The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism

THE DIGIACTIVE GUIDE TO TWITTER
FOR ACTIVISM

by

Andreas Jungherr

DigiActive
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License
Version 1.0 | April 2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………………………….………..4

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………5

What is Twitter?.........................................................................................................................5

Twitter in the Real World………………...……………………………………………………………………………………6

Use 1: Spreading the Word…………………………………………..………………………………………………7
The Case of Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination (Pakistan)

Use 2: Social Media Campaigning………………………………………..……………………………………….8
The Cases of Twitter Vote Report & the Campaign vs. Motrin (USA)

Use 3: Coordinating Collective Action.….………………..……………………………………………………9
The Case of the San Diego Fires (USA)

Use 4: Crowdsourcing………………………………………..……………………………………………………….10
The Case of Le Meur’s Twitter Search Engine (France)

Use 5: Personal Security…………………………..…………………………………………………………………11
The Case of the Twittered Arrest (Egypt)

Steps to Organizing an Activism Campaign with Twitter…………………………….……………………….12

Advice for Your Twitter Campaign……………….………………………………………….………………………….14

Applications that Help You Use Twitter……………………………………………………………………………….16

Microblogging Alternatives to Twitter…………………………………………………………………………………18
What to Do with this Guide if You Don’t Live in the USA, Canada, the UK, or India

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….………………………………….19

Further Reading…………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………….20

About ………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………….………….20

Sources……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….21

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This short guide is based on a paper presented in November 2008 at the conference "Social Web:
Towards Networked Protest Politics?" organized by the University of Siegen, Germany. I want to
thank the organizers of this conference Sigrid Baringhorst, Veronika Kneip, Annegret März and
Johanna Niesyto for the invitation and the opportunity to formulate in writing my thoughts on the
uses of Twitter for political activists. I also want to thank Patrick Meier who encouraged me to write
a practical introduction to Twitter for activists on the basis of this paper and provided valuable
feedback during the writing.

Furthermore I want to thank Pascal Jürgens and Benjamin Heitmann, who in August 2007 discovered
Twitter and convinced me to start microblogging. Since then our discussions have been the source of
many conjectures on social media and quite a few of the arguments formulated here survived their
first test runs in these discussions.

Also I am indebted to Jon Pincus who commented on an earlier version of the original paper and
suggested some improvements. Joe Solomon pitched in at the last minute and gave vital feedback.
Mary Joyce coordinated the process and ensured that the guide did not lose its focus on the practical
applicability of microblogging for political activists. I also want to thank Dan Schultz who helped me
get this guide in the DigiActive spirit and moved it smoothly through the editing process. Needless to
say, this guide would not be the same without his help.

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INTRODUCTION

During late 2007 and early 2008 a new social media service emerged amid great hype from
marketers and social media enthusiasts. Twitter (http://twitter.com) has since been adopted by
activist groups around the world. If you have heard about this “Twitter thing”, but you do not yet
know how and if Twitter relates to you or your organization, please read on. This short guide
provides an introduction to Twitter, offers some advice on best practices, and draws on five case
studies to demonstrate possible uses of Twitter for political activists.

WHAT IS TWITTER?

Twitter is a microblogging service that enables its users to publish short messages, up to 140
characters in length, on a personalized news feed. Users can update their feed directly through the
Twitter web site, or they can use various desktop and mobile applications, including SMS messaging.

These news feeds can be accessed directly through a member's web page, but Twitter also allows
users to receive updates on a mobile or desktop application of their choosing. This syndication
process is called “following”. If a user “follows” the Twitter feed of another user, she receives that
person’s updates through her Twitter web page, desktop or mobile applications and, if she is a
resident of the USA, Canada, or India, via SMS. In the age of smart phones and localized services this
immediate distribution of personalized news is very powerful.

There is also a community aspect to the use of Twitter. Each Twitter feed provides a list of the feed
owner’s followers and followees. This enables users to easily find other Twitterers who share their
interests. Since these lists are naturally formed based on people’s interests, they provide quick
sketches of the communities surrounding Twitter feeds.

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TWITTER IN THE REAL WORLD

Originally Twitter messages where designed to answer the simple question “What are you doing?”
This provided a communication short cut between friends to keep each other updated on the
different goings-on in their lives.

