Earlier this week, when the press was all abuzz over Marco Rubio’s pending announcement regarding his Senate plans, where did they hear of his decision first? - you guessed it - Twitter. And as if you haven’t heard enough about Twitter over the last few months, Rubio’s announcement via the rapidly-growing social networking service only serves to further underscore Twitter’s permanent place on the mantle of Florida politics.

Over the last few months, media across the State of Florida have become increasingly fascinated by the free micro-blogging service of Twitter and how politicians, political operatives and journalists are utilizing this service to their benefit. And if you don’t think Twitter is becoming an effective tool for political campaigns and politicians, keep reading.

A Pew Report released earlier this year found that as of December 2008, 11% of internet users in America are using some sort of Twitter-like service. In March alone, Twitter grew an estimated 135%. So if Americans are moving towards services such as Twitter at such a rapid rate, then wouldn’t it make sense for elected officials, candidates, political operatives and journalists to do the same? Absolutely - and they are. Even amongst Florida politicos, Twitter is being embraced quickly. 

But what is Twitter? What is the benefit of Twitter for your candidate or your cause? How does it work? This column is not meant to be a “How-to-Guide” to Twitter. For more information on the free micro-blogging service, visit twitter.com. The one thing you do need to know for purposes of this column is that Twitter gives users a platform to communicate and interact with each other based on one simple question: What are you doing?

Just before Legislative Session, Senator Gelber sent out an email to his supporters announcing that he would be utilizing Twitter during the 60 day Legislative Session so that “more Floridians will be able to follow closely the state's legislative session and the major policy issues discussed in Tallahassee.” Well Senator, more Floridians are following closely - Gelber’s followers outnumber any other Florida State Legislator. Senator Gelber has also used Twitter successfully by establishing #legfl. One of the great tools within Twitter for political campaigns is the ability to bind Twitter conversations together with the use of what are called hash-tags. Gelber, in the same email to supporters, urged them to include #legfl in their Twitter updates regarding the Legislative Session so that anyone wanting to follow the conversation could do so with a simple Twitter search of #legfl. Binding together like-conversations also allows politicians to easily find who their supporters are and engage them further in their campaign. Similar to #legfl, #sayfie has caught on throughout the Twitter-verse with Twitter users discussing anything related to Florida politics.

You would be hard-pressed to find a member of the Florida Congressional delegation whose office is more open than Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s. Want to know who the Congresswoman is meeting with today? Subscribe to her Twitter updates. Ros-Lehtinen has shown that new technology like Twitter can make government more open to the people and she has done it wonderfully.

One of the challenges elected officials are facing with new media services such as Twitter and Facebook is finding what the right balance is between posting content about their public roles and their personal lives. Dave Aronberg may have found the balance. Throughout Legislative Session, Aronberg not only kept his supporters updated on the business of the Senate, but he also shared with them the ups and downs of his favorite teams’ sports seasons. At a recent conference I attended in D.C., Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said that elected officials don’t understand that, “It is important that my constituents know that I do my own laundry.” Well, it looks like Senator Aronberg may understand.

Senator Martinez is relatively new to Twitter but has already done a fantastic job of using the service to notify thousands of followers of his public appearances. Most of Senator Martinez’ tweets link followers to speeches he has just completed, interviews he has conducted or statements he has made. Twitter is opening the door for elected officials to broadcast their message to a much larger audience than before and Senator Martinez has been successful at it in a very short period of time.

Remember all the talking heads after President Obama’s Address to Congress talking about members of Congress tweeting from the House Chamber? Guess who one of them was? Florida’s own Kendrick Meek. Meek sent this tweet from his personal Blackberry from the House Chamber floor. Unlike some elected officials who have staff and consultants manage their Twitter profiles, it appears that Meek is actively participating on Twitter himself, which is a critical step in the right direction for any campaign.

In Sharon Day’s campaign for Secretary of the RNC she utilized Twitter heavily to grow an online grassroots movement which then lobbied the members of the RNC to elect her Secretary. Day's upset win in January was undoubtedly bolstered by her presence on Twitter. Her campaign is a shining example of how best to mobilize supporters online to take action on a candidate's behalf. Even today, Secretary Day boasts more followers on Twitter than RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s campaign (Disclosure: Justin Sayfie and I consulted with Sharon on new media strategy for her campaign).

One of the advantages of Twitter is that you can directly reply to other tweets. Sounds like something pretty important to a Communications Director at a state party, doesn’t it? Eric Jotkoff is a good example of how to respond instantly to the world in support of your candidate or cause (check out this response to Josh Hafenbrack). He might not have a ton of followers, but he doesn’t need them. Jotkoff is able to directly respond to Florida’s most influential political reporters without an email or a phone call.

