GOP Dominating Dems in Online Media Usage
2010 April 22
Nichole Hungerford
tags: Conservative Management Foundation, Democrats, GOP, Internet, Rep John Boehner, Republicans, Twitter, YouTube
The party of “pale & stale” no more! Okay. Maybe it’s still pale.
According to a report released yesterday by House Minority Leader John Boehner, the GOP is “dominating” Democrats in online media use. If you detect a caveat is on the way, then bully for you: The truth is, Democratic websites outnumber Republicans by 3:2. But, Republicans outscored Democrats overall in the 2009 “Mouse Awards,” a ranking determined by the non-partisan, independent Conservative Management Foundation.
The CMF awards build on a report earlier this year which found that “GOP members of Congress have more than twice as many Twitter followers than their Democratic counterparts and tweet five times more often” and another study which noted that “eight of the top ten most-viewed and most-subscribed YouTube channels in Congress are from the GOP.”
This shouldn’t be too surprising considering the number of self-identifying conservatives in America is roughly double that of self-identifying liberals. It is surprising because, as alluded to earlier, Republicans are frequently branded as the consummate Luddites who can barely manage their “E. mail” capably, let alone transition their twitter followers into political clout. Yet, as the internet becomes more and more ubiquitous and conservatives more and more tech savvy, could this become a formidable political force in future elections?
Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter And 200 “People” You Should Be Following
Posted by Duane Lester
Almost every Twitter related article that aims to explain the appeal of Twitter starts the same way:
When Twitter first came out, I didn’t get it. Now I do.
I hate to be trite, but it’s the same story for me. I looked at Twitter and just didn’t see a reason for it, and ignored it. Today, I find myself near addicted to the service.
What is Twitter
Twitter is an online service that allows you to enter short messages (140 characters or less) to your “followers.” You can also choose to “follow” certain users, which shows their “tweets” (the Twitter term for your messages) on your home screen.
Twitter is set up to allow you to send “tweets” from your mobile phone or from your computer. This feature allows people to tell what they are doing where ever they are, which is really great for on the spot reporting of news that hasn’t made the main stream media yet.
You can choose to make all your “tweets” private, which means no one will see your Twitter stream unless you want them to. While this can limit your followers, that might be exactly what you want.
(For a more in depth guide for beginners, you should check out CNet’s Newbie’s Guide to Twitter.)
Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter
Twitter is a great way to build online communities. For example, when the Republicans staged a protest last summer and refused to leave for summer recess, Eric Odom and a few other Twitter users were sending updates using the hashtag “#dontgo.” That hashtag allowed people to see the news relating to the dontgo movement as it was happening and morphed from a Twitter stream to an organization Michelle Malkin called “the new gathering place for conservative activism.”
Twitter helped to create this new conservative community.
Twitter is also a great way to get news as it happens. There are other great news services that send out “tweets” during the day. Fox News and Sky News are two that come to mind that send out news updates day and night. If you follow them, they will send the news directly to your computer or cell phone. I’ll have more news services listed below that you should follow.
There are also conservatives using Twitter to post news and blog posts. If you follow a right-minded Twitter user, every “tweet” they send out will be seen by your account. That means every article they choose to share, you get to see. I have learned of some interesting news this way, news I may of otherwise missed. Read the entire article here.
Twtter Tips
From Crista Huff of DougCO and Ron Michel, ACRMC.
Simple Set-Up Instructions: Go to www.Twitter.com and follow the instructions to sign in and set up an account. Be sure to follow the instructions precisely. When selecting your Twitter name, it can be real or fictitious. (You can have as many accounts as you wish but please reserve one account for political messages, actions, announcements, news and comments.) For instance, my Twitter name is @CristaHuff,(real) but it could be @PinkElephant (fictitious.) Also be sure to include “Republican” or “conservative” in your profile so that we can find you via a Twitter Search. Also, don’t use a lock on your home page unless you decide later that you need it.
Remember, we ultimately want to have a statewide and national network of all Republicans communicating between each other.
