The US Congress: Tweeting competition

Hard days in the Congress: they have to vote and to keep on eye on their Twitter updates. In fact, I think Twitter is not easy at all to handle, even at the first sight it sounds quite easy and, by having a threshold of 140 keystrokes, you don't have to fantasize too much. But, for : you shall post several times the day, including when the event is in the making. After, to be ready to answer the feed-backs of your "followers". For a busy politicians, it is a system extremely demanding and, in terms of efficiency, it is quite limited. You could have 10.000 followers, let's say, but you will not be able to skin over all and from this sample, not all will vote you. But, at the very symbolical level, if we think about the benefits of the word-to-mouth effects, Twitter is a tool - but not the only one and not exclusively the most important - with which you could increase your brand awareness, you could test the reactions of a group to certain policies and test perceptions on-line.

In the case of elections, Twitter is a quick way to permanently inform your readers about the incoming results. The Consulate of Israel in New York, for example, sent during the last elections through Twitter almost minute by minute updates.

See also:

AP - How the Twitter works

The Telegraph - The Twitter craze in the States