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New York Times picks up my Bob Barr Twitters relevation
I talked with Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr in Austin on Sunday and found out that he Twitters for himself.
The New York Times Caucus blog gave me a shout-out later that day.
So much has changed in a year, no? The popularity of Twitter dizzily buzzed around. (Hat tip to Michael Whitney at TechPresident — an airport encounter revealed that Mr. Barr tweets!)
Jul 22, 09:03 PM / Comment [605]
McCain Email Watch: Breaking the Bank for a Banner
John McCain’s often aimless email messages are something of a recurring theme here at techPresident, so much so that we’re dubbing the topic “McCain Email Watch.” Patrick Ruffini got us started when he noticed a “fundamental disconnect” between the real, relaxed John McCain, and his “stitled” online personality. I followed up on a distinct lack of links in a recent McCain campaign email.
But McCain’s email problems are worse than we first thought. Case-in-point: today’s fundraising message that offered a 3’x6’ personalized banner for the low price of $250.
Where to start?
The McCain Campaign's "Reckless" Email Strategy
John McCain’s online team needs to find someone who knows what they’re doing with the campaign’s email list. Campaign manager Rick Davis sent an email to supporters this afternoon titled “Reckless” – clocking in at 597 words – without including a single link until the 580th word.
Tracking the Spitzer Scandal on Twitter
Also posted to TechPres
Shortly after 2:00pm today, the New York Times posted a front-page story announcing New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer was involved in an interstate prostitution ring. But if you wanted the absolute latest information, close your NYTimes.com browser window and head over to Twitter, where the news of Spitzer’s scandal spread so quickly it was difficult to keep up.
Using the third-party application Tweetscan, you can search for specific phrases and see only the tweets that include your search. In the half hour between 3 and 3:30 EST, there were more than 300 tweets that mentioned Spitzer.
It’s not just the news of the scandal that spread across Twitter; looking at the stream shows folks’ reactions to the news and inquiries about how the story will play out. Some folks are plain disappointed, others lament that he was caught in such a typical trap.
You can also get analyses of how the scandal plays out in the 2008 election. This tweet mentions that both Spitzer and his lieutenant governor are super-delegates supporting Hillary Clinton. Another criticizes the Times’ protrayal of the scandal that implies Spitzer was involved with running the ring, not just being a john.
As David All tweeted early after the scandal broke, the coverage of the Spitzer scandal shows that Twitter is indeed a utility, not just a play-thing. While it’s still a bit inaccessible to read specific topics from within Twitter itself, its open API allows for applications like TweetScan to fill in the gaps.
TechPres' 2007 Campaign Web Index
TechPresident released its 2007 Campaign Web Index, a survey of “the very brightest minds working in tech and politics,” which includes me, apparently.
The meat of the survey:
Our panel judged Ron Paul and Barack Obama to have the best overall web presences, and they also led their respective fields in the most individual categories. Mike Huckabee and John Edwards followed, with each earning strong support from our panel. But while these four campaigns were the leaders, there were many surprises in specific categories. For example, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney scored the most points for their online rapid response work.
But head on over to see how everyone evaluated the candidates in 13 tech topics, with excerpted comments from people who responded.
Find me at the Huffington Post
Earlier this week I wrote a small piece comparing the fundraising techniques of Chris Dodd and Mitt Romney, who sent similar messages within hours of one another. You can find the original piece at TechPrez. But now you can also find me at the Huffington Post. I’m writing some stories as part of the citizen journalism project Off the Bus.
Grading the Campaigns Email Campaigns
Email messages are the hallmark of online communications. Forgetting about Facebook applications and video mashups, email is the one tried and true avenue to communicate with constituents or customers. But if your inbox is as cluttered as mine, you know that it can take a lot to open an email from a presidential candidate who in all likelihood is asking you for money. So how close attention do the campaigns pay to making it easy to read their emails? TechPresident has already extensively covered the campaigns’ use of email, from Hillary’s handwritten notes to stripped-down, BlackBerry-style messages from the candidates. I took a closer look at the mechanics of each campaign’s email program and graded their performance based on accepted standards of email marketing. See who makes the grade.
This is posted on Tech President. Colin Delany has a great post that collects the recent flurry of attention around the candidates’ emails.
techPresident Launches Politickr
Yesterday techPresident – a group blog covering the intersection of technology and the 2008 presidential race – launched Politickr. It’s their great implementation of the site I originally developed at Politickr.net.
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