November 24th, 2008 1:07 AM

Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter And 200 "People" You Should Be Following

by Duane Lester
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Almost every Twitter related article that aims to explain the appeal of Twitter starts the same way:

When Twitter first came out, I didn’t get it. Now I do.

I hate to be trite, but it’s the same story for me. I looked at Twitter and just didn’t see a reason for it, and ignored it. Today, I find myself near addicted to the service.

What is Twitter


Twitter is an online service that allows you to enter short messages (140 characters or less) to your “followers.” You can also choose to “follow” certain users, which shows their “tweets” (the Twitter term for your messages) on your home screen.

Twitter is set up to allow you to send “tweets” from your mobile phone or from your computer. This feature allows people to tell what they are doing where ever they are, which is really great for on the spot reporting of news that hasn’t made the main stream media yet.

You can choose to make all your “tweets” private, which means no one will see your Twitter stream unless you want them to. While this can limit your followers, that might be exactly what you want.

(For a more in depth guide for beginners, you should check out CNet’s Newbie’s Guide to Twitter.)

Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter

Twitter is a great way to build online communities. For example, when the Republicans staged a protest last summer and refused to leave for summer recess, Eric Odom and a few other Twitter users were sending updates using the hashtag “#dontgo.” That hashtag allowed people to see the news relating to the dontgo movement as it was happening and morphed from a Twitter stream to an organization Michelle Malkin called “the new gathering place for conservative activism.”

Twitter helped to create this new conservative community.

Twitter is also a great way to get news as it happens. There are other great news services that send out “tweets” during the day. Fox News and Sky News are two that come to mind that send out news updates day and night. If you follow them, they will send the news directly to your computer or cell phone. I’ll have more news services listed below that you should follow.

There are also conservatives using Twitter to post news and blog posts. If you follow a right-minded Twitter user, every “tweet” they send out will be seen by your account. That means every article they choose to share, you get to see. I have learned of some interesting news this way, news I may of otherwise missed.

How to Get Started

Getting started using Twitter is simple. The service is free, so just go to Twitter and click “Join the Conversation!” The form to join is short and simple. If you use an online name on other forums or web sites, you should use it here. For example, I have always used Bodhi1 when starting a new account, so when I started my Twitter account, I used that for my name.


This way my friends from other sites could find me on Twitter. Others recommend you use your real name, so your friends can find you easier. It’s all up to you.

Following the sign up page you can find your friends already using Twitter via your e-mail accounts. After that, you are ready to start finding people to follow. Pretty simple.

Tools to Make Twitter Better

Simply using the Twitter interface on the site is boring, and honestly, not very efficient. Every time you want to send a “tweet” you have to go back to the site and type it in. However, there are plenty of tools to streamline the process. In fact, Mashable has two articles (here and here) that list 200 different Twitter tools to make the service better.

At a minimum, you should install a third party interface like Twhirl, which will update your stream and allow you to post without being on the site. Twitterbar allows me to send “tweets” from my Firefox address bar. This makes sending URLs easy. Have a Blackberrry? Use Twitterberry. Have an iPhone? Use Twitterific. You can even use that on your iPod Touch. MakeUseOf has a post that shows you 9 different ways to Use Twitter – no website necessary.

(Since I wrote this, Tweetdeck has become my favorite Twitter interface, followed closely by Seesmic.)

If you are a blogger, you can also add your blog’s RSS feed to your Twitter stream with Twitterfeed. There are quite a few conservative blogs that are doing this, which allows you to get blog updates as they happen (or soon after.) By the way, did you know Free Republic is doing this? You can get all the “Latest Articles” with one click.

There are new ways to make your Twitter experience better everyday. A great site to help you keep up with them all is Darren Rowse’s new blog, TwitTip. It’s a site dedicated to “capturing some of the lessons that I’ve been learning about Twitter and how to use it more effectively.” Great resource.

200 “People” to Follow

First of all, click here and follow me. Follow me because I am a conservative who tweets a lot and second because this list took me HOURS to complete. Show me a little love.

Here are 199 others to consider:

News Services/Journalists/Columnists

Military

  • US Marine Corps
  • US Army
  • US Air Force
  • US Coast Guard
  • uscgd13 – Coast Gaurd in the Pacific Northwest
  • My Navy, My Future – Working with the U.S. Navy to share information about the Navy experience and to answer any questions related to the Navy life
  • 648 TACC – The 618th TACC is the hub for Air Mobility Command operations worldwide.
  • USJFCOM – U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) is one of DoD’s ten combatant commands and has several key roles in transforming the U.S. military’s capabilities.
  • AMC Public Affairs – Air Mobility Command’s Public Affairs team
  • Great Americans – A video-sharing Web site that showcases the stories of men and women who serve our nation in uniform.
  • Military Updates
  • Soldiers Angels – May no soldier go unloved
  • Mail Our Military – Supporting our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard since 2001

Politicians/Government

Bloggers

Conservative Organizations

Conservatives

I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. There are many conservatives and libertarians on Twitter. Don’t think that I left you off for a reason. There are just so many, it makes the list ridiculously long. So I would love to have you add your Twitter account to the comments below and add people you follow that I didn’t list above.

Let’s use this as a tool to share the conservative message and build a stronger online conservative community.

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    comments

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      [...] If you don’t know why you should be using Twitter, check out the post that inspired #tcot, or top conservative on Twitter, “Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter and 200 ‘People’ To Follow.” [...]

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      [...] Oh, and if you are not on Twitter yet or don’t get it and don’t know how to get started, read my guide “Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter and 200 People You Should Be Following.”I [...]

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