Not to be outdone by the Republicans, who in several stories and surveys have been shown to be superstars in social media outreach, the Democrats in the House of Representatives in Congress launched their annual contest to see which member could get the most new Twitter, Facebook or YouTube followers, likes and subscribers over a three week period.
Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) won and is this year’s MVP, perhaps in part due to the success of her “our speech” campaign she launched on October 14, 2011. Through it, she encouraged her followers and Twitter users to send her input (within the 140 character limit of Twitter) on what they’d say and would include in a speech to Congress if they were given the opportunity. She encouraged users to attach the hashtag #ourspeech to each tweet for archival purposes and so that other Twitter users interested in following the campaign can review what various people were tweeting on it. Waters got hundreds of responses and will piece them together into an address she plans to make on the House Floor this week.
Reps. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) called Waters’ win “remarkable.”
Hoyer said in a statement announcing the contest’s results, House Democrats collectively gathered over 57,000 new fans, followers and subscribers. They blew last year’s results out the water. They gathered a little over 14,000 new “fans” in 2010.
“Overall, the competition was a huge success,” Hoyer said in the release. “[It] was remarkable, with the leader changing multiple times.”
Runners-up include Reps. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Charlie Rangel (N.Y.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Adam Smith (Wash.) and Ted Deutch (Fla.). All of them finished with 1,000 new followers across all three social media platforms.
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
