Twitter has good deal of battle experience, having been instrumental in revolutions and wars throughout the Middle East. Can it also be intstrumental in the legistlative battle over the fiscal cliff?
President Obama seems to think so. He is urging the American public to make use of social media to pressure Congress. In particular the White house is offering suggestions to make use of twitter hashtags.
“In an effort to personalize the eye-glazing numbers of a budget fight, the White House has been retweeting messages from people who’d be affected by the tax hike. “’Laura McAfee: that’s 2 months rent and that’s huge to me, as a single mom.” “Denise: We would be able to pay 2/3 of ONE semester of community college for our daughter.’”
The White House claims to be winning hashtag war.
“We have heard from 300,000 people on this issue,” says White House spokesman Josh Earnest. More than 200,000 tweets have used the #My2K hashtag—not all of them positive, of course—and more than 100,000 people have submitted their stories to an administration website. “At our peak,” says Earnest, “we saw 17,578 tweets per hour” during Obama’s first speech on the issue.
[Source: The Daily Beast]
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