I get asked no less than 5x per week by politicos, “I mean come on who really has time for Twitter?” Usually that’s followed by, “I just have daughter do it for me.” Yes you do…yes…you do.

Twitter is an engagement and awareness tool. Sure you’ll have a percentage of tweets that are informative (links and event announcements) but this is usually where it stops for most.

Take it a step further. Ask questions. Provide answers. Find supporters and build a hyper local twitter following so you have a concentrated and high-power audience that markets your message for you.

“TweetCongress.org, a directory of members of Congress on Twitter, lists 101 Republicans on the site and just 57 Democrats.”

There are nearly twice as many from the GOP tweeting than from the left.  They meet the first quantity test as a group.  They are more active on Twitter, simple as that.

“The five highest-ranking Republicans on Tweet Congress, led by McCain, have a combined 1.3 million followers. The top 10 Democrats, have about 72,000.”

Here we are again, the top 5 of the GOP is beating the top 10 of the dems by 99.9%.  If that’s not dominance in quantity I don’t know what would be.

“Tweet Congress shows that members from both parties are largely using the site to promote their legislative goals and accomplishments. But conservatives tweet more provocatively, and they draw more notice as a result.”

GOP tweeters are more active and from my own personal experience they actually engage the audience.  They create discussion amongst their following.  Best of all, they make the news in an environment where the drive-by media ignores the truth on a regular basis.  Newsweek reports this active tweeting is out of desperation or a survival tactic because they’re in the minority.  While I’m not so naive as to think that there aren’t any GOP politicians tweeting merely for personal gain, this is not out of desperation, rather, out of duty to their constituents and American to communicate.  When PBO gets an obscene number of followers it’s change & hope and hope & change; when it’s Sarah Palin it’s a fluke or a plan contrived from hell along side Satan and the other “GOP demons.”

Hands down, conservatives own Twitter.  Don’t try and take this one from us Newsweek or we’ll all block you for your pages of inane conjecture.  I’m not saying there aren’t any from the left that are using Twitter very effectively.  I give props out to those that are.  But don’t waste my time with an article that doesn’t even make sense.

Newsweek said, “Twitter strategies on both sides of the aisle are radically different, and the way liberals have been using the service may turn out to be more effective in the long run.”

Just like the looming national health care plan…full of talk but no clear answers, Newsweek’s “journalist”, Aku Ammah-Tagoe, doesn’t extrapolate on a few key things most amateur journalists would have after such a presumptive statement.

• How are the strategies radically different?
• What are the strategies of both parties?
• Why will the alleged strategy of the Dems prove more effective?”
• Who are the ones employing any particular strategy?
• When did these strategies first get employed?

Pretty basic questions he DIDN’T EVEN ASK AFTER STATING THEY ARE RADICALLY DIFFERENT AND THE LIBERAL METHOD USED MAY BE MORE EFFECTIVE!  You failed to ask and answer EVEN ONE!!!  Seriously, Aku, leave online branding to the marketers, and journalism to the journalists.  I know that leaves you out of the picture, but, oh well.  The only radical difference in strategies I see is that one is succeeding and the other, collectively, is a complete and utter failure.

ComScore credits celebrity tweeters with much of the youthful rejuvenation Twitter has seen in the past few months.  More specifically they mention the Ashton v. CNN, first one to 1 million followers event.  Whatever the circumstances are around Twitter’s reverse aging, this is changes a whole lot for businesses, politicians, organizations, and frankly, anyone that’s marketing themselves on Twitter.

Hyper-targeted followings will become even more important as online marketers try to increase their reach without wasting it.  Twitter has now reached over 21 million US visitors which doesn’t even include mobile users – which is also likely more popular among the younger 12-24 demographic.

One thing we can count on is that the Benjamin Button affect has likely ended as I don’t foretell 0-11 year olds tweeting a whole lot….then again, you never know.

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I’ve embedded the live stream video below but have also included audio only for download/podcast because the studio cameras were not cooperating last night so for the last 40 minutes or so, you’ll be staring at the station logo.

1. If you’re not on the Wordpress platform, get there.
2. Focus less on looks and more on generating content at every possible opportunity.
3. Learn how to engage in dialog on Twitter and reach out vs. use it as a bullhorn.
4. Understand that the candidate who brings out a large new block of 18-40 year old voters will win and those who count on 65+ (because they’re always been there) will lose.
5. Learn how to use Google Reader/ Google Alerts to LISTEN out there.  Listening allows you to find those who are in the conversation…and now YOU can join them.
6. Learn how to shoot your own video and remember that 10 “real” videos of you engaging with constituents are better than 1 commercial with the fireplace, the dog, and the family in it.
7. Get over  your fear of social media tools.  Without showing who you are and what you’re made of or shrouding it in “political grease” will eliminate chances you have with 18-40 year olds.
8. Have a Tweetup. Senator Grassley is 75 and he’s held 2 at our offices.
9. Start a weekly podcast.
10. Stream a campaign event live using ustream.tv
11. BONUS:  Use an email marketing solution like the number one in the universe called Aweber to gather names and distribute relevant information to your followers.

