I couldn’t help but get a kick out of the recent Scott Brown vs. Rachel Maddow mix-up (for lack of a better word). As a loyal Mass Democrat, I’m a big fan of state party chair John Walsh. But I had to laugh that the root of the controversy turned out to be a "goofed" tweet-gone-wrong.
Tweet Heard ‘Round the (Political) World
Apparently Walsh picked up on a Facebook rumor about Maddow aiming to challenge Brown for his senate seat in 2012. Intending to tweet a message to an individual, he instead sent it viral and spread it out to the masses. Thus fueling the fire.Slick young media types jumped on this right away. Mediaite.com posted this snarky remark:“First of all, it appears that the Massachusetts Democratic Party needs to hire a social media consultant (or just someone under the age of 30?)”
Ouch.
Years ago we used to panic about accidentally hitting “reply all” on an email message. Now an errant tweet can spread across the country in seconds.As someone who works in social media and also gets worked up over politics, I followed the Brown vs. Coakley campaign closely. But during the campaign I must admit I was mainly fixated on the influence of television.Every sound bite and telegenic glimpse of Brown in his barn coat sent me back to Joe McGinniss’s classic The Selling of the President 1968.
It wasn’t until after the election when pundits started parsing the role of social media and harping on the Democrats for their feeble Facebook usage stats, that I realized the magnitude.The young guns behind the Obama campaign had shown the rest of the country the power of grassroots marketing and the Internet. The Republicans spent the next couple years playing catchup, jumped on the social media train, and surpassed the Democrats at their own game. Using iPhone apps, YouTube videos and Facebook, the Brown camp ran a heck of a campaign.And now the Dems are the ones playing catchup. They've learned their lesson and are leveling the social-media playing field. It will be interesting to watch what happens next.This time I'll be checking Twitter, not TV.
Twitter & Facebook controversy for Scott Brown and Rachel Maddow
http://www.onlinesocialmedia.net/20100328/twitter-facebook-controversy-for-scott-brown-rachel-maddows/
Mediaite.com blog shows Walsh’s actual tweet and Brown’s email to donors:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/scott-brown-seeks-donations-for-potenial-run-against-rachel-maddow/
How Scott Brown's Social-Media Juggernaut Won Massachusetts
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1960378,00.html
Atwitter in Mass.: Brown’s Social Media Strategy Tops Coakley’s
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/01/19/atwitter-in-mass-browns-social-media-skills-top-coakleys/tab/article/After the fall 2009 elections, The Wall Street Journal cited a report on lawmaker’s use of Twitter:"Republican lawmakers are taking advantage of the Twitterverse significantly more than their Democratic counterparts. In the House, GOP lawmakers send out 529% more tweets than Democrats."
Not for long. Stay tuned...
