Why @JebBush Joining Twitter Matters 8:00 AM

If you have ever e-mailed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, you know exactly why his joining Twitter yesterday is significant. During his time as Governor, Bush was notorious for personally responding to all e-mails sent to him within 24 hours. Bush understood and embraced a concept that few politicians of his time understood – direct media (a term coined by TechRepublican founder, David All). Before Twitter and Facebook became widely adopted platforms for politicians to directly communicate with voters and vice-versa, Bush understood the essential concept of direct access and transparency.

Even with the boom of politicians setting up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, few are using these social platforms to personally engage directly with voters and constituents. If Jeb Bush’s previous history with e-mail is any indication of how he may use Twitter, he could serve as a standard-bearer amongst politicians using the platform effectively.

Bush has had a Twitter account (@cgables43) set up since March 11, 2009, but had never tweeted until yesterday when he announced that he would be moving to a new Twitter handle - @JebBush. As word leaked out of Bush’s new account and the legitimacy of the account was confirmed by Bush’s staff, @JebBush’s following exploded to 1,000 followers in one hour. As of 7:30 a.m. this morning, 15 hours after launching the new account, Bush has surpassed the 2,000 follower mark.

As with any move Jeb Bush makes, politicos inside and outside of Florida can add this latest Twitter maneuver to the growing list of more public appearances the former Governor has made in the past few months - moves sure to create buzz for a Bush 2012 candidacy.

Bush has yet to tweet from the new @JebBush account, but hopefully the move to the new Twitter handle is a sign that Bush is ready to embrace Twitter.  Jeb Bush has seemingly always been a tech-geek of sorts, whether it is sporting off his new Kindle to Tucker Carlson in an Esquire interview, or featuring his beloved Blackberry in his official portrait which hangs in the state Capitol. If Bush applies the same discipline he applies to other forms of electronic communication, I am confident that @JebBush will quickly become one of the most effective and popular tweeting politicians.

Cross-posted from TechRepublican.com

@JebBush Joins Twitter 4:57 PM

On March 11, 2009, the Twitter account @cgables43 was created with the name "Jeb Bush".  For nearly a year, I have waited to see if the former Florida Governor would indeed tweet.  Today, @cgables43 issued their first tweet saying:

As @JebBush's following skyrocketed, so did speculation as to whether or not this actually was Jeb Bush.  Minutes after the tweet from @cgables43, I was able to independently confirm with Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education that the account is indeed former Florida Governor Bush. 

Bush's move onto Twitter is a significant one.  Jeb Bush has seemingly always been a tech-geek of sorts, whether it is sporting off his new Kindle to Tucker Carlson in an Esquire interview or featuring his beloved Blackberry in his official Governor's portrait which hangs in the state Capitol.

Bush's Twitter maneuver brings many questions with it - How active of a Twitter user will Bush be?  Will the tech-savvy former Governor personally tweet?  Does the Governor's Twitter-move accompanied by a more public schedule in recent months signal that he is gearing up for another run at public office, possibly the White House in 2012?

Facebook on Capitol Hill 8:13 AM

Politico has a great profile piece out this morning on the three-man team at the helm of Facebook's D.C. bureau whose job it is to expand Facebook's presence in Washington D.C.  This includes working with candidates and elected officials on setting up Facebook pages and profiles while ensuring that they are complying with election laws.  Click here to read the full article and also be sure to check out Politico's video below:

Rubio Articulates New 3M 6:53 PM

This video explains precisely how Marco Rubio has been able to successfully implement a New 3M campaign (MESSAGE → MOMENTUM → MONEY).  Absolutely one of the best articulations of the concepts behind New 3M that I have heard from any politician:

FlaDems Take Over Putnam's Wikipedia Page 11:04 AM

I rarely point out what Democrats are doing well online, especially in Florida.  But when lessons can be learned from the opposition, I find it necessary to share.  The Florida Democratic Party ran a very creative attack on Republican Congressman Adam Putnam today on Wikipedia.  Putnam, running for Commissioner of Agriculture, had his Wikipedia page as well as a page title "Hypocrisy" hijacked by the Party calling him a hypocrite (see screenshots below).  The Party then distributed these screenshots to traditional reporters, bloggers and other Democratic "talkers" in the State.

