DISQUS

DTs Flash Drive Blog · 6 months ago

It looks to me that all this social media is viewed by politicians only as the trendy means to an end. Once the goal is accomplished (e.g. being elected) twitter and co is barely being utilized anymore. Until the next election. Quite a shame because they could provide the platform for true interactive government. Maybe someday - with web 3.0?

Anthony Ha · 6 months ago

There's some truth to that, but I think the Obama administration is making other efforts too, such as Data.gov.

Aaron Brazell · 6 months ago

I had an opportunity to speak to Republican and Democrat Hill staffers a few weeks ago. Topic was blogging and microcontent. It was interesting to me that in the Republican session, it definitely seemed like the staffers were interested in the how's, what's and where's... They asked questions about how they could best serve their bosses in this brave new world.

Democrats, to my surprise, were far more interested in ethics and franking rules. They were concerned about the integrity of journalism when the topic came up about media relations. They did seem to project a sense of caring more about the mechanics of the stuff. The GOP seemed to capture the energy and passion of the medium. It was odd.

Matt Burns · 6 months ago

With all due respect, Randi Zuckerberg is totally full of sh*t on this one – at least as her comments relate to the Republican National Convention.

As the Director of Communications for the convention, I can tell you we worked closely with Google/YouTube, Ustream.tv, Microsoft, and countless other companies to create a comprehensive and successful online campaign. Those efforts were recently recognized with five “Pollie Awards” from The Association of Political and Public Affairs Professionals. And we utilized Facebook – even if it wasn’t up to Ms. Zuckerberg’s standards – as part of our overall strategy.

Is it possible Ms. Zuckerberg sat alone in her hotel room during the Republican National Convention because she never actually contacted anyone? Or maybe she forgot about the major hurricane barreling toward the Gulf Coast on the eve of the Republican National Convention? Or maybe she didn't really want to be around a group of conservative Americans in the first place?

According to the Wall Street Journal: “'At the Democratic convention we were like rock stars,' Zuckerberg said Thursday to a conference crowd of what could safely be called Democratic-leaning entrepreneurs and investors."

Wait. Ms. Zuckerberg bashed Republicans while speaking to an audience of her liberal friends? Shocker!

In all seriousness, can Ms. Zuckerberg tell us what the Democratic National Convention did with Facebook – aside from pet their enlarged egos and take them to glitzy parties with the Hollywood elite – that Republican National Convention planners didn't?

I guess next time we won't make the mistake of letting the business of nominating our Presidential candidate get in the way of the folks at Facebook being treated like rock stars.

Apologies to Facebook. Our bad.

Matt Burns
Director of Communications
2008 Republican National Convention
mattaburns@gmail.com

Anthony Ha · 6 months ago

Thanks for your perspective, Matt. I'll add an update to my post pointing to your comment.