Changes

:Both good points, Conservative. I think the important difference is between a public figure who maintains an account on these sites and a person who wastes a lot of time doing nothing worthwhile on those same sites. For Gingrich or DeMint, a facebook or twitter page is an important publicity tool, but I doubt either of them spends much time on them  - as you say, they no doubt have a staff to help them with that kind of thing [[User:Jcw|Jcw]] 15:31, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

:Both good points, Conservative. I think the important difference is between a public figure who maintains an account on these sites and a person who wastes a lot of time doing nothing worthwhile on those same sites. For Gingrich or DeMint, a facebook or twitter page is an important publicity tool, but I doubt either of them spends much time on them  - as you say, they no doubt have a staff to help them with that kind of thing [[User:Jcw|Jcw]] 15:31, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

:::One more example, I don't agree with [[Gerald Celente]] on everything and I thought he went out on a limb in 2010 regarding a financial collapse and underestimated the degree to which the [[Federal Reserve]] can and will jury-rig the financial system through the use of short term measures that harm the long term economic health of the U.S., but nonetheless there are a lot of members of the right and left media who do have respect for the guy because he does have a great track record as far as trend forecasting. You can certainly disagree with Celente on various points, but it is hard to make the case that he is not a serious guy given his track record at trend forecasting. Celente has over 11,000 Twitter followers.[http://twitter.com/#!/geraldcelente] I do think that social media can be used to raise cash for politicians and gain publicity.  [[User:Conservative|conservative]] 16:02, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

:::One more example, I don't agree with [[Gerald Celente]] on everything and I thought he went out on a limb in 2010 regarding a financial collapse and underestimated the degree to which the [[Federal Reserve]] can and will jury-rig the financial system through the use of short term measures that harm the long term economic health of the U.S., but nonetheless there are a lot of members of the right and left media who do have respect for the guy because he does have a great track record as far as trend forecasting. You can certainly disagree with Celente on various points, but it is hard to make the case that he is not a serious guy given his track record at trend forecasting. Celente has over 11,000 Twitter followers.[http://twitter.com/#!/geraldcelente] I do think that social media can be used to raise cash for politicians and gain publicity.  [[User:Conservative|conservative]] 16:02, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

== Scott Brown and social media ==

== Scott Brown and social media ==

I have never been a big fan of the Republican politician [[Scott Brown]] in terms of all his policies.  However, he did manage to win an election and in January 0f 2010 it has reported he had over 140,000 Facebook supporters.[http://techrepublican.com/blog/facebooks-permanent-place-politics] Given the younger generations growing influence as the baby boomers age and pass on, I don't think politicians can ignore social networking websites. [[User:Conservative|conservative]] 16:07, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

I have never been a big fan of the Republican politician [[Scott Brown]] in terms of all his policies.  However, he did manage to win an election and in January 0f 2010 it has reported he had over 140,000 Facebook supporters.[http://techrepublican.com/blog/facebooks-permanent-place-politics] Given the younger generations growing influence as the baby boomers age and pass on, I don't think politicians can ignore social networking websites. [[User:Conservative|conservative]] 16:07, 5 June 2011 (EDT)