Wikipedia is a web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly-editable model, meaning that anyone can edit anything about anybody on the site.  Over the years, Wikipedia's credibility has increased as more people have begun to use the open-platform and post accurate information.  What could be damaging for Putnam and other candidates (who all could fall victim of this sort of attack), is the effect Wikipedia pages have on search engines.  Wikipedia pages frequently rank towards the top of Google search result pages and if a candidate is not watching closely, their Wikipedia pages can be hijacked with very unfavorable information from their opposition (see screenshot of Putnam's Google search results below):

To avoid this from happening to your campaign, you can "watch" Wikipedia pages of your choosing and receive updates any time they are edited.

Facebook Outlines Mobile Strategy 8:50 AM

As Facebook continues to grow at an alarming rate of 1 million new users every other day, it's future will likely rest largely on it's success and adoption on mobile devices.  Currently, there are more than 100 million active users accessing Facebook through their mobile device and according to Facebook, these mobile users are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.  So what does the future of Facebook on mobile devices look like?  Facebook's Vice President of User Growth, Mobile and International Expansion, Chamath Palihapitiya, gave some insight during this recent session on Mobile Communications 2.0 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

An Alternative Facebook Friend Diet 8:28 AM

The Heritage Foundation's Director of Online Strategy, Robert Bluey, published a piece a few weeks ago calling for a Facebook Diet of sorts.  Bluey cites a recent tweet from David All in which All claimed he was "going on a Facebook Friend diet for 2010" with a goal of being "under 1,500 by July 4th." 

I share Bluey and All's concern and desire to make their Facebook networks more personal and to rid their Facebook news feeds of Blingee Book and Mafia Wars.  After all, the social network was built be a place where you could connect with your "friends".  But with all due respect to these two online strategists far more brilliant than me, I would argue that eliminating your current Facebook friends or refusing to accept friend requests that come in the future is not the best solution to this problem. 

In his blog post, Bluey says that his wife will ask "why a total stranger is remarking about a personal item" such as a picture of their son.  A good question indeed.  I ran into similar annoyances when friends of my parents started joining Facebook 3-4 years after I had been on the network.  My parents and their friends suddenly had access to everything I was doing with my life online, and people who I had not seen in a decade were suddenly giving me life advice via my Facebook status.  Talk about obnoxious.  But un-friending these people or not accepting their friend requests was not the answer.  There were times when I had information that I wanted to share with these people, whether it was news of my engagement, wedding plans, or career moves I was making.  If I had made the decision to deny their friend requests or un-friend them, I would have lost the ability to communicate with them via Facebook. 

Over the past week, I have received an average of 6 friend requests per day.  Almost all of these people I have never heard of before, but upon inspecting our "mutual friends" it is clear that these people want to connect with me professionally (or, perhaps more likely, simply increase their Facebook friend count for reasons beyond my understanding).  While I do not want to give these people access to everything I post on Facebook (especially personal status updates), why would I turn down someone who has initiated a relationship that could be beneficial to me professionally?  More than 15% of the traffic to my blog comes directly from Facebook, and increasing my footprint on Facebook will allow me to drive more traffic to that content and make connections that could be mutually beneficial to me and my "friends" in the future. 

So how can I keep these two worlds of Facebook "friends" separate?  The rarely-talked-about, yet incredibly effective Facebook Lists tool.

Every time I receive a friend request on Facebook from someone I do not recognize, I check to see what friends I have in common with the requester ("mutual friends").  99 times out of 100, the "mutual friends" will be politicians, journalists and other "professional" connections I have made on Facebook.  By simply clicking the "Add to List" drop down menu underneath the name of the friend requester, I can choose what previously created list I want to add this new friend to.  If they are someone I think will be interested in the political content I post to Facebook, I add them to my "Professional" list.  If the person is someone I know in the offline world that has no interest in politics, I place them in the "Personal" list. 

Once these lists are set up, I can determine which lists see which status updates and links I post to Facebook.  For example, this blog post would not interest my personal friends on Facebook, but if I wanted to drive my professional network on Facebook to this post, I could because I have a created a list of my professional friends.  By clicking the drop-down menu to the left of the "Share" button, I can manually select exactly who I want to see my Facebook status update or link.  

In this example, I want my entire professional list to see my link, so I select "Professional" and save my setting.  Once I click "Share" only my professional contacts will be able to see my link, sparing my personal friends from my political ramblings. 

Facebook Lists can also be incredibly effective for political campaigns at the local and congressional level.  If a candidate is using a Facebook profile instead of a Facebook page, they have the ability to segment their friends into many different messaging niches.  Let's say Candidate X for State House posts a Facebook status update regarding their position on property taxes.  If 35 people "like" that Facebook status, Candidate X can be relatively certain that those 35 people agree with their stance on that issue.  If property taxes are an important issue to Candidate X's campaign, why not segment those 35 people into a separate Facebook List and target future messages regarding property taxes (especially fundraising pleas) to those people?  

This principle of segmenting your message is a timeless one that has been made simple in other online mediums such as e-mail.  But it admittedly requires much more effort on Facebook. 

Facebook has evolved a great deal since its launch six years ago, and those of us that have been a member of the network for a number of years have seen our network of friends evolve with it.  For those of us who continue to use Facebook and other forms of social media to promote our candidates and causes, we will always be confronted with the challenge of keeping our personal and professional lives separate online.  This alternative Facebook Friend Diet, though tedious, has immensely helped me segment my Facebook network instead of purge it.  I hope it will do the same for you.

Cross-posted from TechRepublican.com

Facebook Now Drives More Traffic to Web Sites Than Google 8:48 AM

Momentous news this morning for the future of social media and search.  From Steve Rubel from Edelman PR's blog:

We're at the beginning of a major shift in how we find, consume and interact with information. If the 2000s was the Google decade, then the 2010s will be the Facebook decade. Already, you can see the writing on the wall - pun intended. Case in point: a search for "google decade danny sullivan" pulls up his Facebook note higher than a blog post (an item I wanted to include here for context). But that's nothing. Look at the data.

According to new stats from compete.com Facebook is becoming the web's top source of traffic (link via Jeremiah Owyang on where else, Facebook).

"According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.

This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media world.

Some experts say social media could become the Internet's next search engine."  

Click here to read the entire post.

Is Charlie Crist Checking Out Your Twitter Avatar? 6:15 PM

I found it beyond bizarre when Florida Times-Union reporter Abel Harding tweeted earlier this week that Governor Charlie Crist complemented another Times-Union reporter (David Hunt) on his Twitter avatar (pictured here).  Bizarre because for all of the criticism Governor Crist has received online, how could he possibly be familiar with Hunt's Twitter avatar?  Has Crist ever seen a tweet?

Crist's familiarity with the picture likely stems from seeing it somewhere else, but as the video below shows, few politicians are smoother and more personable than Charlie Crist.  Check it out:

The Case for a Sayfie News Bureau 11:04 AM

Speculation and rumors have been flying around Tallahassee for months now that online media mogul Justin Sayfie (my former boss) is launching a new news bureau in Tallahassee. Sayfie has emphatically denied any current affiliation with Sunshine State News saying he has, "absolutely nothing to do with," the organization after removing himself from incorporation documents earlier this year.

But all of the speculation and buzz about an alleged Sayfie News Bureau must have got Justin Sayfie thinking. Yesterday, he posed the following question to his Twitter followers and Facebook friends:

I'm so amazed at the interest in whether I'm involved in a new news service in Tallahassee. I have NO current involvement whatsoever.

