Top Twittering Politicians

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What is Twitter? Many describe it as a social network, some as a waste of time, and others a way to tell your "followers" what you're doing. Here's what Twitter itself has to say:

"Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!"



One of the first things you notice is the presence of politicians telling their Twitter followers "what they're doing." So, I thought I'd take a look at which politicians, actually let's just stick to presidential candidates, are on Twitter and what they're doing with the service.






The Dems:

First I look up the top 20 Twitterers at http://www.twitdir.com/. I wasn't terribly surprised to find two of the Democratic Presidential candidates in the top 20.

BarackObama Barack Obama
Friends : 3916
Chicago, IL
Followers : 3499
Favorites : 0
http://www.barackobama.com/
Updates : 21
Last update : Enjoying an ice cream social with residents of Sunapee, New Hampshire.

Ok, gotta stop there. A little description first is in order. On Twitter, like on most social networks you have a "screen name." Mine is, originally, mosqueda. But other folks use names like DaynGr or WickedStepMom or the perrenial favorite EvilAnnOhio. So in this case Senator Obama goes by "BarackObama." Makes sense, simple, searchable, and easy to remember.

Friends - what? Ok, Friends are people you follower. In fact, TwitDir is a little behind the times because Twitter calls Friends "Following," meaning those you follow on Twitter. Followers are those who follow you. Favorites would take you to someone's favorite Twitter entries. "Updates" indicates how many postings the Twitterer has made. You also might see a description of the Twitter member and a link to their web site.

Back to Barack. He has the most followers of any politician or Presidential candidate on the site. Period. So, 3,499 folks are following his updates. That number will flucuate from day to day because users can delete or block other users. Of course users can add people to follow and do pretty often. I've gone from 0 to 200 followers in about a month or so.

Next up is John Edwards:

johnedwards
John Edwards
Friends : 3200
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Followers : 2874
Tomorrow Begins Today!
Favorites : 1http://johnedwards.com/
Updates : 64
Last update : Reply to this Twitter to submit your question for me to answer in the post-debate live webcast @ 9:15pm at johnedwards.com

That's pretty interesting. Former Senator Edwards is asking for questions from Twitterers after the YouTube debate. 2,874 followers is nothing to sneeze at.

OK, from here on it'll be in alphabetical order.

joebiden
Joe Biden
Friends : 29
Delaware
Followers : 38
Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and one of the 800 presidential candidates!Favorites : 0
http://www.joebiden.com/home
Updates : 22
Last update : Going on CNN's Late Edition shortly to discuss Iraq.

Wow - Senator Biden isn't exactly captivating the Twittering crowd. 38 followers and even less friends.

Hillary2008
Hillary Clinton 2008
Friends : 1
Followers : 15
Updates from www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton2008
Favorites : 0
http://www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton2008
Updates : 1
Last update : 2 new Hillary Videos on YouTube. Hillary in Selma and HillCast: Equal Pay View them at http://tinyurl.com/2flopy

Hmmm. Senator Clinton, see in order for this Twitter thing to work for you, you need to participate. I hope this isn't like your voting record. One update basically saying "we're not playing here, come over to MySpace."

Christopher Dodd - MIA.

Mike Gravel. Who? Oh, yes, former Senator from Alaska. Not playing. Not suprising.

kucinich2008
Dennis Kucinich
Friends : 0
Cleveland, Ohio
Followers : 2
I would like to be your Next President of the United States
Favorites : 0
http://www.kucinich.us/
Updates : 0
Last update :

Kucinich, no friends, 2 followers, and he wants to be our President. I think the gentleman from Ohio has a little work to do.

Governor Bill Richardson - what, don't they have Twitter in New Mexcio? He's a bright guy and could use the help. MIA.

I'm pretty suprised overall because the conventional wisdom is that Democrats are more on-line oriented than Republicans. We'll see if any of them can beat the Senator from Illinois or the famous designer hair-cut conoisseur.

The Grand Old Party candidates:

Senator Sam Brownback. MIA.

RudyGiuliani
My updates are protected. (Follow request pending)
About RudyGiuliani
Name: Rudy Giuliani
Joined: Mar 07 2007
Following: 0
Followers: 0
Favorites: 0
Updates: 0

I tried to follow Rudy and he never responded. That's ironic considering his reputation for being and expert at quick response.

Mike Huckabee. I did find three entries, but they had no data, no friends, no followers, no updates. That counts as an MIA.

Rer Duncan Hunter. MIA.

Senator John McCain - not playing.

MittRomney
Mitt Romney
Friends : 0
Followers : 11
Favorites : 0
Updates : 0
Last update :

He has eleven followers, but he's not updating at all.

Rep Tom Tancredo. Nada. I did find his name, but it had nothing, not even Mitt's 11 followers.

Governor Tommy Thompson. Nothing.

fredthompson
Fred Thompson
Friends : 560
Followers : 478
Favorites : 0
http://www.imwithfred.com/
Updates : 19
Last update : Check out this audio of Fred Thompson on the Mark Levin show: http://tinyurl.com/3aktbh - [staff]

For not being an official candidate, this GOP'er is WAY AHEAD OF THE GAME!

Well, this really wasn't a very good turn-out for our cast of potential candidates. Twitter could be pretty effective as a method of communicating with followers and even encouraging supporters to join Twitter as a way of keeping track of a given candidate's wherabouts, plans, and message.

Now let's take a look at Twittter's most followed personality:

davetroy
Dave Troy
Friends : 37
Followers : 7586
Dave seems to be pathologically compelled to mix disparate technologies. Wifi+Roomba+PBX mashup? What's next?Favorites : 0http://twittervision.com/
Updates : 215
Last update : Calling all Twitterers! Twitter/Twittervision meetup in Berlin, this Friday evening in Prenzlauerberg, TBA; rsvp dave@twittervision.com

Dave is the creator of Twittervision which shows where various people are Twittering from. He has 7,586 followers. Maybe some of the candidates should talk to Dave.

So what does all this mean? It means Barack Obama, John Edwards and Fred Thompson are
using various methods on the internet to spread their message and keep followers up to date on what's going on in their campaigns. It means you should sign up for Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ and that the other candidates need to get busy using every little bit of technology out there.