Twitter Political Campaign: Promoted Tweets And TwoSides

By Victoria Fortnum and Alexandra Huskey

Twitter & Political Campaigns

Twitter recently announced they were going to begin selling sponsored ads to candidates and political committees and their political campaign. Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue, released a statement explaining how the company believes this new idea will allow users to connect with the issues and candidates they care about.

The tweets will appear as Promoted Tweets, identified by a purple check mark. The Promoted Tweets will appear in the timeline of Twitter users who follow a certain campaign and under various search terms. Candidates and political committees will also have the option to pay to show up on search trends and as a suggested ‘Tweeter” for users to follow.

Twitter ran its first political ad on Wednesday, September 21st, from GOP presidential prospect Mitt Romney. Some political figures have already made their mark on the social networking site. Only time will tell how Twitter’s new ad campaign will affect the 2012 elections.

Comparing View Points for Politics

We have already heard how President Obama utilized Facebook for his political campaign in 2008 and still uses it to stay in contact with his followers, but a new site helps you compare the stand points of all candidates.

TwoSides is a site created to compare candidates view points in a more effective way than has been done in the past.  This site will cover not only simple issues but more button-pushing stances as well.

Not only does this website want to share the viewpoint of the candidates but also wants the views of the people viewing the site. TwoSides allows you to comment or, according to Jennifer Van Grove of Mashable, allow you to share your ideas of the subject and how you really feel about a political issue. If you agree or disagree with an idea, you may also voice your opinion and see the percentage of others that feel the same.

This site will be a great tool for the 2012 elections and allow people to learn more about issues that they may not have known prior.