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Twitter CEO calls 2012 the year of the 'Twitter election'
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo thinks if candidates don’t tweet, they’re going to get left behind in the new digital age of microblogging. He pointed in particular to presidential candidates when asked about Twitter in politics at the “D: Dive Into Media” conference in California Monday evening.
“2012 is going to be the Twitter election,” he said, according to Tech Crunch. “Candidates who don’t participate on Twitter while the debates are going on will be left behind because the next morning is too late to respond.”
Mitt Romney’s Twitter account, @MittRomney, has been known to tweet the odd hand-held video and occasional photos of the candidate eating Subway sandwiches or boarding a Southwest airplane. Newt Gingrich, @NewtGingrich, typically tweets videos, policy statements and the location of his campaign events, similar to Rick Santorum, @RickSantorum.
On Monday, Santorum used Twitter to thank Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Romney “and the many others who prayed for Bella's recovery” during the health crisis of Santorum’s baby daughter Bella, which briefly took him off the campaign trail.
Although Ron Paul’s grassroots fans tend to be social media enthusiasts, the candidate uses Twitter infrequently. This month, he notably used Twitter to reveal that his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), was “detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville.” The issue subsequently became a statement by the campaign condemning the Transportation Security Administration.
Independent and struggling candidates tend to use Twitter more aggressively in their campaign outreach. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, @GovGaryJohnson, and Republican Buddy Roemer, @BuddyRoemer, are prolific tweeters, as was Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) before he dropped his GOP bid for the White House in September. McCotter would often tweet his alternative activities during GOP debates when he was not invited to participate.
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