Social media lets Iowa politicians mingle with voters

Politicians want your vote, but they'll take your tweet ... for now.

With elections creeping near, candidates and their staff - Republican and Democrat alike - are taking a page out of the Obama campaign playbook and using social media to spread their messages, bolster support and raise money.

“When we started out, we wanted to use social media better than Obama did,” said Tim Albrecht, communications director for Terry Branstad, former four-term governor and current gubernatorial candidate.

“Nothing will beat face-to-face campaigning. You will still need people making calls and knocking on doors,” Albrecht said, “but you cannot be successful in 2010 if you're not aggressive in effectively using social media.”

When Albrecht, 32, started working for Steve Forbes' presidential campaign 11 years ago, he was issued a beeper and shared a desktop computer with another staffer. Now, he's armed with a laptop and a BlackBerry smart phone, and faces a constant stream of phone calls, e-mails, text messages, tweets and Facebook friend requests.

“Twenty years ago, a 24-hour news cycle was unheard of, but soon cable changed all of that, and news and politics became non-stop in your face,” Albrecht said. “Twitter, Facebook and Google ads - it's a 24-hour news cycle on steroids.”

Iowa's longest-serving senator and one of the longest-serving in Washington, Republican Chuck Grassley has been using Twitter since 2007. Grassley, 76, has amassed more than 18,000 followers, giving him the seventh-largest audience of any member of Congress.

“Twitter is an almost instant connection between those in public life and their constituents,” Grassley said. “I see it as just another way to encourage more communication between us, more education and letting people know what their lawmakers are up to.”

Grassley's presumptive opponent for this year's election, Des Moines Democrat Roxanne Conlin, has had a crash course in social media campaigning since she kicked off her 99-county tour of Iowa in the fall.

Armed with multiple phones, Conlin, 65, said she isn't daunted by her opponent's success with Twitter, and she vows her campaign will be as competitive with Grassley on the Internet as it is on the campaign trail.

“He's been at this for a very long time, and I think it's terrific that we're close to 1,000 followers after 60 or 90 days,” Conlin said. “It's a marvelous way for us to keep in touch with supporters, and it's extremely helpful in letting us reach out to people on a regular basis.”

A November study by the Pew Research Center found that roughly one-in-five Americans who have Internet access use Twitter or some similar status-update service. Once thought to be embraced only by younger voters, social media is actually drawing an older crowd. Pew reports the average age of Twitter users is 31, 33 on Facebook.

Social media and campaign professionals alike say such sites are no longer a fad, but an entrenched part of the campaign canon.

“There are two places Twitter is growing. People want to see what celebrities are doing and what politicians are doing,” said Chris McCroskey, co-founder of TweetCongress, an online watchdog site that monitors lawmakers on Twitter.

“(Twitter) may be the game-changer,” McCroskey, 33, said. “Just like you can't go without a phone or e-mail at your office, Twitter and Facebook are things campaigns and lawmakers cant move away from.”

McCroskey said that Democrats were the first to fully embrace the Internet as a campaign device, but the tables have turned. TweetCongress found that 123 Republicans in Congress have active Twitter accounts, compared with 61 Democrats.

“The last couple of years, Republicans have started to understand and embrace new media,” said Vincent Harris, 21, founder of the Harris Media Group of Austin, Tex. He's helping Bob Vander Plaats run for the Iowa governor's mansion.

Although Vander Plaats trails in the polls, fundraising and name recognition, the Sioux City Republican has amassed more than 10,000 followers on Twitter.

“People love seeing responses from their candidates who are actively listening to them,” Harris said. “People are obsessed with information, they're obsessed with knowing where everyone is, what their thoughts are and where they'll be, especially with elected officials.”

Gov. Chet Culver and Branstad have invested in creating their own social-networking sites. My.ChetCulver.com and Go.TerryBranstad.com offer supporters networking and inside scoops. Neither site is faring as well as their Twitter and Facebook profiles, however.

Branstad communications director Albrecht said it's too hard to tell how some of these investments will pay off.

“That's what's so great about social networking and pioneering online efforts. It's in the hands of the campaigns and the supporters behind them,” Albrecht said. “Where this goes next is anyone's guess.”