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annek annek
 
M$1.25 August 24, 2009 07:52 PM

Conservatives are better at using Twitter than liberals. Why is that?

The Los Angeles Times has a report about this today: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/08/does-twitter-favor-conservatives-.html

Some tidbits:

John McCain (twitter.com/JohnMcCain) got 1 million followers on his Twitter account six weeks before the White House Twitter account (twitter.com/WhiteHouse) did.

And:

"When Republicans staged a protest last summer and refused to leave for summer recess, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi simply adjourned the session and turned out the lights, effectively turning off the C-SPAN cameras. So several GOP stalwarts started tweeting an account of what was going on from the House floor. They developed a following and prompted conservative commentator Michelle Malkin to call Twitter 'the new gathering place for conservative activism.'"

Why do you think Conservatives are doing a better job harnessing the social networking power of Twitter than Liberals?
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Interesting: jasoncalacanis M$0.25

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mrcal mrcal
 
 August 24, 2009 09:57 PM
Seriously? I’m not even sure where to start here, but I think the best place would be the 2008 Presidential campaign. Barack Obama (let’s call him the “liberal” for sake of this argument) had a much better publicized, much more utilized and much more effective strategy around social media (Twitter included) than John McCain (we’ll call him the “conservative”). Obama rallied support for the Democratic nomination using a social network strategy and even went on to announce his Vice-presidential nomination on Twitter (continuing his approach). The fact that the article uses the white house followers vs. McCain’s followers totally misses the mark – Obama has nearly double the followers that McCain has.

My point here isn’t necessarily to say I believe the opposite of the LA Times (i.e., I’m not saying the “liberals” are better than “conservatives” at using Twitter), but to give a clear counter example as a means of showing how ridiculous this suggestion is.


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Helpful: madgolertom, annek, dyna4980

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annek annek
 
August 24, 2009 10:28 PM
that's a great point, mrcal... It's amazing what a little more digging can do. The L.A. Times did make a bit of a skewed point, by omitting the fact that Obama himself—separate from the White House twitter account—has eclipsed McCain in the number of social networking followers (he's got over 2 million: http://twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA)

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samid samid
 
August 24, 2009 08:01 PM
This doesn't mean they are "better" at using Twitter. It is simply a sign of the time. They have more reason, or need, to get out and advertise their cause than Liberals do. Liberals, for the most part, are happy as Liberals are, for the first time in a long time, in complete control of Washington. That means that Coneservatives are, for the first time in a long time, NOT in control of Washington. This is a state of being they are not accustomed to and I think they are trying to figure out what happened and how they lost the majority so swiftly and effectively. Conservatives are very unhappy and are making as much noise as they possibly can to get the majority to support them again, thus using every means possible, including Twitter.

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Voted as best: pellrider
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dandrewric... dandrewric...
 
August 24, 2009 09:06 PM
About the same thing I was thinking. Conservatives are under more pressure and therefore more apt to try new things.

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psynopsis psynopsis
 
August 24, 2009 08:41 PM
Well I think it's because, conservatives feel like their rallying the 'troops'. While liberals, don't have a strategy, when it comes to getting support from people.

Another reason could be, that conservatives are starting to feel the heat, and are trying to get support from people in every way they can.

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andyk1uk andyk1uk
 
August 25, 2009 05:15 PM
because they don't employ me?

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