Michael Blanchard

CIS 393

Thursday, May 06, 2010

How to Win Elections and Influence People with Twitter

Jack Dorsey introduced his idea for the platform originally known as “twttr” in early 2006

during a brainstorming session.1 Together with Biz Stone and Evan Williams, Dorsey constructed

the system to use SMS to communicate with small groups. 2 As the platform came together the team

decided upon the name Twitter when they found “[t]he [word‟s] definition was „a short burst of

inconsequential information‟…And that‟s exactly what the product was.”3 Yet Twitter soon matured,

and in April 2007 Twitter spun off of Obvious Corporation to become its own company.4 Despite

the immense potential of the platform, the true success of Twitter was not glimpsed until the 2007

South by Southwest Interactive conference when daily posts jumped from 20,000 to around 60,000.5

Through 2010 the platform has experienced a boom of 1,500 per cent growth in registered users,

creating an enormous network to facilitate the distribution of a message.6

Politicians now seek to take advantage of the vast network Twitter offers for political

discourse. To discuss the political efficacy of Twitter one should realize the potential for candidates

1
Dom Sagolla, “How twitter was born.” 140 Characters, http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/30/how-twitter-
was-born/ (accessed April 7, 2010).
2
Andrew Lennon, “A conversation with twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey,” The Daily Anchor,
http://www.thedailyanchor.com/2009/02/12/a-conversation-with-twitter-co-founder-jack-dorsey/ (accessed April 7,
2010).
3
David Sarno, “Twitter creator Jack Dorsey illuminates the site's founding document. Part 1,” Los Angeles Times,
February 18, 2009, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/02/twitter-creator.html (accessed April 7,
2010).
4
Lennon, “A Conversation with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.”
5
Nick Douglas, “Twitter blows up at SXSW conference,” Valleywa,. http://gawker.com/tech/next-big-thing/Twitter-
blows-up-at-sxsw-conference-243634.php (accessed April 7, 2010).
6
New Statesman, “Twitter registers 1,500 per cent growth in users,” New Statesman.
http://www.newstatesman.com/digital/2010/03/twitter-registered-created (accessed April 7, 2010).
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to use the service to build or reach a constituency or a public. Michael Warner provides a means to

better understand what defines a public. Warner asserts that a public “enables a reflexivity in the

circulation of texts among strangers who become, by virtue of their reflexively circulating discourse,

a social entity,” and “an indefinite audience rather than a social constituency that could be numbered

or named” (11-12; 55-56).7 Warner deals with “the Internet and other new media” as a possible

public, and he notes the profound changes “they imply in temporality.” Warner rejects describing the

Internet as a public because, “[a]t the time of this writing, Web discourse has very little of the

citational field that would allow us to speak of it as discourse unfolding through time” (97).8 Warner

adds, “[o]nce a Web site is up, it can be hard to tell how recently it was posted or revised…Most sites

are not archived. For the most part, they are not centrally indexed” (97-98).9 The Twitter platform

provides a drastic change in Web discourse that is capable of satisfying Warner‟s qualms concerning

publics. According to Warner‟s own definition of a public, Twitter would satisfy both an indefinite

audience and allow for reflexive circulation among strangers. Each posting on Twitter can be shared

by a user with anyone who looks at their page or follows them on the site. As members begin to

discuss their opinions on issues and other tweets the posts become more interconnected as they move

amongst users.

Candidates do not want to be outdone in any aspect of campaigning, including tech

platforms. If one campaign adopts a new medium—like Twitter—then all campaigns must follow.

But how does a campaign control the message using new media platforms? Twitter can blur the

distinction between a candidate‟s actual campaign and elements of the campaign that may or may not

be supported by the campaign management. It would be relatively simple for a member of a

7
Michael Warner, Publics and Counterpublics, (New York: Zone Books, 2002), pp. 11-12; 55-56.
8
Warner, Publics and Counterpublics, 97.
9
Warner, Publics and Counterpublics, 97-98.
 3

candidate‟s campaign team to create a Twitter account aimed at appearing independent in an effort to

spread official messages in an unofficial manner. False Twitter accounts occur frequently and offer

another avenue for nefarious campaign opportunities. The opportunity for reprehensible actions

similar to the Swiftboat campaign and an updated form of whispering campaigns is an ever present

possibility on Twitter. As candidates enter the intense stages of their campaigns, Twitter affords

them a new avenue to dispense insidious campaign material. Whispering campaign techniques serve

to offer effective means for candidates to distribute their attack advertisements. Candidates can

merely post links to devastating stories regarding an opponent and the story will continue to spread

through the Twitter network from that point. Recently in the California gubernatorial race candidate

Jerry Brown has lambasted Meg Whitman by posting about her refusal to debate with him.

