White House "all a-Twitter" for jobs & economy event...#AskObama questions now...and a list of White House Twitter accounts...UPDATE: Click here for a post about the event.
President Obama will hold the first-ever Twitter Town Hall at the White House on Wednesday, July 6th. During an East Room event at 2:00 PM ET, the President will answer 140-character questions on jobs and the economy, which will be livestreamed at askobama.twitter.com. Thirty Twitter users have been invited to the White House to join the President, and Twitter co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey (@Jack) will be on hand to serve as moderator. (Above: The White House logo promoting the event)
A special Twitter acco
unt has been created: @TownHall. Users can submit questions with the hashtag #AskObama. The White House has held Town Halls on Facebook and YouTube, but they're looking to engage with a different audience through Twitter, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer and Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips told reporters today during a phone briefing about the event. (Above: A cropped version of the photo being used to promote the event)"If you're going to communicate with the public, it's no longer sufficient to do it through the mainstream media," Pfeiffer said, pointing out that many people use smart phones and mobile technology as their first source for information, and adding that print media, such as newspapers, have as much as a week's lag time for response.
Questions selected by Dorsey...
The White House, Pfeiffer said, hopes that the Twitter Town Hall will give good, "real-time" insight into the "national conversation" citizens are having about America's economic situation. Having Twitter run the Town Hall also provides "a little bit of separation from the White House," he said, which in theory allows for an honest snapshot of citizens' opinions and concerns. Decisions about what questions the President actually gets asked will be up to Dorsey, and thousands have already been submitted. Questions will be taken throughout the event, and can be submitted now. The White House website will also carry a livestream at wh.gov/live.
Information caching...
Twitter is partnering with Mass Relevance to identify themes and regions that drive the conversation, while Twitter search algorithms will identify the most "popular" tweets based on re-tweets, favorites, and replies. Twitter users' public profile information will be used, and Twitter will give their data to the White House and release it publicly. Pfeiffer and Phillips declined to comment on whether the Obama re-election campaign will be utilizing the data and information that is collected.
Pfeiffer said that White House officials regularly use Twitter to engage with citizens, and pointed to Press Secretary Jay Carney (@Presssec) as an example. But Carney is not an active Twitter user: Between May 6 and June 21, Carney posted no tweets at all. Between June 21 and today, he's tweeted just three messages. See below for a full list of White House accounts.
The thirty Twitter users selected to join the President in the East Room are all following the White House Twitter account, @WhiteHouse, Pfeiffer said. They have paid their own way to travel to Washington, DC, if they are from outside the District, he noted.
For those looking to bash the President's economic approach with colorful language on Twitter, be forewarned: The Twitter Town Hall will be archived under the Presidential Records Act. In 2009, Phillips wrote a post on the White House blog about what goes on with President Obama, social media, and the Presidential Records Act. The post is from 2009, but all info still holds true today.
An ObFo post about the President's Facebook Town Hall in April is here. It took place at the Silicon Valley headquarters, and also focused on jobs and the economy. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg served as moderator.
White House Twitter accounts...
President Obama's official twitter is @BarackObama, but aides do the tweeting. Just before Father's Day, the White House announced that the President will occasionally be doing his own tweets, and these will be signed -BO. Sure enough, on Father's Day, a greeting was tweeted, and signed -BO. The account has 8,958,616 followers.
On Monday, July 4th, the White House launched a new Twitter account from the office of Vice President Joe Biden; it's @VP. The first tweet, an Independence Day greeting, was sent out. The account yesterday had 145 followers; today it has jumped to 16,114 followers.
There's also @WhiteHouse, which aggregates tweets from all the accounts listed here, and has tweets from aides. The account has 2,238,429 followers.
First Lady Michelle Obama doesn't have a dedicated Twitter account, nor does anyone else on her East Wing staff of 22. But there is a Twitter account for each of Mrs. Obama's national campaigns, which have messages tweeted by aides: @LetsMove, with 9,162 followers, and @JoiningForces, with 2,573 followers.
Press Secretary Jay Carney took over @PressSec from former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The account has 207,155 followers. Gibbs was an active tweeter.
Pete Souza is Chief Official White House Photographer and Director of the White House Photography Office, and he is @petesouza. Souza's excellent behind-the-scenes photos frequently appear here on Obama Foodorama. Souza has 16,656 followers.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer is @Pfeiffer44. He has 14,036 followers.
White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips is @macon44. He has 9,122 followers.
Jesse Lee, the Director of Progressive Media & Online Response is @jesseclee44. He has 2,678 followers.
And of course Obama Foodorama is on twitter: @ObamaFoodorama. Tweets are from founding editor Eddie Gehman Kohan. The account has 11,592 followers.
*Photo by Pete Souza/White House
