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Archive for the 'Twitter' Category

Behind the Tweets: PoliticsOnline to Spotlight Congressional Tweeple

Published by William Beutler on March 22, 2009 in Blogger Panels, Blogging Officials, Conferences, Congress, Twitter and William Beutler. 1 Comment

It’s the busy season for Internet conferences, with SXSWi recently concluded,* Personal Democracy Forum just ahead and the District’s own PoliticsOnline annual conference sponsored by the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet (IPDI) at George Washington University. I was a panelist once during my time writing The Blogometer, if you need any more reason to take it seriously.

Well, here’s one more — IPDI is announcing a new panel that sounds to this blogger as interesting as anything covered in Austin, Texas last weekend. From the announcement e-mail:

[H]ow many of us have actually looked at the user experiences of Members of Congress, as they work through the highs and lows of social media in political office?

Or asked a Senator what it felt like to post the tweet heard around the country?

Now you can.

Join Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Rep. John Culberson (R, TX-7), Rep. Steve Israel (D, NY-2), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R WA-5), and Rep. Tim Ryan (D, OH-17) for “Elected and Connected: Uses, Dangers, and Benefits of Being an Elected Official in a 2.0 World” on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. at the 2009 Politics Online Conference.

As alluded to here before, expectations that our duly elected congresscritters would take to blogging (as opposed to merely commissioning staff-written blogs) never did pan out, owing in largest part I believe to time constraints and authenticity. Then-Senator Obama’s lengthy commentary/response at/to Daily Kos in 2005 may stand alone in this regard, although I still suspect he did not write it alone.

YouTube has generated more member participation but still is mostly the product of their staff. Twitter on the other hand is entirely intelligible and within the capacity of anyone familiar with a BlackBerry, which nearly all of them are. Here, for the first time, members of Congress may actually have something to say about social media. Not to mention, Culberson (@johnculberson) and McCaskill (@clairemc) are widely considered among the savviest Twitter users on the Hill.

All sounds interesting to me, and if you agree, you can register online here.

*So if you were wondering why this blog went silent for a week, now you know.

I Come to Bury Local Newspapers, Not to Praise Them

Published by William Beutler on March 7, 2009 in Newspapers, Seriously, Tough Crowd, Twitter and William Beutler. 2 Comments

Friday marked the one week anniversary of the death of the Rocky Mountain News, a newspaper I never read in a state I have never visited. On the other end of the media spectrum, the recently-launched The New Ledger featured a relevant rumination by Francis Cianfrocca this week, which notes:

There’s a tremendous amount of value to news collection: generating basic data, and massaging it with taste and with an informed editorial viewpoint, into information. A big part of this is cultivating sources. But a big part of it is constructing a narrative out of the data, boiling it down into bite-sized pieces.

Which reminds me of the RMN’s association with one of the most blackly comic examples of old media employees’ new media ineptitude, perhaps one of the worst media moments all of last year:

One could say the same thing for the Rocky Mountain News, if not just yet the mid-size, second-tier city newspaper as a genre. But we may get there soon enough.

The Hotline’s Tweetometer

Published by William Beutler on February 26, 2009 in Congress, Hotline, Startups, Twitter and William Beutler. 3 Comments

Before I started working for The Hotline (and before they had a web presence to speak of) the original Beltway tip sheet had a catch phrase: “The word on the street is ours.” This week it looks like they’re going back to the well as they roll out a new feature, because it is called:

Word on the Tweet is a logical extension of On Call’s sister publication and my former vocation, The Blogometer. When we started in the winter of 2005, the blogosphere had just recently gone mainstream, largely thanks to its impact on the 2004 presidential campaign. Here in the winter of 2009, it’s the Twitterverse which has only just hit the big time.

And this is an even easier call for Hotline to decide on covering: The Blogometer covers the blogosphere as an amateur/activist extension of the Beltway media, but no member of Congress has time to sit down and write a blog. Twitter is different: after all, no less a politician than the president of the United States is an admitted BlackBerry addict.

And where most members would formerly have staffers maintain their Twitter account — if they had one at all — more and more are following the lead of Texas Rep. John Culberson and actually tweeting themselves. This participation by actual sitting congresscritters could be a great deal more entertainment, as writer Evan McMorris-Santoro hints in this disclaimer:

Note: all tweets are reproduced exactly as they appeared, grammar/spelling warts and all.

