Top Ten Twitter Tips for @PressSec Robert Gibbs
On Saturday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joined “the Twitter.”
Now tweeting from the @PressSec account, his follower count on Saturday grew by more than 1,000 per hour. By Monday morning he put out his third tweet and was up to 18,000 followers. I guess people really want to hear what Robert Gibbs has to say on Twitter. Why did it take Gibbs so long to get on? It’s not, as he famously said in July, because Twitter was blocked on White House computers.
At that time he also said that he felt like he was on camera enough already for people to know what he was doing. Since then Twitter has not gone away and has continued to grow. The President sent his first tweet personally in response to the earthquake in Haiti. Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton tweets. The White House Press Corps tweets. What took him so long to get with the program? Isn’t the Press Secretary, y’know, supposed to keep up with the media?
Whatever the reason Robert Gibbs has decided to start tweeting now, we’re glad he’s on board! He asked for tips, so here are the Top Ten, courtesy of @theKbuzz:
1. Don’t call it “the Twitter.” Take the time to learn the lingo. You have enough underlings that I am sure one of them could explain everything you need to know in about half an hour.
2. Don’t be the guy with 100K followers (at this rate you will get there pretty soon!) that follows no one. Follow the White House Press Corps. Watching a feed of them might give you useful insights in what questions they will ask and will help build your relationship with them. Follow Congress too.
3. Learn how to use hashtags (#s). You were already watching a stream when you decided to get on Twitter, keep watching those streams. Filtered streams, as you saw, are amazing for their ability to express reactions at particular moments in time.
4. You have a pretty bully pulpit of your own. No name calling, but tell us inside scoops from which Senators are holding up a bill to what’s being served at a state dinner.
5. Tweet often. Engage. Respond. Right now you are getting a lot of attention; the rate at which you have been acquiring followers is astounding. It would take some kind of algorithm to sort through it all. Let all that simmer. Give it a week or two when the heat is off, and Twitter will lighten up. Then you can use it as a real and powerful two-way communications tool.
6. Maintain your voice. You represent the country. Don’t try to be too hip just because you’re on Twitter. It’s not something you should just push out political news on though either. If @BarackObama says something funny, quickly run it through that smart press secretary mind to make sure it’s appropriate, then tweet it. Tell us why you love your family/golf/life. Just… be yourself. Smart, official but most of all, a real human being.
7. Twitter is very democratic. You can communicate with anyone who cares. Use it to add context at events. Let’s say you are at a town hall meeting. At the start of that meeting you alert attendants to the #. Then when the president is answering questions, but someone tweets a follow-up or related question about what the President is saying that is valuable, the best time to respond is right away. Your responsiveness in this way will be buzzworthy.
8. Use Twitter strategically. The job of a Press Secretary often requires being political with non-politicians, namely journalists. If you scoop them by giving information directly to the people first, the journalists might get annoyed. On the other hand, announcing something important on Twitter can be used to frame a policy debate.
9. Expand your idea of journalist. Check out @ariannahuff , @dailydish (Andrew Sullivan), @anamariecox and @markos (Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas). Bloggers really can have journalistic integrity and talent. These are just a few examples.
10. Recognize your power. With so many followers and such a high profile, one tweet from you can catapult someone’s visibility. Be generous and retweet.
@PressSec, good luck, and welcome to Twitter!
What advice would you give to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs as he eases into Twitter?
