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Pete Golis.
By PETE GOLIS
PRESS DEMOCRAT COLUMNIST
Here’s a campaign statistic you haven’t read before: In the 4th Supervisorial District, candidate Mike McGuire has five times as many Twitter followers as rival Debora Fudge.
I know what some are thinking: I don’t get this Twitter thing. Who cares about Twitter (or Facebook or Flickr or YouTube)?
The short answer is, whether you think social media are important may depend on your age and whether you’re comfortable with computers and smart phones. Seventy-five percent of adults 18 to 24 use online social networks, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project; only 7 percent of adults over 65 use them.
But here’s the number that best illustrates how fast communication is changing: In 2005, 8 percent of adults 18 and over used a social networking site. Today, 46 percent of adults use one or more social networking sites.
Barack Obama demonstrated the power of social media to build a political movement (and John McCain didn’t). Two years later, this will be remembered as the year that social networking — Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube videos and the rest — came to Sonoma County politics.
Will Internet tools be decisive? Not by themselves. It still matters which candidate raises the most money, knocks on the most doors and makes the best presentation of winning ideas.
From now on, however, online networks will be essential tools in hometown politics.
In the 4th District, Fudge and McGuire tweet almost every day and maintain Facebook pages that regularly provide news updates, links and photos designed to keep their supporters engaged.
So do candidates David Rabbitt and Pam Torliatt in the 2nd Supervisorial District. (In the same district, candidate Mike Healy says he is running for office “the old-fashioned way,” and candidate John King has a Twitter page, but the last post is dated Dec. 12.)
District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua and challenger Jill Ravitch also maintain active Twitter and Facebook networks.
Four of five county supervisors — Valerie Brown, Shirlee Zane, Efren Carrillo and Paul Kelley — now tweet almost every day, as do Assemblywoman and state Senate candidate Noreen Evans and Assembly candidate Michael Allen, among others.
But it’s McGuire who put down the mark for others. More than 500 people follow his daily comments on Twitter. More than 3,000 people are “friends” on his campaign’s Facebook page. It’s probably no coincidence that McGuire is 30 years old.
Imagine you are a candidate, or an elected official, and you now have the capacity to communicate directly with a few hundred or a few thousand people anytime you like. You don’t need a phone bank, or a newspaper story, or a mailer. You just do it. There’s tremendous power in that.
In the year of social media, journalism has changed as well.
Twitter feeds and other comments are now being aggregated at a new Press Democrat Web site, watchsonomacounty.com, which is designed to be a meeting place for people who want the latest on the 2010 campaign.
And then there is the newest person on the block — the anonymous Twitter feed called SRPolitics. It was SRPolitics that first reported that Kelley applied to become chief of the Sonoma County Water Agency. Kelley didn’t get the job, but it was a report that he never denied.
On its home page, SRPolitics is described as “Fun gossip, good intel and a few rumors … from a girl in the know. ;-)”
From time to time, other tweeters have tried to figure out the identity of SRPolitics. But so far, she remains a mystery.
Last week she even reported dining with friends who speculated about who SRPolitics might be. “Happens often!” she tweeted. “Usual names floated …”
If this sounds like inside baseball, it’s because it is. For now, many of these local networks remain places where activists, the faithful and other wonks talk to each other. At last look, SRPolitics had 401 followers.
The candidates tend to use their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages for sharing updates about their activities, promoting events and touting endorsements.
Elected officials sometimes break news, as when Zane explained her vote against a new management position in Child Support Services, or Brown reported on a meeting she was attending in Washington, or Kelley previewed a major discussion on that day’s board agenda.
Some tweets can be personal and political, as when Carrillo praised the food at a restaurant that just happens to be located in his district.
Are some of these tweets, uh, less riveting than others? Are they sometimes nothing more than 140 characters of propaganda and promotion?
Absolutely. The people who sign up (or don’t sign up) for these Facebook connections and Twitter feeds decide for themselves whether the information is important.
For the uninitiated, it isn’t easy to describe how all this works. On Twitter alone, you can subscribe to regular reports from your favorite Web site, newspaper, business, government agency or political analyst. You can learn what a friend thinks about the iPad, what’s showing at a local museum, what road will be closed for repairs or the price of today’s sandwich special at Traverso’s.
