How Local Politicians are Using Social Media - The Diigo Meta page

• 21 Oct 09
  

  Will Richardson

  "Local and state offices, from the governor down to the alderman are taking note and there has been a huge increase in the number of local and state politicians getting involved in social media; and not just in a cursory manner, but in ways that have opened the lines of communication to an audience clamoring for transparency."

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• 20 Oct 09
  

  Jeff Bordogna
  • Local and state offices, from the governor down to the alderman are taking note and there has been a huge increase in the number of local and state politicians getting involved in social media; and not just in a cursory manner, but in ways that have opened the lines of communication to an audience clamoring for transparency.
  • One of the biggest adopters on the state level has been Massachusetts (D) Governor Deval Patrick.
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  • • Kentucky’s Secretary of State, (R) Trey Grayson also has found higher engagement from Kentuckians through his Facebook Page, Twitter profile, and YouTube channel.
    • San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) has found that social media can be an integral part of the conversation between a government and the people it serves. His administration has launched a number of innovative programs in their city, such as DataSF, which opens up city data on everything from public safety and transportation, to health, housing, and elections for people to mashup and utilize in interesting and helpful ways. The DataSF project has already led to a number of interesting web applications that make use of city data.
    • NJ Assembly candidate Bill Harvey (R) believes that one of the major advantages to politicians using social media is that it’s free for voters to use. Social media, he says, “also allows voters the opportunity to hear directly from elected officials and candidates that might not otherwise been seen in the newspapers or on television.”
    • Blake believes that a social media communications strategy should be custom made depending on the type of communication that needs to be done. “What I try to do, both internally and when working with others on using social media,” he said, “is to talk about the need or communication gap first, then figure out which tools best fill that need or gap.”
    • Commissioner Castro believes that “government needs to be transparent and by utilizing social media, it allows me to actively provide them (her constituents) with information they need in a timely (manner) and real-time fashion.”
    • And looking at statistics of the event, Mr. Blake says, “not to turn it into a contest… but compared to President Obama’s Open Government Brainstorm web site that was launched one week earlier than ours and active for 15 more days, Governor Patrick’s Forum had 29% more members per capita and 99% more comments per capita.”
    • Assemblyman Kellner agrees. “Politics is about conversation, and personal, face-to-face interaction is still the foundation of that, especially at the local level.“ He looks at social media as a way of expanding that conversation, by “broadening my overall efforts to engage with the community I represent.”
• 19 Oct 09
  

  jandira feijo

  "How Local Politicians Are Using Social Media"

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