Public Figures Tap The Twitterverse December 9th, 2009
Portia Krebs

President Obama’s 2008 election campaign raised social media’s profile on the political landscape.  Now, technologies like Twitter are gaining even more momentum among public figures and politicians alike.

Twitter updates, in their haiku-like brevity, have been embraced by the Washington Post, which now offers a regular feature online called, “Tweets from Around the World.”   The section displays the tweets of international leaders, diplomats, global institutions, and the U.S. military abroad.  What will you find there?  An update from Marine Corps News urging citizens to remember and honor Pearl Harbor.  A link posted by the U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv featuring the remarks of Secretary Clinton and Quartet Representative Tony Blair. Or a tweet from Queen Rania-Al-Abdulah of Jordan announcing her participation in a Paris technology conference.

Following the announcements of politicians online is also easy, thanks to Twitter.  In the U.K., Tweetminster connects citizens with the nation’s politicians who are active Twitter users, and showcases which political party tweets most often.  Inspired by Tweetminster, Tweet Congress encourages Americans to follow twittering U.S. politicians.  The site also features a U.S. map with national statistics profiling the political scene.

And, in this modern era, many politicians now recognize the need to connect with constituents in the virtual space.  For example, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has fully embraced new media – sharing updates via Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogs, and on his website to maximize web 2.0’s unique ability to enhance constituent communications and promote government transparency.  Meanwhile, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has gone one step further – launching DataSF, which shares a wide array of city data for constituents to search and utilize in innovative ways.

From promoting greater dialogue to sharing breaking news, social media is quickly becoming an invaluable tool to public figures around the world.  Broadband is powering these modern innovations and uniting us in democracy-defining discussion.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Benefits of Broadband. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.