Exactly as it should be. For the announcement video starring McMorris-Santoro and my old boss John Mercurio, click here:

Who is @VanityFairer? (Hint: Probably Not Graydon Carter)

Published by William Beutler on February 13, 2009 in Cybersquatting, Facebook, Fake Bloggers, Ron Paul, Tech Blogosphere, Twitter, Website Design and William Beutler. 2 Comments

Some time overnight I was followed by the Twitter account @vanityfairer, d.b.a. “Vanity Fair Wayfarer” (whence the image above right). As a subscriber to the magazine (at least assuming my reup went through) I followed back and clicked on the sidebar link to learn more. Instead of finding the Vanity Fair website or a personal blog, it directed me to a blog post at Web2.0h…Really? titled:

VanityFairer: The Magazine’s Social Faux Pas?

About which I first thought, yeah, Vanity Fair should have scooped up the account before this person got to it. But it turns out that’s not what the author meant. Here’s what he did:

Vanityfairer [is] a Twitter “fan”feed by someone who identifies “her”self only as Vanity Fair Wayfarer and whose bio reads only “I heart Vanity Fair magazine.”

“Her” updates are really pretty good–mainly pointers to stuff about, in or related to content from the celebrity-addled, scrumptiously visual, annoyingly literate and therefore-hard-to-ignore glossy. …

It looks to me like the Twitter feed is an undisclosed VF inside job. Vanity Fairer is following a conspicuous list of 51 prominentos from the worlds of technology and media [including Tim O'Reilly, Esther Dyson, WSJ's Kara Swisher, 2.0 author Sarah Lacy, John Dickerson of Slate, Gawker, Ana Marie Cox and TechCrunch, A-list tech bloggers plus a few C-list hangers-on like me].

The trick to building a Twitter posse, as savvy Twitsters know, is to “follow” people whom you hope will follow you back–or actually maybe write a blog item about the Twitter stream to gain some 2.0 brainshare [!]. So there is clearly something tactical and ambitious about Vanity Fairer’s “following” list. Vanity Fairer appears to be following none of her own personal friends, for instance. A bit curious.

Perhaps, but I think not the way 2.0h…Really? blogger Craig Stoltz sees it; his site tagline says “A Skeptical Look at Emerging Web Technologies” but here I think this skepticism is misplaced. As one who has started a “fake” Twitter account or two in my day (hint: a clue to one of them is embedded somewhere in this post) I don’t see any evidence that this is anything but a fan of the magazine who decided to fill a void left by Conde Nast’s apparent unwillingness to embrace the service. In fact, I think Stoltz’s evidence points in the opposite direction.

First of all, I can’t see why a secretly official account would be any more likely than an amateur to search the VF name on Twitter search and add people mentioning the phrase. In fact, I think the opposite is more likely: that the Vanity Fair Wayfarer has no inside connection and so is simply following people who have indicated an interest (which is how she found me) because that’s the only way to get tweeps’* attention.

Moreover, if the account was itself being followed by other luminaries of the Twitterverse, that I might take as a reason to believe it was real. That would show insider connections; instead this Twitter account seems more to be standing outside the velvet rope, waving at the bouncer and insisting her friends are inside.

Plus I just don’t see the rhyme, reason or motivation for VF to spend any time on this underperforming (approx. 650 followers) account.

Stoltz does point to a recent-ish Facebook stunt by Vanity Fair’s web team, which was kind of amusing and although lacking for even circumstantial evidence, it does mildly insinuate that VF might be game for this kind of trick. If so, it’s a good one and a bad one: the account is visibly lacking in design sense, let alone an art department. And because Graydon Carter would probably Toby Young anyone who tweeted something like:

When will either-or tech pundits realize that it’s okay to be comfortable with contradictions — a la Vanity Fair’s fluff-depth combo?

Meanwhile, I wonder if Vanity Fair knows that @ev and @biz will hand them this account if only they ask:

* I guess I am letting this word into my vocabulary. But not “twestival”. Never.

