Twitter galloping towards main stream; politicians take back your Twitter

Mayor David Miller of Toronto impressed many long-time internet activists and Twitter users with his first “tweets” in the past several weeks.  Unlike most Canadian politicians, he tweets for himself.  People noticed.  Mark Kuznicki, a change advocate and consultant in Toronto was one, he wrote: ”@mayormiller Keep up the great tweets from your Basel visit.  How many other city mayors on Twitter? Would be an interesting Tweetup!”

Mark and his company Remarkk Consulting would be familiar to anyone who tracked the ChangeCamp project in Toronto; take a look here for more. I’m impressed when Mark is impressed.  I think the strongest factor making Miller’s tweets better than most politico’s is the authenticity of the conversations the Mayor is creating.

Very few Canadian politicians really understand and are comfortable with online communications.  Mayor Miller is fluent and well versed.

I think we need to see more Tweeting MPs and Mayors taking back their Twitter and here is why:

• Twitter estimates 7% of their usage comes from Canada;
• Hit Wise, a widely cited source for internet statistics estimates a 535% annual growth for Twitter. www.hitwise.com
• So, that’s at least 175,000 Canadians on Twitter today and perhaps near 1 million users by the time the Vancouver 2010 Olympics arrive.
• Canada’s elected officials can’t afford not to hear these unfiltered and honest voices. It’s a whole new conversation.

It’s also fair to note Twitter isn’t perfect. In fact, its probably one of the only online communities where its user-base puts up with so much hassle (broken search functions now fixed thankfully, dropped follower remains an issue) And, Twitter.com is virtually useless once you have more that 200 followers (requiring the use other applications to make the service viable).

Now, if you still don’t “believe in Twitter” or find it “useless”. Try this:

1. Visit: www.twitter.com/stephenfry
2. Now, wait about 5 seconds and hit refresh and take a look at his follower count.

Now tell me, you really don’t want to have a conversation with an audience growing that fast? Why not?

More information & reading on the Twitter-trend:

• David Akin, a well-established reporter and tech user, doesn’t agree with me on the value of Twitter.  In fact, he retreated – “unTwittered”, if you will.  Here is his reasoning.
• If you are using Twitter to create or re-enforce a personal brand, gain momentum for a political ideal or foster a community: take a look at Dave Fleet’s post on target audience. His advice is wise and sage and should be applied to your microblog as well.
• If you are in a government department and looking to start using Twitter, Ottawa-based marketing and social media strategist Mike Kujawski has a great blog post with the basics on getting started.  I’ll follow up this week with more tailored advice to fit political offices.