Whispering campaigns and attack advertisements may prove one of the most prominent uses of

Twitter as candidates draw closer to Election Day.

Social media as a whole have received a great deal of attention and energy during recent

election cycles, but Twitter is unique in the sense that posts will sometimes appear in Google search

results. A search for Jerry Brown, for example, includes his Twitter account in the first page of

results whereas no other forms of social media were present and thus as immediately visible to

someone seeking to learn about Jerry Brown. Also, anyone traversing the Web is able to view any

particular Twitter user‟s page without being an official follower, and as result of this ability, Twitter

fulfills the qualification of an indefinite audience despite the existence of follower counts. The

Library of Congress recently announced that it will begin to store all past and future tweets in its

database. By storing all tweets ever posted, the Library of Congress helps Twitter to satisfy Warner‟s

need for archiving.

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Political campaigns in the United States are usually reserved for those who are already

wealthy or who have access to significant monetary contributions. With their financial security they

will be able to run a successful campaign, and increasingly spectacular election campaigns continue

to block an average political hopeful. Without this de-facto cost barrier more citizens would be

capable of campaigning, and Twitter offers a free platform where candidates can share their

messages, essentially democratizing elections. Further, from a candidate‟s account page he or she

possesses the ability to connect visitors to all of the campaign material such, as an official website or

campaign videos hosted for free on YouTube.

To understand how political candidates use Twitter, the California gubernatorial race serves

as a case study. Candidates from both of the major parties and one Independent candidate comprise

the cases. Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner are two Republican candidates. Jerry Brown and

Richard Aguirre are two Democratic candidates, and Chelene Nightengale is an independent

candidate. As the primary draws closer, Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown are gaining ground and will

likely remain the front runners and their respective parties‟ candidates. Aguirre offers a nice case for

Twitter‟s democratizing ability. Steve Poizner runs a number of television advertisements which

caught my attention, and Chelene Nightengale serves as an example of the least politically powerful

candidate.

The Twitter phenomenon constitutes a story of dynamic characteristics. Postings to Twitter

are limited to 140 characters of the users choice and known as tweets. Users learning to master

Twitter today find a plethora of options available to them which were not present when the platform

launched. By using the @ symbol users are capable of can providing both citations to other users

and denoting that a particular post is intended as a message for the username following the @, and

the user referenced is alerted to the mention. This simple cycle of citation and reference offers a
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means of creating a relationship of interconnectedness that is public, searchable, and citable. Twitter

offers the user another means to communicate from one user to the next through direct messages by

including a d followed by the username and through this private message users gain direct

communication opportunities in association with the mass communication all through the same

platform. Another feature of Twitter is the re-tweet which is invoked by typing RT in front of a

copied post from another user, and through RT users are able to spread posts to others—in the new

follower group—who would have otherwise not have seen them. For political candidates RT can

provide a means to bolster their own image by sharing positive comments from others, or the RT can

be used by people who read the candidate‟s posts to either continue the transmission of beneficial

messages or inversely any content which could harm the candidate. Despite fears over Twitter‟s

inability to support archiving and textual citation, but by including a # followed by any particular

word, a user can access all posts that contain the term, and the results can be accessed together as

though it were a conversation on a particular topic.

Standard tweets do not allow users to place images in their postings, but Twitter offers image

hosting and linking through its twitpic service as a remedy for this shortcoming. Candidates use

these pictures for purposes ranging from showing people where they campaigned that day to posting

images of themselves fulfilling current government duties, for example California Attorney General

Jerry Brown. Also motivated by the character limit of each tweet, users often use their postings as a

gateway to other material. The California gubernatorial candidates provide links to their own

campaign pages, official news stories on their campaign website and other media outlets, their

Facebook profile page where they post stories and photos, and their official YouTube channel, a

popular option for Richard Aguirre. Twitter also offers users a search engine that will provide a full

text search of tweets for approximately the last week depending on how many tweets have been
 6

posted in that time period. The Twitter user‟s home page gives the user one place to view the most

recent activity of the people they are following, displaying the most recent twenty items. Twitter

recently implemented a new feature, promoted tweets. Promoted tweets allow Twitter to create

revenue by placing paid tweets at the top of searches, and they have the potential to influence

political elections by giving some candidates a higher likelihood of being seen. Notably, most of

these features were incorporated into the platform by users before Twitter officially provided support

for them, and through this user expansion the feature set has been expanded so that posts have

become far more accessible.

When the platform was introduced the question it posed was, “What are you doing?”

