Steadily and surely, GOP use of technology in communications is improving. If you're on Twitter you're already aware to the degree to which conservative leaders & activists are using it both as a communications and organizing tool.
Our own Cathy McMorris Rodgers is using Twitter effectively (see more @cathymcmorris). She's also ramping up YouTube use, including this preview of her role escorting Obama into the House chamber last night:
I can't say it enough, more please. The ultimate point of all this is to find people where they're congregating...a lesson too often lost on critics of social media and the use of technology for efficient and effective communications. With the increased balkanization of media, political figures have to be reaching out with proactive communication platforms - not relying on voters and/or constituents gathering information on TV, newspapers, or even static websites.
Sidenote: McMorris Rodgers has brought former WSRP Communications Director Matthew Lundh (@matthewlundh) to DC to help proselytize the use of social media further within the GOP caucus, all as part of her role as House Republican Conference Vice Chair. Good.
UPDATE: To get a grasp of Twitter's increasing reach, note these recent stories from the Beltway here (I follow #'s 1, 3, 5, 8, & 9) and here.
Also, just for commenter Cato, I note you can follow this blogger @ericearling too.
UPDATE II: Here's an interesting anecdote on the rise of Twitter, and more importantly of social media in general that allows for direct interaction with notable figures in society: Steve Sarkisian is on Twitter (@coachsark).
Can you imagine Mike Holmgren or Ty Willingham on Twitter? How about Lou Pinella or George Karl?
No, though those last two could be immensely entertaining
New generations. New tools. Very good.
Posted by Eric Earling at February 25, 2009 10:04 AM | Email ThisThat is, of course, if the dumb b*st*rds can walk the walk without apology. Like Jindal does. They have to realize that the policies of the big spending Country Club Republicans are as big a dinosaur as the present crop of Democrats are . . . Obama included.
Posted by: G Jiggy on February 25, 2009 11:17 AMNo one is censoring the GOP from outputting dumb (and on occasion smart) ideas out. The media conspiracy is all in your head.
"Many of the residents have spent time in jail for alcohol-related offenses like public urination ..." (2/25 issue, page 8)
"That night, a carload of P-I employees pulled up outside the Times headquarters, piled out, unzipped, and pissed warm revenge on Frank's front lawn." (page 13)
Outrage, anyone, about P-I elitists being too big to be punished for street crime? Big Joel better get to the bottom of this, and bring the perps to justice, particularly if he's one of the too-big perps. ...
"New media innovation was (Hearst exec Swartz's) forte, not dead-tree newspapers. ... Hearst headquarters issued a chain-wide investigative series on the Boy Scouts of America, detailing the wholesome organization's sideline business of clearcutting the nation's forests for timber profits." (page 13, adjacent paragraphs. Does anybody at the Weakly or Hearst, at long last, have any sense of decency or irony about dead trees and P-I pulp?)
Posted by: Old Media on February 26, 2009 02:58 PM