The dark side is the belief that no matter how many friends you have on Facebook and how many tweets you send from the House floor…that when voting time comes, you only have to be TRULY concerned with the 50+ crowd that “always votes.”

This way of thinking…is deadly.

The 18-35 demo is asking to be engaged in conversation.  It may not be a “comfy” place for most candidates to actually dive in and address the issues and concerns of this demographic using their crazy ways of communication…but that’s kind of the point.  The way this demographic communicates is different and they WILL come out and vote if you talk to them.  Here’s a quick list of tips:

1. The 18-35 (and I’d even venture to mid 40’s) is offended by direct mail.  I’m immersed in politics and I live in Iowa so you can imagine how full my mailbox is daily during an election cycle.  I never read one of the fliers.  Direct mail panders and pimps lies (or that’s our perception) and stretches half truths to paint bold colors about candidates.  Reality is that there are many shades of gray and not stark contrasts and we’re smart enough to figure those out.
2. The 18-35 demographic is offended by robocalls and phone bank callers.  I didn’t ask to be called.  I don’t care if you’re from my party or not.  You’re interrupting me when I’ve given you plenty of chance to enter my preferred channels of communication which are a bit more asynchronous (blogs, twitter, rss feeds, etc.)
3. When talking about Twitter, please just say, “I’m on Twitter and I send tweets” without a guffaw and an awe sucks “kids these days” tone.  When you do that, you’re implying that you really don’t get it, embrace it, understand it, or care about it…but that you’re doing it because someone told you it was a good idea to win votes.  We’re not saying that Twitter is the ticket to our votes.  For goodness sake it doesn’t work half time.  What we are saying is that this is one way in which we communicate.  Tomorrow it may be Twutter or Twurtter…but the theme remains in tact.  By the way, in my speaking engagements I often poll college students about Twitter and I’d say that no more than 2% of 18-24 year olds are on Twitter and not much more even know what it is.

So how many elections this year in Anytown, USA where 500 voters of 30k come out to vote for mayor, will have  3000 turn out and elect “that woman” who is young and tech savvy?  When more races are turned on their heads by the 18-35 “tech demo” we’ll see change.  We’d rather see a proactive approach that begins TODAY.

Earlier today there was an announcement by Twitter of some changes that have taken place.  Many of you read a lot about the very negative reactions of Facebookers when they change their UI.  Twitter, I have now learned, is even worse.  Today Twitter made changes that will hide certain @replies from your Twitter stream.

Basically what this means, is that if someone you follow sends a @reply to someone you are not following, this will not pop up in your Twitter stream.  So, you miss out on most of the one sided conversation so many of us learned to love and this makes it very difficult to find people to add to your Twitter stream.

Twitter had this to say at 2:53pm today:

“We’ve updated the Notices section of Settings to better reflect how folks are using Twitter regarding replies. Based on usage patterns and feedback, we’ve learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow—it’s a good way to stay in the loop. However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today’s update removes this undesirable and confusing option.”

Let’s read what the Tweeple had to say about this.  Here are some tweets from #fixreplies:

• linseykrauss: Dear Twitter: Do you understand the value of your own service? http://bit.ly/fL9cI (expand) #fixreplies (via @mediaphyter)
• tobba: RT @idaAa:@carlchristian Retweet this if you disagree w Twitter’s decision to hide replies to ppl you don’t follow. #fixreplies #twitterfail
• SimPhone: It doesn’t help that Twitter is being super-vague about what their logic was behind the change. @starleigh2000 #fixreplies
• aeriin: #fixreplies do it, damnit!
• ibz: What? Twitter is hiding @-replies for people you don’t follow? And there’s no way to turn that off? That’s *really* stupid! #fixreplies
• hucknbid: ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHAHASHDH MAJOR TWITTER FREAK OUT!!! INTELLIGENT DISCOURSE!!!! GRAPSSDKJAFKKL:JASJD #fixreplies

As you can see, the Tweeple that live under this seemingly totalitarian regime called Twitter, were very displeased.  Finally, one hour ago, @ev, that is, Evan Williams the CEO of Twitter tweeted this:

@ev Reading people’s thoughts on the replies issue. We’re considering alternatives. Thanks for your feedback.

Does this mean we won?  No.  It does seem though that the opposition may concede to this short, but necessary revolution.