How I Spent Inauguration Day

Published by William Beutler on January 25, 2009 in Barack Obama, District Politics, George W. Bush, Hotline, Television, Twitter, White House '08 and William Beutler. 3 Comments

Four years ago when I was writing for The Hotline, I both had to work on Inauguration Day and also got out early to try attending the event itself. This year I did neither, thanks to no longer having to write against a daily deadline (while this post may be a few days late, that doesn’t mean it is in fact “late”) and my experience of getting caught in a massive, immovable crowd several blocks from the Mall and never even came close to seeing or hearing anything more memorable than a bunch of International ANSWER people waving homemade “BUSH = HITLER” signs.

Though I had successive waves of friends in town this year both to cover the crazy scene around the Inauguration Weekend and to participate in it, I myself decided to play the part of a jaded Washingtonian familiar with big crowds on the Mall and especially in the Metro, and took up a comfortable spot in front of my 65″ DLP and behind my 17″ MBP open to TweetDeck. Here are two representative shots, and the reason this post even exists.

     

This is the part where I think I am supposed to say something inspiring about the interconnectedness that results from the speed and ingenuity of modern technology, and how this has been said for a long time but with Twitter going mainstream and digital/HD television becoming the norm now the difference of degree almost itself becomes a difference of kind, well, I’m not sure I have the wherewithal to describe this as intricately as I would like. But you can give it your best shot in the comments.

Obama’s Twitter Account Hacked

Published by William Beutler on January 5, 2009 in Barack Obama, Spam, Twitter and William Beutler. 12 Comments

As TechCrunch reported this morning, someone has been hacking into high-profile Twitter accounts and posting amusingly defamatory tweets. But here’s one they missed:

This tweet stayed up longer than the others. I learned about it just after noon today (hat tip: Brad Levinson) and finally was pulled shortly after I started writing this post. I’m of two minds on whether this is the same culprit: On one hand, the content of the tweet is much different — less mischievous, more promotional. On the other hand, that would be some coincidence, and Twitter’s recent phishing problems could be a bigger headache than its previous spamming problems.

The link behind the TinyURL is still available [Update: Apparently not anymore; if you really want to see it, just drop me a line], and it goes to a site owned by a company called Top Notch Media, Inc. that would very much like your e-mail address and some information about you while you’re at it. And hey, what do you know, it turns out Top Notch Media has been the subject of numerous complaints to Internet fraud watch sites. This is probably the last of it, although Exxon-Mobil may like to know that their logo is being used there, unless they already do, in which case somebody might want to alert Daily Kos.

Oh well, at least we know that Obama’s transition team is still aware that their Twitter account exists.

A Glimpse at the Future of Twitter Fundraising

Published by William Beutler on December 17, 2008 in Midterms '10, Online Campaigns, Online Fundraising, Republicans, Social Networking, Twitter, Web 2.0 and William Beutler. 4 Comments

Twitter experienced another milestone last week, although you may not have noticed: Tweet for Chuck, a fundraising drive organized by the nascent campaign of Chuck DeVore, a California state assemblyman who is gearing up to take on Barbara Boxer in 2010. As far as I can discern, this is the first time Twitter has been put to this use.

Although it’s very early yet in the cycle, the last few weeks have seen a big jump in use of Twitter by conservatives, if the just-launched TCOT website (aggregating and ranking conservative tweeters) is any measure. The move should give DeVore some degree of online cred and visibility that few candidates yet have — at least among conservatives, and at this stage they matter most.

The image below, from the front page of the website, explains how it works better than any summary I could offer:

Further down the page, donors are listed along with their Twitter profile picture, the amount they donated or pledged, and whether other donors had listed them as a referrer:

By tweeting the donation to one’s Twitter followers, the campaign gets a free one-time use of that donor’s account and the chance to solicit additional donors. The same network effects that made Twitter even more conducive to passing along news about the Mumbai terror attacks than perhaps even the blogosphere could end up producing a tool more effective for fundraising than blogging as well.

Twitter is a more intimate experience than blogging, so a candidate on Twitter (as DeVore is) can to some extent simulate the access donors frequently get at traditional fundraising dinners. A candidate couldn’t really be expected to write a whole blog post thanking specific donors, but a tweet is just the right vehicle for such acknowledgment, and DeVore’s campaign has been doing just that.

Moreover, DeVore is on the right track so far, working with blogosphere and political veterans Josh Trevino and then Justin Hart and even contributing blog posts at the recently-launched GOP state blog network Red County.

