
Twitter Has a Handbook for Politicians - jeo1234
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/09/30/443128829/twitter-has-a-136-page-handbook-for-politicians-140-character-tweets
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Ensorceled
I'm trying to understand the negativity of the article. Isn't trying to get
our baby boomer aged politicians onto new technology and communications
channels a good thing? Or are we just going to write off anybody anybody who
isn't already "with it"?

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aklemm
That was a strange and completely unnecessary angle for the author to take. I
don't get it.

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mfoy_
Agreed, the tone of the article was "Who the hell doesn't know what Twitter
is? Haha, what losers!" which is a really alienating and negative attitude to
take towards the uninitiated.

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jhull
"Twitter Has A 136-Page Handbook For Politicians."

Seems like a lost branding opportunity that they didn't add 4 more pages.

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icpmacdo
Startup L. Jackson agrees with you

[https://twitter.com/StartupLJackson/status/64938140832707379...](https://twitter.com/StartupLJackson/status/649381408327073793)

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foota
Did we just identify SLJ again? :)

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wongarsu
Direct link to the handbook:

[https://g.twimg.com/elections/files/2014/09/16/TwitterGovEle...](https://g.twimg.com/elections/files/2014/09/16/TwitterGovElectionsHandbook.pdf)

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xedarius
Page 1 - "Even though you may be tempted, don't put naked pictures of yourself
on the Internet/Twitter, as the net result of that is there will be naked
pictures of you on the Internet/Twitter FOREVER!"

Page 2 - "Young and attractive girls are not sending you suggestive pictures
of themselves because they like you, these are always reporter honey traps,
ALWAYS"

As a politician this is all you need to know about twitter.

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song
Surprisingly well targeted based on the extracts here... It completely makes
sense for Twitter to do that...

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midgetjones
Is there a page explaining that the tweet box isn't a search box?

cf:
[https://twitter.com/edballs/status/63623585020915713](https://twitter.com/edballs/status/63623585020915713)

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pakled_engineer
They all have media/PR staff to fill Twitter with cheap talking points, empty
optimism "Let's make x great again! Retweet" or for begging for donations.
There's no interaction with voters here whatsoever it's a one way channel.

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Spivak
I think this handbook is Twitter's attempt to change that. My guess is that
most politicians don't _really_ understand social media in general and thus
delegate it to their twenty-something polisci intern whose only connection to
the candidate is an approved list of messages. It's no surprise they're
terrible.

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dailyrorschach
I work in DC - and our clients have a lot of public affairs work in the
portfolio. Many members of Congress, especially on the House side are more
active on Twitter than you'd realize. We've found anecdotally that especially
during periods of recess or home district work periods, voter contact can be
an effective way to target elected on Twitter and we've seen responses. Tends
to skew younger.

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protomyth
Be nice to politicians and they will be nice to you. Sounds like a good idea
for a social media company. Twitter already does additional services for
certain segments so this would be consistent.

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secfirstmd
Smart way to subtly lobby also.

