The 42nd Estate

Yesterday we wrote about Mayor Tom Menino recently signing up for Twitter. Afterwards, we were notified by Jordan Newman, @FindingNewmo, that Sam Yoon, candidate for Mayor of the City of Boston 2009, also tweets @samyoonformayor. Sam has been tweeting since February of this year and it seems it’s actually him sending out the messages and not a ghost tweeter. I say it’s really him because his tweets are a mix of personal and political messages. They’re also not delivered in a professional Twitter style, meaning it’s mostly details of his life with political statements mixed in.

He hasn’t ReTweeted anyone and rarely @replies to anyone. He also has rarely shares links. Whereas Menino’s Twitter stream comes across as a planned professional line of communication, Yoon’s stream feels more personal and spur of the moment. Which method is better? It’s a bit too early to tell.

Here’s a sample of his tweets:

On my way to south Boston with my kids for their piano lesson. This is the one consistent thing I can do w them every week. I’m a piano dad.

We should close down the streets of Boston once a year to promote walking and cycling and mass transit. If Bogota can do it, why not Boston?

Tell me your thoughts on Boston and the budget: http://tinyurl.com/d7kbhl

All of theses tweets lead me to believe that Menino is using a ghost tweeter while Yoon is tweeting himself. These assumptions are educated guesses, but I feel they’re correct. If they are, which method is better? Should a political officer or candidate be spending time tweeting? Or is it best to delegate the task of tweeting to a trusted professional writer who can relay a summary to the politician?

We’ll keep watching the Twitter feeds for Menino and Yoon and try to find out if there are any ghost tweeters behind either account. We do not oppose the use of ghost tweeters, especially when the ghost tweets with the voice and brand of the person they are imitating. If the tweets are useful, on target and effective we feel the real person behind them is not that important.

What about you? Do you value authenticity or effectiveness on Twitter?

Tags: boston, twitter

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 11:33 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.