Now you’re ready to Tweet, except you have no contacts on Twitter. I would suggest you start with searching for TCOT “Top Conservatives On Twitter” via Twitter “Search” (at the bottom of your Twitter Home page.) You can choose from those listed, many who are well known, e.g., Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Heritage Foundation, FOX News, etc. There are prompts for inputting your address book to find out who else you know on Twitter. Be cautious with that. Start by determining what audience segments you’d like to communicate with (follow/following) on Twitter. Activists, Politicols, Locals, Conservatives? If you’ve gotten this far and still need help, call me. Ron Michel 303 794 5341.
5 Easiest Ways to Use Twitter to Advance Conservatism
I’ve been trying to think of the most basic, simple ways to utilize Twitter to advance the conservative cause. Many people have harnessed Twitter to create social networks and websites – those are awesome and I’m a part of many, but there are TONS of them and it can be time consuming and amp; energy draining, sometimes you just want to stay on Twitter. Or there are some people who are conservative and on Twitter but are not using it to their full advantage.
What can the average, busy, maybe even lazy person easily and simply do every day to advance conservatism on Twitter? I’m glad you asked!
1. Join TCOT (if you haven’t already). Michael P. Leahy and others have done a great job rounding up a list of the Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) as well as expanding the site to conservative action projects, mentoring, and news. Get on the list to follow and be followed. It gives you a great starting point to find people you will enjoy following, so go through it and check out people’s profiles. It can also help people find and follow you, although now that the list is so long, if you’re at the bottom it’s not as easy to get noticed. However, following others and writing great tweets will help you gain a following. Which brings me to my next point:
2. Tweet conservative. I know Twitter asks “What are you doing?” but come on, now, I really don’t care what you’re having for lunch or what your plans are tonight – unless you are doing something really, really, amazingly cool. I want to see conservative topics like: what’s the hottest political news, what articles and blogs you find interesting that I may enjoy, what your thoughts on news of the day are, what outrageous thing the left is working on next, etc. When you tweet conservative, try to add the hashtag #TCOT so it will show up on this feed and you gain a wider conservative audience. Put something really great out and hopefully others will:
3. Retweet. Before the election, Twitter had a special banner of hot election topics. Although the topics weren’t always the ones most tweeted about, the hot topics were usually items favored by the left. And viewing the feed, one could see why. The Leftists on Twitter acted as a giant echo chamber retweeting each other’s articles and information to advance their cause. Conservatives should have been doing the same thing to get their favored topics on the list and move the agenda.
On Twitter now, conservatives should be retweeting and advancing each other’s comments, blog posts, and article links to spread them rapidly and attract attention via trending. One thing that is so great about a network like TCOT, you can use it to ampliphy your message, kind of like playing telephone as a kid, except hopefully the messages doesn’t get scrambled by the end. We need to become a giant echo chamber like the Left, the key difference being that when the left does it, they are repeating lies and bias over and over again until people get confused and think it’s the truth. We need to reinforce and spread the truth and our own message so the American people know it.
[If you're a newbie, the standard way to retweet looks something like this:
"RT @AlexaShrugged Meet the new Great Satan, same as the old Great Satan http://is.gd/3zjU #TCOT"
RT stands for Retweet, @AlexaShrugged indicates it was me who originally said it, then the tweet and hashtag #TCOT. The important thing is the information in the retweet so if you don't have room to write the person's name you can leave it out or cut words.] So, retweet other’s tweets, and then:
4. Retweet your retweet. If there’s something important, feel free to retweet it multiple times throughout the day. Because everyone is following a bunch of people, your tweet can get lost in the shuffle. Or some people are only on twitter at certain times of the day. Don’t be annoying and do it 10 times in 10 min. – a couple times in one day spaced out by a few hours should help you be seen by most of your followers. And hopefully many of your followers will retweet your retweet.
5. Blog exchange. Another way to ampliphy our message is to get interconnected through our blogs. When you follow someone or are followed, check out that person’s blog. If you like it, add it to your blog roll and ask them to do the same. Simple enough.
These are 5 really simple and easy ways to use Twitter for conservatism that you can integrate right now without even breaking a sweat or feeling overwhelmed with monitoring and joining yet another conservative network or website.