Lesson #7: Professional political operatives are using Twitter to respond to attacks and capitalize on bad news for their opponents. Twitter allows them to do this faster and on a much larger scale than they were able to do before.

Vivian Rudd Myrtetus (@Vivskivs)
Former Communications Director, Governor Crist
Twitter followers: 293
Joined Twitter on: July 29, 2008

A seasoned communications professional on the Florida scene, Myrtetus has successfully embraced Twitter and has leveraged it to the advantage of her clients. If lobbyists, operatives and politicos across Florida are looking for an example of how to utilize Twitter to influence elected officials, Myrtetus is a great place to start. During Legislative Session, she utilized Twitter to drive followers to lobby state legislators on numerous issues including Sunrail and Save our Secret Ballot.

Lesson #8: Leverage the power of your supporters to take action for your cause or campaign.

Steve Schale (@SteveSchale)
State Director for Florida - Obama for America
Twitter followers: 243
Joined Twitter on: February 11, 2009

Last year, Steve was busy organizing one of the most impressive ground-games in the country for Obama for America here in Florida. This brightest of rising stars’ move onto Twitter should tell politicos a lot about the impact Twitter is having on politics in Florida and across the country. In his short time since joining the Twitter community, Schale has effectively used Twitter to promote Dan Gelber (check out his Twitter background) and continue to support and defend the President he was so critical to electing.

Lesson #9: Political operatives in Florida and across the country are waking up to the benefits of Twitter and other forms of new technology. Operatives not on Twitter: take note!

Shameless self-promotion aside, I believe there is a lesson to be learned in what Sayfie Review is doing on Twitter. By feeding the Florida Politics Blog Ticker channel as well as a select number of stories and videos into Twitter, the Review is now reaching a wider audience of readers interested in Florida political news and making it easier for our existing audience to access the Sayfie Review. The Review's use of Twitter and other web 2.0 features earned ITFlorida’s first ever Excellence in Web 2.0 award. This week, the Review unveiled the brand new Twitter-Facebook Blog Ticker channel to keep our readers updated on what Florida's elected officials are doing.  With the continued free-fall of print advertising (see this article on the Washington Post’s 33% decline in the past year), more news organizations have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in an effort to drive more traffic to their online content and increase page views. 

Lesson #10: By tweeting links to stories, news organizations across the state are driving more traffic to their sites, expanding their readership and making their content accessible in easier formats for their existing audience.

Paul Flemming (@PaulFlemming)
State Editor, Florida Gannett Newspapers
Twitter followers: 235
Joined Twitter on: March 3, 2009

If you weren’t following Paul Flemming’s tweets during Legislative Session, you were most likely getting your information later than those who were. Throughout Legislative Session, few reporters utilized Twitter to actually break news. Sure everyone was linking to their blog posts in an effort to drive new readers to their content (which is not a bad thing), but Flemming took it a step further and consistently broke news ahead of others from the State Capitol. Whether from his desktop or his iPhone, Flemming was keeping us all up-to-the-second while on the go during this busy Session. I should also mention that The St. Petersburg Times’ Buzz Blog also provided a great example of this by tweeting live from the Crist wedding in December. 

Lesson #11: Twitter allows reporters to break news faster than ever. While on the go, Twitter makes it easy to update your followers via cell phones allowing you to stay ahead of the story.

Gary Fineout (@fineout)
Blogger
Twitter followers: 194
Joined Twitter on: August 26, 2008

A few weeks ago, I received a “direct message” from @fineout on Twitter asking if we would post his story on the Sayfie Review.  I was impressed.  Not an email or a phone call, but a Twitter message less than 140 characters in length.  Reporters, and politicians alike, are quickly learning how to say what they need to say in 140 characters or less. Fineout has used Twitter to break news, drop quotes from stories and link interested readers to his stories on his new blog. Fineout’s tweets have been posted on blogs and his stories picked up by numerous papers. He is proving that you no longer have to work for the major daily newspapers to get your content in front of the eyes who want it.

Lesson #12: Journalists can use Twitter to drive traffic to their content. More journalists are doing this on a national scale and soon, more and more will be doing it in the Sunshine State.

So there you have it - 12 lessons we can learn from a handful of Florida’s political Twitterers. Using Twitter and other social networks successfully takes time, effort and a deep understanding of how to implement classic communications strategies in these new media platforms. If you would like more information on how NetPower Strategy can help your campaign implement these best practices click here to contact us now or feel free to reach me directly at (813) 368-4218.

You can follow me on Twitter @JordanRaynor