Should you Connect your Twitter and Facebook Updates 100% of the Time?

To connect or not to connect?  That is the question many ask themselves early in their usage of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

You can automatically push your Twitter update into Facebook, or you can automatically push your Facebook update into Twitter through the use of some popular add-ons.  But should you?

Personally, I experimented with the connection and quickly broke the link when I realized that I wanted to use Facebook for a different purpose than Twitter.  However, many do keep the link without concern.

I tend to update more serious, promotional topics on Twitter whereas Facebook tends to be my closer friends.  Twitter followers tend to be more anonymouse while Facebook friends really are friends.

Think carefully how your message will be received before you link your accounts.

Facebook application that connects you to Twitter: http://apps.facebook.com/twitter

10 Ways to Connect Facebook to Twitter from Simple Thoughts

President Obama Uses Social Media in his teach to Schoolchildren

President Barack Obama's speech to schoolchildren has been over-shadowed by extreme controversy, but it's interesting to see how he's using the emergence of social media for his uses.  Not only did the speech become a topic of much conversation via social media, but the President is also attempting to relate to todays kids be referring to many of their favorite past-times in the speech. 

Excerpt from the "Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama, Back to School Event , Arlington, Virginia, September 8, 2009"

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.



It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.


So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

 
Social media is part of the political process at the highest levels -- use it wisely!

Hashtags for Public Policy Advocacy on Twitter

Twitter has emerged as an important communications tool for public policy.  Many of the most popular members of Twitter are either public officials or news commentators who focus on politics.  One of the most important organizational tools on Twitter is the so-called "hashtag." 

The hashtag received its name due to the use of the hash symbol "#" (otherwise known as the pound sign or the number sign) immediately prior to a short word or acronym that categorizes certain topic areas. 

If you are creating a lobbying campaign online and are using Twitter as part of your strategy, be sure to create a short word or acronym by which you and your supporters all tag their tweets.

For a great example of a political movement on Twitter, search for #TCOT (which stands for Top Conservatives on Twitter),

Many events create hashtags so attendees can communicate with each other during the event and those not in attendance can easily find information from the event. 

Search by keywords like "politics", "government", "Congress", and other related terms to find the politically inclined opinion leaders on Twitter and then follow them.  Hopefully they will follow you back and learn about your public policy campaign via Twitter.

What's your hashtag?

Want to Know a Congressman? Know www.Congress.org

If you want to see what the hottest issues are for advocates looking for relief from Congress just check out Congress.org  As a part of the Roll Call family, Congress.org is a central location for action alerts published by their Capitol Advantage clients, relevant advertising by coalitions and corporations around major issues, and the ability to email your Member of Congress and whatever issue is on your mind.

Congress.org is really a one-stop-shop for those seeking information about Congress, specific issues, and legislators.

 Congress.org allows users to:

• Identify and contact elected leaders in Congress, the White House and state legislatures
• Post letters online and see what other Americans are saying to elected officials
• Create and post "Soapbox" action alerts to enlist others on your issue.
• Have letters printed and hand delivered to Congress.
• Find and contact local and national media by ZIP code or by state with the "Media Guide".
• Have your representatives votes sent to you by weekly email.
• Search alerts and take action in the "Issues and Calls to Action" area
• As a client, get your action alerts posted there and on Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and other sites.

If you're running a low cost advocacy campaign, take advantage of the free opportunities available to you on this site.

Facebook: Group vs. Fan Page?

When establishing an online presence for a public official or an advocacy effort Facebook should be part of your communication strategy.

The first question to answer is:  Should I establish a "Group" page or a "Fan" page?

Others have created excellent descriptions of this very topic.  Click here for the Mashable version of an excellent tutorial of the similarities and differences.

In short, Fan pages are more public and visible.  They are indexed by Google.  Politicians tend to prefer Fan pages.

Group pages can be private and are more personal and are not indexed by Google so not found by a search.  Alumni clubs and more personal contacts tend to create groups.

From Mashable:

The bottom line

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Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause. Fan pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap.

Facebook is constantly updating the functionality of pages, so be sure to evaluate your needs with the latest information.

Find Foreign Public Policy Influencers

Do you need to know what foreign countries are doing in Washington, D.C.? What impact are they having on your member of Congress?

Check out the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker and get some answers.

An explanation from the site below:

Filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) provide far more
detail on how lobbyists interact with government officials than those required
by the Lobbying Disclosure Act; they contain information on efforts by foreign
governments and organizations to influence U.S. policy on trade, taxation,
foreign aid, appropriations, human rights and national security.

Since May 2007 the Justice Department has maintained a Web site that posts image
files [pdf] of FARA disclosures online, but none of that information is
available in a digitized format. Thus, it is impossible, for example, to see how
many times the office of an individual member of Congress has been contacted.

With the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, you can now find out with ease
by selecting any member’s name from the pull-down list.

You can search their database by member of Congress contacted, country, client or lobbying firm. You can also search by "contact issues" as reported by lobbyists.

You never know when this information might be needed - this is a great source to research how foreign governments influence the United States

Find Your Government on Twitter

Many folks like to encourage and track public policy officials online. One to check out is GovTwit -- the Government Twitter Directory.

According to their blog/website:

GovTwit is the world’s largest directory of all facets of government on Twitter: state and local, federal, contractors, media, academics, non-profits and government outside of the U.S. You’ll find official government Twitter IDs as well as individuals from different agencies in the directory, and I’m confident you’ll also find folks tweeting great content about how to improve the “business of government.”

In addition to visiting the website, you can also join the Facebook fan page or follow GovTwit on Twitter, where directory updates will be tweeted as they are made.

GovTwit was originally launched in the fall of 2008 as a central repository of government contacts on Twitter and has been updated ever since.