This is still one very important aspect of the service, and helps explain some of the success of Twitter
and its spread. But, like any piece of software, users are taking the tool in new and unexpected
directions. Twitter has increasingly been used for different purposes, purposes for which Twitter was
not explicitly designed, but which users chose to pursue via Twitter because of some of the
characteristics of the service.

The following examples demonstrate five different uses of Twitter, which illustrate the potential that
the use of Twitter holds for political activists.

TWITTER TERMS

Tweet A Twitter message of up to 140 characters in length.

Twitter Feed A news-feed of Twitter messages by a respective user.

Twitterer A person who uses Twitter.

Following If you subscribe to another user’s Twitter feed you are “following” her messages.

Followers The users who decided to subscribe to your Twitter feed.

Hashtags If the symbol # (a “hash”) directly precedes terms in a Tweet, the term becomes a
keyword (or “tag”). Hashtags are searchable and have become one of the most useful
features on Twitter. They help you to put your messages in a larger context and enable
other users interested in a specific topic or keyword to find all the relevant feeds. For a
more extensive discussion of the uses of hashtags for progressives see Scola 2009 and
Pincus 2009.

News Feed A news feed is a collection of new messages. It shows new messages in chronological
order. News Feeds are typically distributed through RSS (really simple syndication) and
through a dedicated web page.

Twitterverse The realm of Tweets and Twitterers. It is comparable to the blogosphere, but in 140
characters.

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USE 1: SPREADING THE WORD
The Case of Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination (Pakistan)

Right now, one of the biggest challenges for political activists is getting news out on events that are
relevant for their cause but not yet on the radar of the traditional media. Often traditional media
outlets are not interested in the stories activists wish to promote. Through Twitter, activists have a
new channel to spread news around the world, even while events are still unfolding.

In December 2007, Benazir Bhutto, then leader of the Pakistani opposition party Pakistan People’s
Party was killed in an attack during a political rally (BBC News 2007). For the first time, the news
coverage on established media was not only accompanied through news coverage on blogs, but also
on Twitter feeds. Local Twitterers, like Dr. Awab Alvi (@teeth) or social media consultant Dina Mehta
(@dina, Mehta 2007) started to monitor local and international media outlets and posted their
observations and comments on their personal Twitter feeds and blogs. Prominent Twitterers like
Dave Winer (@davewiner), Laura Finton (@pistachio) and Dennis Howlett (@dahowlett) also started
to post snippets of different news sources to their respective Twitter feeds. From then on the
Twitterverse was abuzz with discussion on the events in Rawalpindi and their possible repercussions
(Howlett 2008).

The reason for the immediacy and intensity of this discussion lies in the nature of Twitter and of
microblogging in general. Since Twitter is a tool mainly used to receive personal updates by a
community of interest, news hits faster.

Another example of Twitter being used for blazing-fast information distribution is the coverage of the
attacks in Mumbai, India in late November 2008 (Caulfield 2008) and the protests in Moldova in April
2009 (Morozov 2009).

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USE 2: SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNING 1
The Cases of Twitter Vote Report & the Campaign Vs. Motrin (USA)

Attracting the attention of traditional media outlets remains a consistent problem for activists and
NGOs. When the media is ignoring your story, how do you put pressure on companies or
governments? In the recent past some groups have used Twitter successfully to achieve this end and
thus furthered their causes.

The Twitter Vote Report, an effort where a non-partisan, all-volunteer network used Twitter to
monitor the voting process during the US presidential election in 2008, is a great example of this. In
reaction to an initial blog post by Nancy Scola and Allison Fine about the possibility to use Twitter
and hashtags to report possible local irregularities in the voting process (Scola 2008a) a network of
developers and volunteers created the technological basis to collect and store Tweets with certain
hashtags during voting day. This became the Twitter Vote Report (Scola 2008). Their efforts were
widely covered in the news, thereby drawing attention to the issue of fair and equal voting
procedures everywhere through their innovative use of technology.2

Another great example is the perfect storm that the Motrin corporation faced on Twitter after they
created a viral ad in which they portrayed the practice of “baby wearing,” carrying babies or small
children in a sling in front of the body, in a patronizing and inaccurate manner. Shortly thereafter
baby-carrying parents started to protest this ad on their blogs and on Twitter (Fitton 2008). The
protests on Twitter and on blogs led the company to retract the ad and publicly apologize. Jeremiah
Owyang gives a detailed analysis of the Motrin incident and its backlash on his blog (Owyang 2008
b).3

Twitter has become a valuable tool in the interplay of different social media platforms. To
incorporate it in your social media strategy might prove beneficial. But Twitter is not to be used as an
isolated channel. Its real power lies in the combination of this service with more established social
media channels like YouTube, Facebook or blogs.

