The Nexus of 2024

Feedback, please on draft recommendations: how progressives can use Twitter strategically

—

by

jon
in , ,

Tracy Viselli and I are working on an article for The Exception on how progressives can use Twitter.  Here’s our current thinking on recommendations:

  1. progressives should get good at Twitter best practices: insiders providing information regularly, backchannels at conferences and workshops, regular Twitter-based chats by organizations and bloggers, contact lists and skills pitching to journalists who prefer Twitter, etc.
  2. activists need to refine techniques for Twitter-based “flash actions” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).  Social computing technologies are tools; we need to learn to use them effectively.
  3. Twitter can be a medium for progressives to engage online with communities currently marginalized by the “progressive blogosphere”.  Shared vocabulary and hashtag structure, and respect for different norms in different hashtags, can help.
  4. we should reach out to conservatives, libertarians, and greens to explore ways to engage more constructively

The full article will of course go into detail on the thinking and experiences that lead to the recommendations.

Any feedback?  Suggestions for improvements, related experiences, criticisms, ideas about how to make this happen — it’s all good.  Please don’t be shy!  We’ll do our best to incorporate the feedback in the final draft.

Thanks much!

jon

Comments

4 responses to “Feedback, please on draft recommendations: how progressives can use Twitter strategically”

  1. Liminal states » How progressives can use Twitter: a strategic perspective (DRAFT)

    […] CURRENTLY BEING REVISED SUBSTANTIALLY.   New recommendations here.  Thanks all for the […]

    Reply
  2. Ivan Boothe Avatar
    Ivan Boothe

    This looks like a great starting point. In particular I’m working on compiling good examples of the second item you list, so I’ll be interested to see any analysis of these. And Tweet-pitching to journalists sounds like it will be an interesting back-door for nonprofits/activists in the know to increase their chances of coverage.

    Reply
  3. jon Avatar
    jon

    Thanks for the feedback, Ivan – and others via email and Facebook. Here’s the revised recommendations:

    1. adopt and improve on Twitter best practices: insiders providing information regularly, backchannels at conferences and workshops, regular Twitter-based chats by organizations and bloggers, a wiki with contact lists and learning materials, developing skills pitching to journalists who prefer Twitter, using Twitter to help with Digg (1, 2, 3), etc.
    2. refine techniques for Twitter-based “flash actions” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Social computing technologies are tools; we need to learn to use them effectively.
    3. use Twitter to engage with communities currently marginalized by the “progressive blogosphere”. We propose a new #p2 (“progressives 2.0”) hashtag to help enable this.

    Next steps: discussions on #p2 and an upcoming “TweetChat”, details TBD. Watch for it on Twitter.

    There was a *lot* of skepticism about it about outreach to conservatives and libertarians. So while we included a brief discussion of this as a future possibility, we didn’t make it a recommendation.

    Thanks again! The final version is much better than the one originally posted here … as always, review makes a big difference!

    Reply
  4. Jean Riquelme Avatar
    Jean Riquelme

    Progressives should organize so that messages are delivered in accessible language(s) and leverage the voices of the seldom heard. We should seek out ways to get elders, immigrants, poor people, students and the incarcerated to have a voice in twitter, even if they can’t twitter themselves. I could envision a progressive twitterer wearing a tag or t-shirt at events, meetings and in the neighborhood that offers to tweet for the twitterless

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *