Alachua Voter Guide

I love social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. They allow me to keep up with friends and family members, as well as people I just like to follow. It’s fun, and convenient if you do it right. But is there a handy use for your business or for a candidate running for office? Barak Obama thinks so. He has had a Twitter page for his entire campaign, and he has over 34,000 followers who get his microblog messages.

Here’s how Twitter works: You get an account for free, and you can send a quick message of up to 140 characters to all of your followers. And who would follow YOU? Someone who wants to know what you are up to, and would like to be informed via the web or via their mobile phone with a text message.

Is this useful? I think it can be. For instance, I saw that County Commission candidate Rick Bryant has a Twitter account for his campaign. Well, I chose to be a Rick Bryant “follower”, and then I opted to receive his updates on my cell phone. As a result, when he got an endorsement from the Fire Rescue Professionals of Alachua County, Local 3852 on May 16, all of his followers were notified in the manner they chose. And at 9:39 PM on Memorial Day evening, I got a text message from Rick honoring the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

So far, I am only 1 of 3 followers. But if Rick Bryant wants more followers, he will have to start posting more often, and with relevant information, like where he will be speaking next. I know that I would just love to get any kind of information about where any candidate would be making an appearance! And he could send Twitter messages from his mobile phone like, Need sign wavers at 13th and University! And all his followers would get the message.

Facebook is a lot more involved, but it is just as free. Rick Bryant also has a Facebook account for his campaign. It’s like a home base for campaign photos and information, and it could be useful. But Rick will have to go about “friending” a lot of people in the Gainesville Network of Facebook users (over 33,000 last time I looked) if he wants to get his message out to those voters. Right now his Facebook only has 6 supporters, and it could run up to over 6,000 with a little effort. Would that help his campaign? Well, every time he posts a message on his page, his friends and supporters would get notified on their Facebook pages.

Now, I know it sounds like I am just pushing Rick Bryant, but I am not. It’s just that he is using the web and social networking, albeit in a very limited way, the way I wish all candidates would. I don’t want to have to wait until the week before the election and get all my information from a bunch of campaign postcards that tell me next to nothing. I’d like to be engaged early and often by the people who want my vote.

Don Marsh