During the last campaign cycle Indiana politicians were seen to be using a little bit of social media, a blog here and there, and I think a few of them even played around with twitter. Over the last month I've noticed that a few more have migrated to twitter, so I went on a hunt this morning for twitter profiles for politicians. If you have more that I've missed, please submit in comments and I'll update.
- Governor Mitch Daniels
- Lt. Governor Becky Skillman
- Secretary of State Todd Rokita
- Attorney General Greg Zoeller
- Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett
- US Representative Mike Pence
- US Representative Dan Burton actually two Dan Burton - not sure which is official one
- US Senator Richard Lugar
- US Senator Evan Bayh - can't verify authenticity yet, and hasn't been updated since August
- Indianapolis Mayor Ballard - mostly third person, probably staffer
- State Representative Jackie Walorski
- Mayor of Valparaiso Jon Costas
- Fort Wayne City Councilman Mitch Harper
- Whitley County County Councilman Jim Banks
- Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold
I'll do a separate post on party officials on twitter, yes both parties.
Alright Indiana tweeps, I'm sure I am missing some, or maybe this post will get some of the existing political crop to at least hold their own names so squatters don't grab them.
Many politicians start out assigning their social media work to a staffer, and although this may work on facebook and blogs, twitter really demands a little bit of personality. Staffer generated tweets are pretty quickly dismissed as broadcast media and not worth engaging. A word of recommendation, if you are an elected official at any level in Indiana and see the potential to engage your constituents on twitter, do so yourself. Even one personal tweet a day and you'll be amazed the following.
You may think you're busy, but last I checked Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove are both personally tweeting from their blackberries, you aren't more busy than they are.
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