It’s a big world out there, and the challenge, always, is to make choices about where you want to be engaged.
For now, it’s all a work in progress — trying to find out what works and what doesn’t, what has staying power and what will disappear.
BTW, if you happen to know what social medium people will be using a decade from now, you can make plans to buy that second home at the lake.
Note: On my blog — http://golis.blogs.pressdemocrat.com — I’ll post links to some of the most prominent local sites. If you think I’ve missed any, send me an e-mail and I’ll add them to the list.
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Larae Meadows and SRPolitics are the same person, but Larae Meadows is also a pseudonym.
The Press Democrat is not news and neither is Fox News. Fox News is an entertainment model, essentially talk radio on television. Their ratings are better than all their competitors combined and some shows even higher than network entertainment and news. They are highly profitable.
If the Press Democrat followed a Fox News model they’d be popular, profitable, and influential. As is, the Press Democrat’s politics are left. If they switched right — circulation would soar and advertisers would flock to jump on the bandwagon.
The Press Democrat could be relevant. As is, the Press Democrat is a lightweight newspaper with little of interest and the left bias is just not interesting. I know it’s impossible. The Press Democrat’s talent pool probably can’t rise to become entertaining personalities. Mr. Golis is not an entertaining personality.
Let’s see a Press Democrat article criticizing the union benefits of their reporters. Why do they get paid at the same rate as the SF Chronicle? Let’s have guest opinions driving that point into the dirt they way they are reporting on police and fire pensions.
Karla: Did you REALLY just attack the reporting of the Press Democrat and in the same post suggest they be more like FOX NEWS?
Now that Codding and Jimmie Rogers are dead, who will be the new political boogeyman? A woman who knows how to use the new media?
The Press Democrat could become highly profitable and influential if it it’s politics shifted from left to right.
After all, the Press Democrat as it is now incarnated is a lightweight newspaper. There really is nothing to distinguish it in Sonoma County. The reporting is less than mediocre. I can’t imagine advertisers can hold out much longer.
However, imagine if the Press Democrat became controversial and actually disagreed with the liberal party line? What if they became the Fox News of Sonoma County?
Their circulation would soar and their advertising revenue would swell and (gasp) the newspaper could become profitable.
Any lawyer is supposed to be able to argue for either side of any issue. Are the journalists of the Press Democrat unable to do the same? If the Press Democrat became personality driven instead of the dull, boring, monotonous, banal typical and disposable newspaper it is now, it might survive the digital age.
Ms. anonymous knows what she is doing and the editorial board of the Press Democrat could learn a lesson or two from her rather than try an “out” her. Such tactics are the old left wing methods Mr. Golis. Have your learned nothing from the Father/Mother computer?
While I appreciate the use of Twitter and FB for political campaign work and organizing..there is such as thing as overtweeting….do we really need to know what candidates for city council are eating for Easter…or if Clover milk is being sold nearby?…there is a balance that some haven’t achieved yet…..
All you have to do is read the post on SRpolitics for the day that the new CAO started to know that SRpolitics does not work in our office…it isn’t Diaz!
You are willing to try and “out” and anonymous political do-gooder who wants to maintain anonymity but you aren’t even willing to put you full name? Doesn’t really matter since you guessed wrong… :)
@srpolitics is Jessica Diaz, staff assistant to Shirlee Zane.
Pete: I will pay $100 to the charity of the person’s choice if that person correctly guesses who SRPolitics is. Offer expires on Tax Day. Guesses must be listed here as comments on this story. Good luck, gang.
Social networking sites are great communication tools and a smart way for politicians to stay in touch. I’m a Facebook user. I did it first to keep in touch with my Marine Corps grandson. Now I use it to post family photos and keep in touch with friends and family near and far. The secret to using these sites is to never post anything that you wouldn’t want to share with everyone. Your comments are right on. Politicians who don’t take advantage of these sites are missing a great (and FREE) opportunity to reach out to voters. Why would they shun the opportunity?