So, I guess the question is, should @SayfieReview start a news bureau in Tallahassee and elsewhere in Florida? What do you think?

The responses to Sayfie’s post came as no surprise to me as his Facebook friends and Twitter followers expressed their overwhelming support for a hypothetical Sayfie News Bureau.

With obvious bias, allow me to make my case for a Sayfie News Bureau.

The print newspaper is dying - yeah, we get it. But the music industry did not die after the death of records, 8 tracks, cassette tapes and CDs. The print newspaper is dying, not journalism. But in order for professional journalism to survive, current news organizations must adapt their business models and, more importantly, change the way they view the internet. If news organizations stop blaming the internet for their demise and start accepting the internet as their disguised savior, journalism may be saved. However, if news organizations continue to focus on saving their print product instead of focusing on how to make money online, professional journalism is in danger of extinction.

While some news organizations have been able to adapt online successfully, most have not. So what happens when more and more established news organizations fail to adapt and face the same fate other fallen newspapers have faced over the past decade? What happens to the talented and valuable journalists who are out of work? Someone who understands how to make money off of online news will step up and fill the void. I’m not talking about “Twitter journalists” or unpaid bloggers; I am talking about paid, professionally trained journalists, creating and disseminating news online (see Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller as a model).

Florida’s newspapers have not been immune to the global free-fall in newspaper circulation. In October of 2009, the St. Petersburg Times reported a 10% decrease in circulation from the previous year while the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune and Miami Herald lost 12%, 18% and an astounding 23% respectively.

Florida is at a critical point financially and politically. The need for fantastic reporting has never been greater. But with news rooms across the Sunshine State shrinking at a rapid rate, who will cover the news with timeless professional journalistic standards? Why not Justin Sayfie? Since 2002, Sayfie has built one of the most successful models for online journalism in the State of Florida, if not the country. SayfieReview.com has been called the "online bible for Florida political junkies" by the St. Petersburg Times and the “axis around which Florida's online political world revolves” by the Tallahassee Democrat. The site has maintained such a high level of journalistic credibility that it is read regularly by 5 current and former Florida Governors, every member of the Florida Cabinet, the President of the Florida Senate, the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, numerous State Legislators, nearly every member of the Florida Congressional delegation and many member of the Capitol Press Corps.

And perhaps most importantly to the continued success of journalism in Tallahassee – Sayfie's online journalism venture is profitable! 

So as Tallahassee continues to buzz about who is behind Sunshine State News, I encourage Justin Sayfie to seriously consider launching his own Sayfie News Bureau. Demand may continue to fall for the print edition of Florida’s most beloved newspapers, but the demand for the content will always be there. Professional journalism is essential to democracy, but if the established news organizations can’t make money in this new information economy, they will fail and democracy will ultimately suffer. Let us encourage those who have proven they understand the democratization of information and can make money in a new age of professional journalism.

Carole Crist, "The TWITTER," and The Real Housewives of NYC 11:16 AM

On Friday, I noticed that Florida's First Lady, Carole Crist, had registered a Twitter handle and had actually sent out two tweets in late 2009.  Out of curiosity, I checked to see who Crist was following on Twitter, only to find out that she had followed Jill Zarin, star of of Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York City, before following her husband - Florida Governor Charlie Crist.  My political/pop-culture curiosity spawned this tweet...

...which to my total shock elicited a response from Zarin herself:

 

The exchange, while politically irrelevant, was for me, highly entertaining.  A few weeks ago, I had trouble coming up with an answer to The Shorty Awards' question "What's the most interesting connection you've made through Twitter?"  Now, I definitely have my answer.

On a slightly more serious note, I think it would be interesting to see Florida's First Lady actively engage on Twitter.  Crist is the first First Lady I have seen with a seemingly authentic Twitter account, and if she decides to truly invest and engage on the platform, it could go a long way to enhancing the image of her husband, Charlie Crist, online.