Is this really politics? While true that Al Gore was once the Vice President, he is currently on the board of directors at Apple. So that makes this related to technology, right?
Possibly. Why doesn't somebody go away and find all the twittering directors on all the boards of all the tech companies in the country, make a list, and submit it? Maybe somebody will upvote that.
It must also be said that at this point Al Gore's twitter is extremely boring. The only "celebrity twitterer" I'm following at the moment is Steven Fry, who is currently tweeting several times a day about his experiences in Madagascar chasing lemurs for the Last Chance To See documentary. Now _that_'s interesting twittering.
I think that there's a push to use twitter for PR and it's a bad thing. I'm not saying that's what Mr. Gore is going to do, but Britney Spears set a bad example. Real voices are what make twitter interesting.
Yes, I know they're trying to monetize, but doing it honestly is probably going to work better in the long run.
I really don't think he should be wasting time on Twitter. It's a big get in terms of PR but achieves nothing. The signal to noise ratio isn't worth the effort to try any conversation.
He's not have a conversation. As a broadcast medium, twitter is awesome.
"The signal to noise ratio"
Add filters like search and follow the right people. There are clear ways to increase the signal. Sometimes the signal isn't insightful or utilitarian - but personal.
I agree, Twitter is awesome. But I think Twitter is more useful as a passive conversation tool. As in, okay here are the 100 people I like and following and there's no direct pressure to care what about everything that they say or engage with what they say. But if I do, wow, it's pretty addictive. Like an IRC chat with constant flow but without the need to pay quite as much attention.
If his goal is to use it just as a broadcast medium to promote his projects, a la @barackobama, then that's useful but in the grand scheme of things wouldn't he better off going on TV? By being on Twitter, the PR get is for Twitter. The novelty is the fact that someone like Al Gore is messing around with something that many people have been discounting as just a toy for the past year (even though I've heard the market values it to be quite a pricey toy).
As for the s/n ratio, it's manageable but for people (public figures, Kevin Rose, iJustine, etc.) that have thousands upon thousands of followers it becomes outright ridiculous. They don't even bother responding and I believe it just defeats the purpose.
If someone like Al Gore wants to help I really hope he starts engaging in more conversations with regular people, because that's really a good thing. Twitter is an avenue that he can pursue but again... the s/n is so out of whack without advanced management and plus the 140 char limitation it might just be counter-productive. But hey, right track and everything!
I follow a few people that have many thousands of followers. They often reply to my @replies. It isn't something you can constantly do, but it is an important sign of authenticity that they do so periodically.
Authenticity is going to become increasing important for people with personal brands, like Al Gore.
Oh, I don't know. His real moment in the sun was a couple of years ago, and if he doesn't watch out he'll fade into irrelevance. Maybe he can finagle himself a position in the Obama administration, maybe he can't, but that's no guarantee that people will pay attention to him.