1 Jon Pincus suggested this section to me in a short e-mail exchange in reaction to my original paper.

2 For a list of press reactions to the Twitter Vote Report , see Twitter Vote Report 2008.

3 Both examples courtesy of Jon Pincus.

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USE 3: COORDINATING COLLECTIVE ACTION
The Case of the San Diego Fires (USA)

Any organizer knows how difficult it is to coordinate collective action even as new events unfold.
Who has to do what and where? What is happening and how does it change the plan? The use of
Twitter provides an interesting solution to this problem.

In October 2007, San Diego fell victim to disastrous wildfires. Since residential areas were in danger,
San Diego citizens depended on real time news coverage on the ever-changing location of the fires
and rescue procedures. The established media outlets could not satisfy this urgent need for current
information, so two residents, Nate Ritter (@nateritter) and Dan Tentler (@viss) started to post real-
time updates with information on the fires and rescue proceedings to their personal Twitter feeds.
On their feeds they aggregated news from the official media outlets and information gathered by
neighbors and friends who monitored the developments on the street. Through this their Twitter
feeds became an information backbone to the community (Poulsen: 2007).

Political activists can use Twitter as a source for swarm intelligence (Arquilla 2000) and as a tool to
coordinate collective action. Testament for the necessity of tools like Twitter for the coordination of
volunteers is the following comment by the LA Fire Department on the need to integrate Web 2.0
services into their strategy: “We can no longer afford to work at the speed of government. We have
responsibilities to the public to move the information as quickly as possible… so that they can make
key decisions” (Chitosca 2007).4

4 Citation courtesy of Patrick Meier.

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USE 4: CROWDSOURCING
The Case of Le Meur's Twitter Search Engine (France)

Quite a lot of ink has been spilled on the crowdsourcing potential of social media (see for example
Tapscott 2006). Crowdsourcing hopes to find solutions to existing problems by opening them up to a
crowd of interested volunteers who offer their expertise and opinions. For this end Twitter has
proven to be a useful tool.

On the 27th of December 2008 the French A-List blogger and entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur started to
think out loud on his blog about the possibility of introducing some kind of authority metric in
searches of Twitter content (Le Meur 2008 a). This quickly led to an extensive discussion in the
comment section of his original blog post and on Twitter. Other bloggers responded on their
respective blogs and Twitter feeds to Le Meur’s thoughts (see for example Arrington 2008). Less than
12 hours later Joss Wheatley, a reader of Le Meur’s original post built the prototype of a Twitter
search engine that incorporated Le Meur’s thoughts (Le Meur 2008 b).

Although this project has already met with severe criticism (see example of Jarvis 2008), it shows the
potential of Twitter to unleash the expertise of the crowd. In 12 short hours a problem was raised
and discussed in the Twitterverse and the blogosphere, a prototype was built and the resulting
solutions intensively reviewed and evaluated by a self-selected community of interest. To the
contributors no other incentive was necessary than to be seen as a valuable part of their community.

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USE 5: PERSONAL SECURITY
The Case of the Twittered Arrests (Egypt)

It remains a constant challenge for activists to remain informed about the state of their community.
Especially political activists in suppressive regimes face constant danger. Therefore it is vital for a
local group of activists to be able to communicate their present status regularly to their fellow group
members. Twitter proves to be a powerful tool for a group of people to track each other remotely.

During anti-government protests in Egypt in April 2008, the Egyptian police arrested the American
journalism student James Karl Buck and his translator Mohammed Maree. Still on the way to the
police station, Buck managed to use his cell phone and send an SMS. With this SMS he updated his
personal Twitter feed with just one word "Arrested". Friends and colleagues of James Karl Buck
monitored his Twitter feed and could secure his release from an Egyptian jail in a matter of hours,
although they were miles away (Simon 2008). In April of 2009, the visual activist Wael Abbas also
Twittered his arrest but in greater detail, continuing to Tweet while in custody (@waelabbas).
Political activists can use Twitter to monitor one another without having to be in the area. This
increases the security of political activists considerably.

