Thursday, July 16, 2009

Walker v Neumann: The Twit Off

Earlier this week the Captial Times did a story on political campaigns and their increased use of social networking sites. The story largely focused on the use of Twitter and Facebook by Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann. Reading the story made me curious so I took a look at what both campaigns are doing on Twitter.

First, as Dan Cody has already pointed out, Walker and Neumann are using Twitter in very different ways. Walker seems to be using it as just another way to preach to the choir and talk AT people. Walker also takes every cheap shot at the current governor that he can possibly think up. When he is not doing that he's telling us things about his daily life that we didn't need to know. One of my favorites is when he sent out a tweet about standing in some sub shop up north, when at the same time Milwaukee was in full scale emergency mode because of a possible pandemic. Mark Neumann seems to be using his Twitter account to actually interact with his followers. Most of his tweets are replies to people and so far they are not written in Walker-style cheap shot form.


Aside from the different ways that Walker and Neumann are using their Twitter accounts, it is also interesting to look at the raw numbers. Walker started seriously using his Twitter account months before Neumann. In fact Neumann just launched his a few weeks ago. So far Walker has posted 388 updates to Neumann's 90. Given those lopsided numbers and the Twittering head start that Walker had, I was surprised to see how many followers Neumann already has compared to Walker: 1,133 for Scott and 859 for Mark. Twittering Republicans (at least) don't appear to be totally sold on Walker quite yet. If Mark Neumann was able to catch up so quickly, where will those numbers be in a month or in two? Will he pass Walker? Either way, what will it say about the Republican primary if anything?


For the record, I will be keeping a close Eye On these developments and report back as the numbers change. No doubt this will become a series and I'd like to now officially dub it, "Walker v Neumann: The Twit-Off"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, looks like your up to some good work. I'm glad someone is following this, I was so worried no one would.

Why don't you take some time to write about something real and of consequence to Wisconsin voters? Say, maybe the fact that Doyle has "lost" 3/4 of all receipts from trips as governor.

I should start a blog series titled, "Another Useless Blog from Cory Liebmann."

Cory Liebmann said...

go edit your own anon blog and i will edit eow...i have done a pretty good job over the last several years if I do say so myself...and the facts bear it out.

another useless comment from another bravely anon troll.

Anonymous said...

Just keep tracking your twitter counts if that makes you feel good.

Where are these facts you speak of?

That Doyle blog might be worthwhile. Might get a real writing job out of it.

Another useless blog from another bravely blind lib.

Anonymous said...
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