Partiers held their first national convention this weekend in Nashville, TN.  The convention is part of the movement’s attempt to organize offline and become a legitimate political party.  The convention’s organizer, Judson Phillips, said ,”If 2010 is another year of rallies, we’ve lost.”  Tea Partiers have organized and communicated almost entirely through social networking sites.  Having a convention is a step in the right direction for the Tea Party but they have a long way to go if they hope to become an established political party.

What's Next for Geolocation? Apps, Apps, Apps

Geolocation social networks are set to be in 2010 what microblogging was in 2008 - the next big thing. Currently the space is being dominated by Foursquare, with others like Gowalla, MyTown and Loopt  trailing in its wake.

Google Creating Twitter Clone for Gmail

As soon as this week, Google might be rolling out a "Twitter-killer" feature for Gmail users, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Gmail users can currently broadcast status messages via the Google Talk feature. The main difference between the current offering and the new feature is that status messages aren't available in a timeline format. With the new "Twitter clone," they will be. 

Reaching Millions with Twitter: The Whole Foods Story

Have you ever wondered how a business handles more than a million Twitter fans? Want the inside scoop from the largest retailer on Twitter?

Even if you’re a small business, there’s some great insight to be gained from Marla Erwin, Interactive Art Director for Whole Foods Market. Marla was instrumental in creating Whole Foods’ acclaimed social media program and the results have been phenomenal! For example, in the first year, Twitter.com/Wholefoods gained a million Twitter followers. It has now surpassed 1.75 million people.

How to Market your Business with Twitter Lists

Twitter is a networking haven for businesses. But is there an easy way to draw the right people to you with Twitter?

The answer is yes and there’s a great Twitter feature that can help you: Twitter lists.  Twitter lists can grab the interest of people you most want to meet, help you make a great first impression and can help you with marketing segmentation.

And finally, check out this video from TechPresident, From the Bloomberg Campaign, Social Media Stats.

The Importance of Being Everywhere: VAs McDonnell and NYC's Bloomberg Go Full Google

Oh,
those time-honored traditions of democracy. Spreading leaflets
door-to-door. Holding up signs at busy intersections. And, at least in
recent elections, the Google network blast. Two candidates whose
chances for victory tomorrow range from pretty likely to
go-ahead-and-bet-the-rent-money-on-it are taking no chances, employing
the somewhat cutting-edge Google network blast technique to blanket the
Internet experience of potential voters in their regions with
advertisements touting their bona fides.

Twitter Reveals More Lists Power With a Widget

Since it was turned on for all users late last week, everyone is talking about Twitter’s new Lists feature. Most people seem to like it, but some have no idea what it’s good for. Perhaps those people will understand a bit more about Lists potential with a new widget that Twitter has launched today.

The List Widget is exactly what you’d expect: A widget that you can place on your blog that displays a list of your choosing. One nice thing is that this can be a list you made or one any user has made (that is public). If you simply type in a user’s name, it will show their lists in a drop down menu. You then give the list a title, a caption, customize its look and feel, and you’re good to go.

10 Twitter List Widgets You Can Grab & Embed Right Now

The good folks at Twitter recently rolled out list-making capabilities for all users, finally catching up to functions that many desktop and web apps have featured for a while.

In addition to allowing users to create their own curations, Twitter has also added a basic widget-maker for adding tweets from any user's list to any given website. And since re-embedding the code for Twitter's widget is still kind of a pain, we've hand-picked ten great lists and created widgets from them for your expedited enjoyment and copy-pasteable hijacking. You're welcome!

How to Measure the True Stickiness (And Success) of a Facebook App

Yesterday, Facebook announced they are going to drastically alter the way applications can message users once again, likely throwing a wrench into every app developers’ growth rate. Hints of the coming turmoil appeared last week when Facebook changed the way feeds work. This caused enough worry that apparently Mark Pincus, Founder/CEO of Zynga, canceled his appearance at Harvard Business School so he could sit with his team and figure out what the impact would be to the viral rates of their massive hits such as Farmville and Cafe World. That’s not surprising, since getting posts in the feed is critical to continued growth, but the myopic focus on the “viral rate” by some in the industry has created an over-dependence on perhaps the wrong number.

Using Twitter Lists to Judge Influence

If you’ve used Twitter for awhile, you know that judging the influence of a Twitter user by their number of followers is a dicey proposition.  Lots of Twitter users are obsessed with their number of followers, and work to inflate their stats in ways too numerous to mention here.  The end result is that some Twitter users will have thousands of followers who consist mostly of other social media “experts” and spam Twitter accounts.  While the follower number may look impressive, these folks aren’t really influential because no one is listening.  A Twitter account with 100 engaged followers is much more influential than one followed by thousands of disengaged users.

Gingrich Tweets Hoffman Endorsement

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now endorsing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election.

After learning his initial pick, Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, had bowed out of the race this morning, Gingrich tweeted that he was now supporting Hoffman, who is virtually tied with Democratic candidate Bill Owens in preliminary polls.

Twitter User List Favors Dems in Calif. Gov Race

When people sign up for Twitter, the popular social-networking site presents a list of suggested users to follow, driving significant traffic to sports figures, celebrities, politicians and other prominent posters.

In California, the list has attracted the attention of political watchdogs because it apparently favors Democrats over Republicans in next year's race for governor. That raises questions about whether Twitter should change its policy at a time when the site is catching on as a popular recruiting tool for candidates.

In Industry First, Voting Machine Company to Publish Source Code

Sequoia Voting Systems plans to publicly release the source code for its new optical scan voting system, the company announced Tuesday — a remarkable reversal for a voting machine maker long criticized for resisting public examination of its proprietary systems.

The company’s new public source optical-scan voting system, called Frontier Election System, will be submitted for federal certification and testing in the first quarter of next year. The code will be released for public review in November, the company said, on its web site. Sequoia’s proprietary, closed systems are currently used in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

Late to the game, but I just noticed this new Twitter feature & perhaps you missed it too -

Soon to Launch: Lists

My name is Nick Kallen (@nk) and I'm the project lead on Lists, a new feature we're testing with a small subset of users. The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.

Invent for Success: 15 Steps to Effective Social Media Marketing and Better Blogging

Recently I had the pleasure of attending the two-day MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer in Chicago. Not only did I walk away with some new friends, I took with me a plethora of new ideas and actionable items from the best of the best in the world of blogging and Social Media.

The common theme? Your blog and Social Media presence is an INVESTMENT – An investment that takes patience and perseverance to see real success. It’s also an investment with goals and benchmarks that will continually adapt and change.