Irritatingly, none of the sites that group journalist twitterers list Politico writers. I know of a few already, but I feel like those lists should be expanded.
I’m actually going to compare two Politico.com twitterers, because I feel like they each have different strengths and weaknesses.
Mike Allen tweets infrequently, but his tweets are often important, breaking news. He throws in, inexplicably, lots of links to the print edition too. Not sure who that is aimed at. Here’s a sample:
- AP: Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”5:11 AM Oct 9th from web
- For a donation, the House GOP campaign comm. offers membership on the NRCC “Physicians’ Council for Responsible Reform.” http://bit.ly/xW8R24:45 AM Oct 9th from web
- POLITICO/House ethics unanimously votes to expand investigation into Rangel’s finances to include his revised personal financial disclosures3:56 PM Oct 8th from web
- BREAKING — Senate Finance Committee vote on health care TUESDAY10:30 AM Oct 8th from web
All of Mike Allen’s tweets that I saw seemed to be published from the web. I can’t believe he doesn’t have a BlackBerry or some kind of mobile web device, so I suppose this means he just chooses not to use it.
It’s nice not to be overloaded by stupid tweets I don’t care about, but Allen really doesn’t seem to be tweeting as often as he could. Maybe getting TwitterBerry or something would help. He also rarely interacts with readers.
Allen’s collegue Jonathan Martin is his polar opposite on Twitter. A few newsy tweets are mixed in with tons of @replies and random comments. Here’s a sample:
- 4 ticks left, Tenn lining up 4 44-yrd fg 4 THE WINabout 18 hours ago from web
- If anybody not watching, put on tenn-al. tenn has ball back, down by 2 w/ just over a minute leftabout 18 hours ago from web
- @treyditto – half-smke, loaded, and strwbry shake. my go-to.about 19 hours ago from mobile web
- @jaketapper — hardly, but tis not first time i’ve heard go-go!about 21 hours ago from mobile web
- Some of the tourists at ben’s chili bowl not quite, um, ready when the go-go starts blaring.about 21 hours ago from mobile web
A few tweets ago, there was something about Bill Clinton, but the majority of tweets were about go-go music, food and a football game. He also tweets constantly, at a rate of about 2-6 an hour.
Martin has way more interaction with readers than Allen, and I think his more personal tweets would attract a different twitter audience than Allen’s. Martin is considerably less popular though, with about 4,000 followers vs. Allen’s 12,000. Since Mike Allen is more well-known, it’s hard to say if the numbers of followers each has is attributable to their different styles or simply name recognition.
