Exactly how many of Rick Perry's followers on Twitter are make believe?
On Friday, the Rick Perry campaign was outed for astroturfing on Twitter. Astroturfing is creating a fake account to lie about who you are. For example, imagine I created an account and called myself "RachelGriffin85" when clearly, my name is Phillip Martin, then I used this fake account "RachelGriffin85" to spread lies and have my friends help me spread lies about a political opponent. That practice is known as "astroturfing."
Noam Krig, a Texas State University alumnus who was a social media intern for the Texans for Rick Perry campaign, has been posting a heavy stream of pro-Perry and anti-White links on a Twitter account at twitter.com/weRaustin, an account he's run for at least a year. He also appears to be behind other Texas city accounts like weRhouston and weRsanantonio.
But it's not so easy to figure out; the accounts list no name and offer no link to an affiliated website that would identify Krig as their owner.
Krig worked for the Perry campaign when he made the accounts. He also, for what it's worth, The offending accounts -- weRaustin, weRhouston, weRelpaso, weRdallas, and weRsanantonio -- all have the exact same branding and identical bio information, changed only by what city the account is purportedly representing. Each of these accounts were used to spread Rick Perry's messages, and the messages of numerous other accounts the Perry campaign is (most likely) astroturfing. The end result is the creation of a fake grassroots presence that does not exist.
It is clear that Rick Perry has nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter. But how many of those people are real, and how many are make believe? When you use platforms like TweetDeck, HootSuite, or even a simple search on Twitter, most of the people writing about Rick Perry are his own astroturf accounts. Every now and then, Dave Carney -- writing from what I am 99% certain is his own fake Twitter account, @freeusfromthem -- goes through and RTs a whole bunch of people to pretend there's buzz, but that's it.
Over the weekend, I'll be highlighting other numerous accounts the Rick Perry campaign is (likely) astroturfing. Rick Perry's claim to social media fame is that he has a lot of make believe friends that support him. I think it's time we started calling him out for being the liar that he is. Consider it my small effort to help restore sanity.
Twitter has become an indispensible part of politics and political campaigning; it is a simple yet effective way to convey an idea to many people at no cost. It has become one of the tools that many upstart and candidates are using during the primaries. Many established politicians use Twitter as a way to convey quick messages without sending or press release. How are candidates in the Brazos Valley using Twitter? I took a look at some of the candidates for Texas Congressional District 17 and found out who tweets, who doesn't, and who doesn't want me to follow them.
Congressman Chet Edwards, incumbent Democrat, does not advertise a Twitter account on his campaign web site, although Edwards does maintain a Facebook page that is regularly updated. However, Edwards has tended to be a low profile Congressman, and rarely appears in interviews on cable news and has focused most of his campaign on tradition means such as radio advertising and yard signs. While Edwards might be able to provide some interesting tweets it is doubtful that he would say anything overly partisan or controversial in 140 characters.
Republican primary candidate Rob Curnock, who tweets under the name rob4congress, has focused less on specific campaign issues and more on promoting partisan attacks from Congressman Mike Pence to political commentator Dick Morris. Recently Curnock did promote a list to his 229 followers of "10 reasons why 2010 will be a year to celebrate for Central Texans" that his campaign web site published. Curnock's number one reason was a "Consistent, common-sense conservative message of less government, lower taxes and more personal freedom," and that "this campaign is about ideas and message." Which is interesting because that means that the Curnock campaign in 2010 should be completely different that the Curnock campaign in 2008 when its focus was not on ideas but on negative campaigning and saying the words "liberal" and "Edwards" in the same sentence over and over again.
On April 15, a series of protests were held across the country against President Obama's budget measures and economic recovery policies. More specifically, these protests were regionally organized, thematic demonstrations modeled - loosely, at best - on the Boston Tea Party predating the American Revolution.
In 1773, colonials in Massachusetts were angered by the British Parliament's Tea Act. Among other things, they viewed it as an affront to their constitutional right to only be taxed by their elected representatives. They protested the Tea Act by taking three shiploads of tea that Boston's Royal Governor Thomas Hutchison refused to return to Britain and dumping them into Boston Harbor.
