Facing budget cuts? Talk to your politicians on Twitter!
When we were doing a social media workshop for Convention & Visitor bureaus in Michigan last year we had one participant who was very doubtful that Twitter would be useful for him. We discussed the various ways Twitter can be a useful tool. Besides using it to listening to customers and talking to them we pointed out that Twitter can also be a great tool to talk to media and politicians. Why? Because if you want to pitch a story to a newspaper or talk to your congressman via “traditional” channels, you face a lot of competition. If you use Twitter, you are – at the moment – one of very few using this medium. Hence you have a much better chance of being heard.
At our workshop we quickly did a search for Michigan politicians on Twitter (this was before Twittersearch was castrated) and wouldn’t you know it – the head of the Ways & Means committee for the Michigan house was on Twitter. Not an unimportant contact when it comes to state budgets.
Fast forward to today (Jan 7th): the Florida Tourism industry started a Twitter account to share their thoughts on the proposed 40% cut of the Florida tourism budget (see story here). Why are not more tourism organizations doing this? Get on Twitter and tell your story – economic impact, job creation, tax revenues etc. If you use traditional media you compete with banks, the automotive industry and – who knew – the porn industry (see story on CNN here) who are all lobbying for money and all have much deeper pockets.
Are you following your politicians on Twitter? Have you ever talked to them on Twitter? Why not?
To get you started I have prepared a (very ugly) list of some politicians who I found on Twitter (surprisingly there is no complete list anywhere, if you find one, let me know. The Twitter Fan Wiki lists many branches of the US government and their Twitter accounts but some of the accounts for politicians are fake).
|
Name |
State |
Twitter Account |
|
Rep. John Boozman |
AR |
|
|
Rep. Jeff Flake |
AZ |
|
|
Rep. KevonMcCarthy |
CA |
|
|
Rep. Mike Honda |
CA |
|
|
Rep. Nancy Pelosi |
CA |
|
|
Sen. Barbara Boxer |
CA |
|
|
Sen. Hillary Clinton |
CA |
|
|
Rep. George Miller |
CA |
|
|
Rep. Christopher Shays |
CT |
|
|
Sen. Chris Dodd |
CT |
|
|
Sen. Joe Biden |
DE |
|
|
Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen |
FL |
|
|
Rep. Kendrick Meek |
FL |
|
|
Sen. Elect Matt Rector |
GU |
|
|
Rep. Neil Abercrombie |
HI |
|
|
Rep. Tom Latham |
IA |
|
|
Sen. Charles Grassley |
IA |
|
|
President-elect Barack Obama |
IL |
|
|
Rep. John Shimkus |
IL |
|
|
Rep. Dan Burton |
IN |
|
|
Rep. John Yarmuth |
KY |
|
|
Rep. Candice Miller |
MI |
|
|
Rep. Peter Hoekstra |
MI |
|
|
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter |
MI |
|
|
Rep. Keith Ellison |
MN |
|
|
Rep. Michelle Bachmann |
MN |
|
|
Rep. Roy Blunt |
MO |
|
|
Sen. Scott Rupp |
MO |
|
|
Rep. Dennis Rehberg |
MT |
|
|
Senator Tom Udall |
NM |
|
|
Rep. John Kuhl |
NY |
|
|
Rep. Bob Latta |
OH |
|
|
Rep. Jim Jordan |
OH |
|
|
Rep. John Boehner |
OH |
|
|
Rep. Tim Ryan |
OH |
|
|
Rep. Bob Latta |
OH |
|
|
Sen. Jim Inhofe |
OK |
|
|
Rep. Earl Blumenauer |
OR |
|
|
Rep. Greshman Barrett |
SC |
|
|
Rep. Joe Wilson |
SC |
|
|
Rep. Robert Inglis |
SC |
|
|
Sen. Jim DeMint |
SC |
|
|
Rep. Joe Wilson |
SC |
|
|
Rep. Don Kopp |
SD |
|
|
Rep. John Culberson |
TX |
|
|
Rep. Michael Burgess |
TX |
|
|
Sen. John Cornyn |
TX |
|
|
Rep. Eric Cantor |
VA |
|
|
Rep. Randy Forbes |
VA |
|
|
Rep. Robert Wittman |
VA |
Now go and find your local politicians and connect with them as well. Can you imagine 40 or 50 constituents contacting a politician on the same day to talk about a specific subject? Maybe also tell the press about it … I guarantee this would get noticed.
It will be interesting to see what Florida Tourism will make out of the Twitter account, it would be nice if they would add a description and a link to a website so people can find out more information. Oh, it would also help to follow some Florida politicians and media. But overall a great step in the very right direction.
Feedback and comments as always very welcome. Leave them on the blog or find me at @coldinpdx .
January 12th, 2009 at 4:57 am
[...] also looks like there are a host of politicians hopping on Twitter, recognizing the value of connecting with their constituents in a more accessible format. I’m [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] also looks like there are a host of politicians hopping on Twitter, recognizing the value of connecting with their constituents in a more accessible format. I’m [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
[...] also looks like there are a host of politicians hopping on Twitter, recognizing the value of connecting with their constituents in a more accessible format. I’m [...]