Edward Mischaud has studied whether or not most users sought to answer the particular question

only to find that many chose to expand upon the original question. Eventually Twitter officially

changed its question of purpose to “What‟s Happening?” in order to offer a better indication of the

service for newcomers seeking to understand the platform.10

With the insight that users are choosing to answer altered question I would like to take a look

at how politicians use their Twitter accounts.11 Chelene Nightingale relies almost entirely on

external links as her means of communicating a message.12 Some of her posts were simple and

consisted of only a request for users to check her Facebook page to see her new photos, but every one

of her posts save two include a link to another story or website that expands on her post. For some of

the posts on her page, the link is meant to expand upon what she has included in the 140 character

10
Edward Mischaud, “Twitter: Expressions of the whole self an investigation into user appropriation of a web-based
communications platform,” (master‟s thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2007). ; Biz
Stone, “What's happening?” Twitter blog, http://blog.twitter.com/2009/11/whats-happening.html, (accessed April 7,
2010).
11
In order to evaluate how they used their accounts, the last 100 postings as of March 22, 2010 at 10PM were
downloaded and examined.
12
Nightengale4Gov, [Twitter page], Retrieved from http://twitter.com/Nightingale4Gov on 22 March 2010.
 7

limit tweet, but in other cases, the entire post is a particular link or the text offers nothing beyond a

preview of that particular link.

Richard Aguirre also primarily uses web links; however, his execution is different from

Nightingale‟s.13 Many of Aguirre‟s posts act as portals to his various YouTube videos, which have

become free advertisements to project Aguirre and his political stance on issues. His links to

YouTube allow people to view his campaign advertisements that he would have no chance of

playing on television because of the prohibitive costs. Aguirre re-posts the same links occasionally

in an effort to guarantee that they appear on the users screen when they view his page, because only

the most recent 20 tweets appear on your home page and it is cumbersome to load previous tweets

ten at a time. Also, Aguirre‟s posts contain a common focus on the environment; adopting

renewable forms of energy is one recurring element. He is also adamant about California‟s need for

desalination projects in order to provide water for all those who need it, and this trend continues

throughout his other posts.

Jerry Brown provides a minimally more diverse range of use for his Twitter page.14 He uses

twitpic to show a picture of himself finalizing his nomination for governor, but he is likely trying to

elicit the most support from the old pictures he provides to show the many actions he undertook in

the 1970s during his first two terms in office as Governor during a prior stint before President

Reagan took office. He could potentially seek to elicit feelings of safety in those who check these

pictures: because these images show him performing important aspects of the Governorship, people

have the chance to see all of the positive things Brown accomplished during his first two terms,

13
Aguirre2010, [Twitter page], Retrieved from http://twitter.com/Aguirre2010 on 22 March 2010.
14
JerryBrown2010, [Twitter page], Retrieved from http://twitter.com/JerryBrown2010 on 22 March 2010.
 8

making them more likely to support his new campaign.15 Jerry Brown also uses his Twitter page to

highlight the recent work that he has done as the Attorney General of California. He accomplishes

this task by providing the reader with a short snippet of information regarding some action that he

has recently taken in his capacity as Attorney General. Most of these posts are followed by a link

which directs the reader to a more detailed story on the Jerry Brown website. One of the most

striking aspects of this is the fact that every story has a picture of the official seal of the Attorney

General. These stories do not directly relate to any of the actions which he would undertake as

Governor, but they do serve to create a positive image of a man who places justice in a high position.

Meg Whitman creates an impression of hope and advises Californians to look forward to a

bright new day with her account backdrop which depicts one of California‟s rolling hills with fields

of flowers and bright dawn sunlight.16 Steve Poizner appears to evoke an image of resolution and

determination with his background depicting Poizner attentively looking into the distance towards

California‟s future.17 Greater number of posts to one‟s account has the possibility of increasing

awareness for the candidate‟s campaign because anyone following the particular candidate receives a

notification on their main page whenever someone they follow posts a new entry. Poizner seeks to

take full advantage of this fact, there are several occasions where he posts significantly in one day,

whereas Whitman for the most part posts consistently once a day. A comparison of the two accounts

reveals that they were both at the same NASCAR race in Fontana California on February 21st;

however, Poizner provided seven posts on the event and Whitman provided only two. This

discrepancy could indicate that Poizner wants to ensure that people know that he was also at the race

because Whitman was more publicly visible as the official flag holder who is recognized for the

15
Jerry Brown is able to run for Governor again because the laws limiting a governor to two terms was not in
existence at the time that he first held office.
16
Whitman2010, [Twitter page], Retrieved from http://twitter.com/Whitman2010 on 22 March 2010.
17
StevePoizner, [Twitter page], Retrieved from http://twitter.com/StevePoizner on 22 March 2010
 9

whole crowd and given the right to officially start the race. Whitman employs the RT on at least six

occasions mostly to share positive comments or news stories another user has written, and most of

these re-tweets are from a user named CAmpMeg2010. Poizner distinguishes himself due to his

gratuitous use of the # tag. He uses #CAGov in nearly all of his last thirty posts in order to link any

of the comments that he writes to the overall conversation regarding the California gubernatorial

race. He is thus able to expand his audience and make it easier to find what he deems directly

relevant to the race.