It’s been said before that political movements tend to innovate in fundraising and message delivery when they’re out of power. With Barack Obama’s Twitter account recently falling silent while DeVore is taking it in a new direction, we might just be seeing that happen already.

Update: Don’t miss DeVore’s comment on this post.

Twitter’s Top User Account Abandoned?

Published by William Beutler on December 2, 2008 in Barack Obama, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter and William Beutler. 18 Comments

You may not have noticed this, but the most-followed user account on Twitter has not been updated in nearly a month:

It wouldn’t have occurred to me to check, except that it was mentioned on the latest episode of This Week in Tech (where they are under the naive impression that Obama himself actually posts to the account). Apparently the inactivity has resulted in the account’s removal from Twitterholic, which keeps track of the most-followed accounts. And yet Obama still has nearly twice as many followers as the next, Kevin Rose.

So what’s the deal here? Is everybody just too busy with Change.gov? Will YouTube be Obama’s sole method of communicating with Internet users? That certainly looks to be the case. Once elected, it was inevitable that Obama’s communications strategy would become more conventional, but abandoning this direct line to supporters is somewhat perplexing. Why leave 140,000 followers on the table, especially now that Twitter is finally going mainstream? My guess is that they will use it again, after Obama assumes the presidency and wants to mobilize his supporters toward a particular goal, say, health care reform.

That said, it would behoove someone in Obama’s Internet shop to keep the account current, even by recording announcements of cabinet appointments. Events of the past week have underscored Twitter’s usefulness as a news source. Obama’s team would be wise to recognize this.

Orange You Glad It’s Election Day?

Published by William Beutler on November 4, 2008 in Barack Obama, Charts and Graphs, Election Night, Elections, Joe Biden, John McCain, New Media Strategies, Sarah Palin, Trend Tool, Twitter, White House '08 and William Beutler. 2 Comments

Well folks, this is it. After two years of the longest presidential campaign ever — and one hopes it can’t get any longer — the polls are open and people are standing in line all across America. Or, given the early hour, all across the Eastern time zone. And this time around people are doing something they couldn’t the last: posting their thoughts to Twitter via mobile device.

Why do I bring all this up? Because New Media Strategies (where I work and whence I type) has teamed up with Tropicana (the orange juice makers, not the casino resort) to create a Twitter-focused data visualization tool that we’re calling Fresh Squeezed Election Tweets, and just went live a few moments ago at www.anorangeamerica.com:

The site is continuously collecting tweets using the words “Obama” and “McCain”, counting up which other words appear with them — Vote, Election, Country — and other words that appear frequently — Bush, War, Lie (no one said Twitter was fair and balanced) — and representing this frequency by the size of the associated blue-red bubble. The bluer it is, the closer-aligned the keyword is with Obama; the more red, the more it’s McCain. And see the black lines connecting? Those show you which words are used together most: if you mouseover the keywords, you’ll get actual percentages. Did I mention it’s embeddable? I don’t think I did. Here, let me: It’s embeddable.

Is that cool, or what? Feel free to use it in your own posts and check back throughout the day, as the data set changes and perhaps reveals some insight into the day’s events. We might already have a pretty good idea who will be president-elect by day’s end, but Freshly Squeezed Election Tweets may help give a better idea why.

RNC08 #4: The Beutler Hub

Published by William Beutler on September 2, 2008 in 2008 Conventions, Republicans, Seriously, Twitter, White House '08 and William Beutler. 3 Comments

I’m finally inside the restricted zone in St. Paul and sitting down at the C-SPAN work area in the Wilkins Auditorium press filing center (adjacent to the Xcel Energy Center) to get some actual work in. Barring any pressing need to write something longer than 140 characters, this will be my last update from #RNC08 in the form of a blog post. The Twitter and Flickr badges below will stay live throughout the week, so keep hitting refresh just as fast as you can manage without risking early-onset carpal tunnel.

Monday update: Now that #RNC08 is over and my tweeting activity is back to normal, I’m moving the Twitter feed back to the sidebar (or it will be just as soon as I figure out why WordPress is balking). But the Flickr badge is just the St. Paul photoset (with more yet to be added) so I’ll leave it where it is.

www.flickr.com