For this blog post, I’m going to assume that you are already somewhat familiar with Twitter (although CNET has a if you’re not).
For a long time, I shied away from using Twitter. It just didn’t appeal to me, although my lack of interest wasn’t due to any particular reason. Finally, in August I caved in and decided to try it out. Nowadays I consider myself a Twitter-holic. More importantly, I truly believe that Twitter in many ways represents the future: not just in politics or online interaction, but in people’s everyday lives.
In its early days, Twitter was used only by social networking geeks and die-hard first adopters of new technology. This is no longer the case. Now, Twitter is used by everyone from everyday people to elected officials like and to major corporations like and .
Earlier, I stated that I believe Twitter “represents the future.” What’s so impressive about Twitter is that it eliminates barriers to communication that have existed for decades. Before Twitter, if you wanted to reach your Congressman, you’d have to send an e-mail, call, or write a letter. If you wanted help with your slow internet connection, you’d have to call an 800 number, sit on hold, and wait to talk to a representative. With Twitter, you can instantly send a message and rapidly receive a response, but more importantly, you directly talk to whomever it is you want to reach. Before, if you tried to reach your Congressman, you would deal with one of his staffers; now, you can talk directly to him. Before, if you called Comcast, you’d have to talk to a low-level representative; now, you can get support directly from the “Comcast Director of Digital Care.” This is truly groundbreaking.
Of course, this is all very impressive, but on this blog, the important question is, “How can this help the Republican Party?” Recently, conservative author and GOP strategist started an innovative and important website called , which indexes conservatives on Twitter and sorts them by their number of followers. (If you’re a conservative on Twitter and you’re not on the list, be sure to .)
#tcot is a "Trending Topic" on Twitter.
Michael’s efforts have been enormously successful, and the #tcot hashtag used to represent the project has that it has become one of the top ten “Trending Topics.” More importantly, Michael has started an effort to get , and in a couple of days has already been able to recruit 6% of them. Top Conservatives on Twitter provides a phenomenal way for conservatives on Twitter to connect, network, and share and create ideas – a critical component to the peer production I’ve previously advocated as the way forward for the Republican Party.
I am convinced that Twitter, along with other social networking websites, is going to have an increasingly crucial role in our world. If you’re not already a part of it, !
Last 5 posts by Aaron Marks
- Onward and Upward: Building a Sustainable Majority - January 22nd, 2010
- Dear Young Voters: This Is What You Get When You Don't Vote - December 1st, 2009
- The Youth Vote and the 2009 Elections - November 6th, 2009
- The Best of the Post-2009 Election Spin - November 5th, 2009
- Introducing NextGenGOP Executive Director James Kane - October 20th, 2009