Twitter and the RNC; is it a good match?

I recently had an experience on Twitter than made me realize organizations have a long way to go to completely understand why they are using Twitter. I have gone back and forth about whether or not to mention the Republican National Committee (RNC) in this blog and I decide to so I can bring attention to the issues in the party today.

My experience started out well with the RNC putting a link out on Twitter to the site Republican For A Reason for people to go to so the party could get an idea of what people want to see done within the party. When I went out to the site it worked fine in the beginning. I spent about 15 minutes giving the RNC my opinion and when I submitted my response it gave me a character error. At this point I sent a Twitter to the RNC expecting to get a response and after waiting about 15 minutes I got no response.

Let me stop here for a minute. If you’re an organization please take this comment to heart: Twitter is not about talking at your followers it is about talk with them; this will be how you really learn what people are wanting from you.

Back to my story…after no response on Twitter I decided to call the RNC headquarters and got stuck into an automated system and after not being able to get at least an operator (and a little ticked off) I hit the number for the Chairman’s office. I actually got a person who ended up transferring me to the department who is responsible for the site and I went into voice mail. I left a message and asked for a return call so I knew when it was working again and you guessed it they didn’t call back.

I’m going to stop there because I believe you get the picture. We have a problem in the RNC today that truly came to light in this past election; we don’t know how to communicate properly. Things are not as they were 20 years ago or even 4 years ago; we are a very different group of people with very different communication needs today. We want to feel like we are part of something and making a difference.

To the RNC: PLEASE change the way you are communicating with conservatives. I’m personally grateful that you are using Twitter but start talking with us not at us.

To the Chairman candidates: Thank you for using Twitter to communicate. Saul Anuzis and Katon Dawson keep doing what you’re doing because you are engaging your followers. Michael Steele and Chip Saltsman please start engaging your followers and working toward talking with us not at us.

Presidential Election and the Internet

As I reflect back on the last year worth of politicing for the Presidency, I can't help but think about how the Internet played such a big role. We continue to talk about how the uses of the Internet have changed over the last 2 years but how it changed this election is amazing to me. Even though I saw the same bombardment of television ads as previous campaigns I couldn't go on the Internet without seeing an Obama banner ad or article about his campaign.

Looking at how the Obama campaign targeted the youth is a great lesson in social media. They looked at where thier "consumers" were and went to them. The campaign gave the voters a forum to voice their opinions and they listened. I couldn't go to a social networking site without seeing someone write something about Obama or his campaign.

When I registered to vote almost 20 years ago never did I think this was where campaigns and elections would end up. Future politicians and political parties need to step back and take a look at what has been accomplished and learn from our next Presidents campaign. If you don't make changes you will get left in the microdust.