Twi#er Power Tool

Twitter is a great political campaign tool, especially when used with Twitter management software that lets you run geo-targeted, local campaigns. (And you know what they say: “All politics is local”!)

Previously, for example, I shared a case study here about how to use Twitter as part of a political or public policy campaign.

Which politicians were the winners and losers on Twitter in 2010?

According to Twitter reputation management experts Klout.com:

“When it comes to influence in 2010, Las Vegas and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid had it.

“The city and the Senate majority leader made separate top 10 social media lists put together by a California-based company called Klout, which analyzed Twitter feeds from last year. (…)

“Reid came in No. 7 on the top 10 list of most influential politicians who were the topic of tweets.

“President Barack Obama topped the list, with Sarah Palin right behind him at No. 2. (…)

“‘We actually weigh how influential the person is who made that tweet,’ said [Klout.com] CEO Joe Fernandez. ‘One tweet mention by Oprah Winfrey has much more impact than somebody tweeted by me.’”

Because, among other things, Oprah Winfrey quite simply has a lot of followers — and contrary to what some Twitter “gurus” will tell you, the sheer number of Twitter followers you have does matter.

Of course, Twitter has also been used to create political mischief.

During the 2010 mayoral campaign of 2010, a staffer set up a fake Twitter account and engaged in some successful if sneaky spin control:

“When the Ford camp learned the [Toronto] Star possessed the recording of a potentially damaging telephone conversation in which the candidate promised to find OxyContin for constituent Dieter Doneit-Henderson, Deputy Communications Officer Fraser Macdonald jumped into gear — and invented a person, Karen Philby (a.k.a. @QueensQuayKaren), a [rival candidate] George Smitherman supporter who spouted political views on Twitter. While Philby (whose last name, shared with a Cold War spy, might have tipped off her purpose in life) quickly achieved her intended goal — securing the Ford campaign its own copy of the conversation from Doneit-Henderson—she continued to post tasteful barbs directed at the other candidates…”

Speaking of mischief, a fake Twitter account is giving Andrew Cuomo’s staff a lot of grief:

“Nicholas M. Fahrenkopf, a PhD student at University of Albany, said he went to Cuomo’s official website over the weekend, which featured links to his Flickr, Facebook and Twitter profiles. However, when Fahrenkopf clicked on @NYGovernor he found that the profile had not yet been created. ‘So I signed up, grabbed some images from the Web site and started following people,’ he said. And even though his initial bio raised some eyebrows (‘First elected Governor of the State of New York since the Luv Guv. @shellysilver calls me Mario’s Kid. I live with @sandrashm and like classic cars’) people believed him.

“Cuomo’s office said they had decided on @NYGovCuomo but had accidentally left the wrong link on the website. The link is now changed, but Fahrenkoph’s site is doing nearly as well, with 509 followers compared to Cuomo’s 601.”