David All Suggests: Make History – Tweet the White House

Just got this from David All – I think it’s such a great idea, I just did it:

Send a Tweet to the @WhiteHouse about health care and use the hashtag #handsoff

As you may know, President Barack Obama has been doing some extraordinary things online to better communicate his message. And, yes, I say that as a proud Republican.
 
Along with 126 Members of Congress and U.S. Senators, President Obama has started Tweeting (@WhiteHouse). In fact, with a mere 247 updates, the account has already grown rapidly to 550,253 Followers.
 
One of the issues the @WhiteHouse is Tweeting about is health care reform so we thought we’d have a little bit of fun with it and propose an experiment in online activism for an upcoming release of the next Twitter @101Guide.

 

 

So here’s the plan:

1. It is clear that a White House communications staffer is serving as a SpokesTwitterer and will read and perhaps even reply to our Tweets.
2. We are going to track and record all uses of the hashtag #handsoff for this experiment and report back our findings to you.
3. As long as you’re logged in to Twitter and using a web browser, just click here to load a draft Tweet and click “Update.” See below for more examples — please feel free to amend as you like.
4. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone orchestrating a coordinated Twitter advocacy strategy. You’re going to be a part of history and help redefine activism.

Thanks for helping us make a difference.

Revolution,

@DavidAll

DRAFT TWEETS (copy/paste/update)*:
 
@whitehouse a “public plan” would lead to a government takeover of health care #handsoff plz RT

@whitehouse a “public plan” would force millions of Americans to lose their good private health coverage #handsoff plz RT
 
@whitehouse a government-run health care plan would mean long, even deadly waiting time for patients #handsoff plz RT
 
@whitehouse a “public option” would lead to government rationing and lower quality of care for all Americans #handsoff plz RT
 
*These tweets are sourced here.

www.Wednesday: Storm Tracking on Twitter

Our thoughts and prayers are will the families who lost loved ones in the tornadoes last night in Lone Grove, OK, and with those who suffered the loss of and damage to their homes in the Edmond area and all over the Oklahoma City and Lawton areas.

Other parts of the state were spared the brunt of the tornado damage, but many folks are dealing with severe flooding problems, and our thoughts and prayers are with them, as well.

Thank you to the citizen reporters who kept us updated throughout the evening using Twitter, and the #OKStorms hashtag to keep fellow Oklahomans in-the-know at least 5-10 minutes ahead of the major news outlets about shelters opening, schools closing, power outages, road/highways closing, damage reports, photos, weather service warnings/watches, “street-level” weather, and their own personal stories.

For more information about using Twitter Hashtags see How to Twitter, and #hastags and What to Do with Them.

 

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New! Twitter hashtag and feed for exposing Liberal and Progressive Hypocrisy #LibHippos

Don’t you just hate it when so-called “liberals,” or “progressives,” act anything but? For example, when in their zeal for eliminating so-called “hate speech,” they actually act more hateful than the people they’re accusing? Or when they selectively apply their condemnation of racism to only select groups of people, but not to others? Or when politicians talk out both sides of their mouths?

Well, now you have a place to expose these Hypocritical Liberals – a.k.a. “LibHippos.”

If you have a Twitter account, be sure to follow LibHippos. To follow the feed, go to search.twitter.com, and search for the hashtag (keyword) #LibHippos, or add the following link to your feed reader:

Feed URL: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23libhippos

To submit links or comments to the feed, be sure to include somewhere in your post the “hash tag,” or pound sign (#) and text as follows: #LibHippos

To sign up for a Twitter account, go to Twitter.com, and click “Get Started Now, and follow the instructions.

 

Also see: #Hashtags and What to do with Them

 

#hashtags and What do Do with Them

Those who have recently discovered Twitter.com have probably noticed people adding “#whatever” to the end of their posts (e.g. #dontgo, #palin, #yeswecantor, #rnc08, #rnc08, etc.) Why are they doing this?

According to hashtags.com:

You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol:

Hashtags were developed as a means to create “groupings” on Twitter, without having to change the basic service. The hash symbol is a convention borrowed primarily from IRC channels, and later from Jaiku’s channels.

hashtags.org now provides real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Opt-in by following @hashtags to have your hashtags tracked.

Hashtags were popularized during the San Diego forest fires in 2007 when Nate Ritter used the hashtag “#sandiegofire” to identify his updates related to the disaster.

An easy way to follow your favorite hashtags is to go to search.twitter.com, and enter your tag into the search box. You can either read the feed right from there, or if you have more than one, you can add the feed (click the little orange box in the upper right-hand corner) to your favorite feed reader. (Bonus tip – search.twitter.com is also an easy way to quickly see who has responded to your tweets – simply search for @yourusername).

If you do not have a Twitter account – the sign-up is easy. Just go to Twitter.com, and sign up. Twitter is designed for mobile phones but can also be accessed from your PC, and is a very easy, fun way to get immediate updates on current events.