Twitter for Politicians: Steve Novick Knows Social Media

Today I got a notice from Twitter that I have another follower of my Twitter account.

For those of you with a life but without the driving desire to document and share every moment of it, you may not know of Twitter. It's a free service where you can post updates of what you're up to from a computer or mobile phone. You can choose to "follow" other people and get updates of what they're doing.

If you need more explanation than that, I suggest you check out their FAQ.

In any case, the follower was novickforsenate. The "name" was intriguing enough for me to look into it. Turns out it's Steve Novick, a democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Oregon.

Now, one thing that you often do after someone "follows" you, is to follow them back. So I can only imagine how this works. He asks one of his interns to do a search under "Oregon" or "Portland" (which is perhaps why he's following me) or something similar and just start following fellow Twitterers. In turn, a certain percentage will start following him. (At this writing he is following 1,139 and only has 71 followers, but that may change.)

This is a great way--IMHO--of engaging the geekorati who spent time paying attention to Twitter. Once they're following Steve, there's not much more he has to do except to update his Twitter feed (again, probably done by an intern, but maybe not.)

He can post where he's going to be, his response to news stories, or--like in a recent update--a link to his YouTube video, a Beer with Steve.

Yes, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and a blog. This guy hasn't just embraced social media, he's made it his...well, let's not go there. This is, after all, a professional business blog.

Will this help him get elected? Time will tell. However, I'm sure he's loving the extra free media coverage he's getting.

Rich Brooks
Twittering...twittering...

Comments

[Tara]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for profiling Steve Novick. His Twitter account now boasts 142 followers, now including me.

As a citizen of Western Oregon, genuine techno-geek, tree-hugging, hippie chick, I am supporting Mr. Novick in his run for the Senate. Besides, anyone who has beat Bill Sizemore is a friend of mine. And I'd be pleased to have a beer with him. Preferably a nice Oregon microbrew.

Peace be with you,
Tara