Twitpics, links to extended articles of Facebook pages, re-tweets, # tags, all can comprise

elements or the entirety of a tweet; however, users cannot incorporate all of these into a single post

and therefore need to decide the most beneficial use of their 140 characters. In my analysis of the

five Twitter styles, each projects a slightly different message to the reader, with re-tweets

representing an attempt to highlight another user‟s writing. Chelene Nightingale and Jerry Brown

both rely heavily on linking to other sites or longer stories with varying levels of success.

Nightingale's efforts come off in a way that makes her posts seem haphazard and simple, a fact

which is no doubt a result of her lack of an intensive campaign team as a minor candidate who likely

runs all of her own campaign efforts. With his campaign team at hand Jerry Brown produces a more

polished implementation of linking but the his posts are also repetitive in their form in a manner that

makes his next post predictable and less interesting. Linking can work effectively to present the

reader with a quick means to access potentially polished stories and articles that are impossible given

the limits of a tweet. Richard Aguirre heavily uses YouTube to create and distribute campaign

videos which he would have no chance of presenting on TV because of costs, and he uses his posts to

direct users towards these videos by re-posting links to them in order to make the links appear on

follower‟s pages several times. Campaign TV ads present some of the most beneficial and harmful
 10

messages during campaigns and Aguirre employs links to publicize his ads. While each approach

has its own benefits individually, the most effective users offer a balance between linking, status

updates, and pictures while also incorporating the means to find and track their posts in the overall

conversation of the election using # tags.

Certain styles of tweeting may prove more efficacious than others, but at present, there are no

concrete ways to measure this efficacy. One possible way to gauge efficacy is to track the number of

times a candidate‟s posts. Looking at the number of followers over time and evaluating when and

possibly why users started or stopped following a candidate, sometimes based on the number of

followers gained or lost after a particular tweet, serves as another possible marker. Promoted tweets

also offer a new opportunity to estimate the efficacy of Twitter because if a candidate pays for his or

her tweets to be promoted, Twitter collects data regarding the “resonance” of the particular post and

only continues to promote and charge the candidate if users are clicking on and interacting with his

or her tweet. The grand question is whether or not Twitter is worth candidates‟ money to pay people

to maintain. These cases favor a positive response to this question because Twitter offers a platform

that affords access to an ever expanding feature set and far-reaching public. With this in mind, in

order to gain an even greater understanding of Twitter‟s political efficacy we need a tool that can

aggregate all of the areas mentioned and offer a measure of its value in concrete monetary terms.
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Bibliography

Aguirre2010. [Twitter page]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/Aguirre2010 on 22 March 2010.

Douglas, Nick. “Twitter blows up at SXSW conference.” Valleywag. http://gawker.com/tech/next-

big-thing/Twitter-blows-up-at-sxsw-conference-243634.php.

JerryBrown2010. [Twitter page]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/JerryBrown2010 on 22 March

2010.

Lennon, Andrew. “A conversation with twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.” The Daily Anchor.
http://www.thedailyanchor.com/2009/02/12/a-conversation-with-twitter-co-founder-jack-
dorsey/.

Mischaud, Edward. “Twitter: Expressions of the whole self an investigation into user appropriation
of a web-based communications platform.” Master‟s thesis, London School of Economics and
Political Science, 2007.

New Statesman. “Twitter registers 1,500 per cent growth in users.” New Statesman.
http://www.newstatesman.com/digital/2010/03/twitter-registered-created.

Nightengale4Gov. [Twitter page]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/Nightingale4Gov on 22 March

2010.

Sagolla, Dom. “How twitter was born.” 140 Characters. http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/

30/how-twitter-was-born/.

Sarno, David, “Twitter creator Jack Dorsey illuminates the site's founding document. Part 1,” Los
Angeles Times, February 18, 2009, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/ 02/twitter-
creator.html.

StevePoizner. [Twitter page]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/StevePoizner on 22 March 2010.

Stone, Biz. “What's happening?” Twitter blog. http://blog.twitter.com/2009/11/whats-

happening.html.

Warner, Michael, Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books, 2002.

Whitman2010. [Twitter page]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/Whitman2010 on 22 March 2010.