The various tea-themed activities during the protests of this past April were largely symbolic, a misread historical metaphor used as a shared rallying point. Most of the actual protesting was done via speech and sign and other normal demonstration fare rather than through the destruction of actual tea.
This year's Tea Party-Goers had two advantages that the colonists lacked in organizing their protests: online organizing and Fox News. How much each contributed to attendance at the day's events is a matter for debate.
We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today.
Duncan, of course, went on to lose that race to current chair Michael Steele, perhaps in part because RNC members doubted Duncan's ability to "do it in the Facebook" and thought Steele could help bring the party's technology closer to the 21st century.
After Facebook launched their new user names last week, the Democratic National Committee was quick to grab www.facebook.com/democrats to link to their official Facebook page.
Ed. note: Ideas that are not original are appropriately cited throughout the piece. I never contacted Bill White's campaign about this story -- my observations about his campaign are just that, observations. They do not constitute any endorsement of his campaign -- by myself or BOR -- but they do reveal how, at least in my opinion, he and his campaign are prepared to win a statewide election.Also, you can follow me on Twitter here: @PhillipMartin
"Texas Democrats' First Truly Statewide Campaign of the 21st Century"
With a single press of a key, either a staffer or a volunteer for the Bill White for Texas campaign ushered Texas Democrats into the new era of internet organization. His campaign has walked across the bridge that so many people spent so many years building. I'm not sure who pressed that key, and I can't guarantee why they did it. But I can say two things for certain:
(1) I'm glad it finally happened, and (2) Not knowing who finally crossed the bridge is what makes it so wonderful.
I will get to the story of what specifically this person on the Bill White for Texas campaign did towards the end of this post. The short version of what they've done, however, may (if I'm right) be quite a story:
A Democrat running a statewide campaign in Texas has, for the first time, fully adapted to the tools and principles of online organization, therefore making it possible to run Texas Democrats' first truly statewide campaign of the 21st century.
I need to unpack that a lot more to back up such a claim, I know. That's why this post is as long (~4,400 words) as it is.
I started writing this as just a short couple of paragraphs on a simple change in the campaign's Twitter usage. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to think it was the sign of something bigger -- that it was the sign of Texas Democrats' finally catching up, after years and years of playing from behind. But to take you from here to there, it is going to take more than just a few paragraphs.
(This event was at the same time as Tuesday's multi-club endorsement meeting so BOR was unfortunately not able to make it. But sounds pretty awesome- kudos to the Castro Campaign. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
(I wrote this up at my blog but thought it would be good to post here as well.)
Tonight the Castro Campaign hosted their first Blogger Summit with a live webcast over the Internet. About 8-10 people showed up to ask questions of Julian Castro on a variety of topics from social media to trasnportation in San Antonio. Members of the San Antonio media including the Express-News and Current participated in the summit. What made it even more successful was that questions were also fielded from the chat room on the Internet. While the number may have seemed low at 30 apparently it was more than the number that attended Trish DeBerry-Mejia's Tweet Up event held at the same time.
This was a first for San Antonio campaigns and has set a new bar for public participation in elections and city government. Unfortunately since I ended up in the role of moderator of the event I was unable to live blog the dialogue. I'm just not that good at multi-tasking (fielding questions from the table and the Internet, keeping the conversation going and trying to blog at the same time). Based on the feedback from the chat room and from others in the room it is highly probable the Castro campaign will host more of these events, possibly focused on specific themes.
During the discussion Castro was asked about how social media could be leveraged in city government and community. He talked about having online neighborhood groups that could help promote a closer connection between neighbors, echoing his idea of improving the quality of life in San Antonio as neighborhoods. Castro understands social media and launched his campaign through Facebook in December. Today the Castro campaign is active on Facebook and Twitter. He has recently started video blogging to help community ideas more clearly. The San Antonio Mayor blog provided more insight to how the event went and what was discussed.
Some may want to compare one campaign to another on social media. I think the important thing to take away from this event is that it sets a new stage for public interaction with the candidates. Hopefully the other candidates will follow suit and stage similar events. There's no corner of the market on good ideas and these type of events help bring those ideas to the table. As Castro said during the event he looks to the social media community and others to help bring new ideas to solve San Antonio's problems. He's ready to start looking to new ways to help bring those ideas forward.