HOW TO SPEAK TWITTER-ISH

Although Twitter is a relatively new platform, a series of conventions have emerged. They provide a basic
structure to send messages via Twitter and enable users to explore the Twitterverse on the basis of
keywords and topics.

@ If one openly addresses or openly replies to another Twitterer one posts her username proceed by a
“@”, for example: @DigiActive

d If one sends a private message to another Twitterer one starts a message with “d” followed by the
respective username, for example: d DigiActive

# If one wants to tag a message with a keyword one proceeds the keyword by a “#”, for example:
#twitter_for_activists

RT Abbreviation for “re-tweet”. If one reads an interesting message by another user and wants to spread
it to one‘s followers the cited message is proceeded by “RT @” and the username of the user who authored
the message, for example: RT @DigiActive

H/T Abbreviation for “hat tip.” If one wants to credit another Twitterer for a thought or a reference the
Tweet is proceeded by “H/T @” and the username of the respective user, for example: H/T @DigiActive

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STEPS TO ORGANIZING AN ACTIVISM CAMPAIGN WITH TWITTER

STEP 1: UNDERSTAND YOU INTENTIONS

Before you start Twittering you need to be clear about your aims. What do you expect from your
Twitter activities? Do you use Twitter to get your message out, increase your area of influence, keep
an existing community informed or to organize collective action? Each of these aims has
consequences for your use of Twitter. There is no right or wrong way to Twitter. The only way to
evaluate your efforts in the Twitterverse is to be clear about your purpose before you start.

STEP 2: CREATE A TWITTER FEED AND START FOLLOWING

There is no better way to learn about Twitter than by twittering, so go to http://twitter.com and join.
To get a feeling of how others are using Twitter, start following interesting people and groups. Why
don’t you start with these good folks:

DigiActive: @DigiActive http://twitter.com/digiactive

Dina Mehta: @dina http://twitter.com/dina

Ethan Zuckerman: @EthanZ http://twitter.com/EthanZ

Howard Rheingold: @hrheingold http://twitter.com/hrheingold

Danah Boyd: @zephoria http://twitter.com/zephoria

STEP 3: START TWEETING

Overcome the horror of the empty page. It‘s time for your first Tweet. What will it be? What are you
reading? What will you be doing? These are all valid questions with great answers. Your choice. What
makes for a good Tweet? There is no general answer to that. First, you want to show some
personality. So if you like to cook, Twitter about cooking. Read a good book lately? Twitter it. On the
other hand, if you maintain a Twitter feed for professional reasons, try to add value to your
followers. Have you come across an article that might be interesting to your followers, Tweet the
link. Have you found another Twitterer they might be interested in? Make your followers aware of
her. What is the right mix between personality and information? That point is different for anyone
and every community. Without Twittering yourself you won‘t find the right style, so Twitter.

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STEP 4: CONSOLIDATE YOUR TWEETS ON YOUR EXTERNAL WEBSITE

The great thing about Twitter is that you can push your Tweets to different systems. You can use
them to update your Facebook status message or you can automatically post them to your blog.
Spend a little time on this by figuring out if and how you want to link your Twitter feed to other parts
of your web presence. If you are working with a group of activists, ask if other members of your
group use Twitter and consolidate their Twitter feeds on your group website. Think about it. Play.

STEP 5: CONNECT WITH OTHER ACTIVISTS ON TWITTER

Soon, you will find other activists who are using Twitter. Contact them, follow them, and @ them for
tips or advice.

STEP 6: START ACCOMPANYING REAL-LIFE ACTIVISM WITH ACTIVE TWITTERING

Cover your real-life activism activities on Twitter. Use # keywords extensively, so others who are
interested in the same causes as you will find you and maybe follow your feed.

STEP 7: USE TWITTER TO GET THE NEWS OUT

Use Twitter to distribute news about your activities. Do you have a new blog post or a new
publication? Do you have an event date? Use Twitter to get the news out to your community of
interest.

STEP 8: KEEP AT IT AND KEEP LEARNING

Nothing happens all at once. Keep at it, keep learning. You will probably not see any revolutionary
changes in the beginning. Set goals for your activity on Twitter. How many people do you want to
reach? How many of your followers do you want to engage in a conversation? How many people do
you want to activate through Twitter for events? Use these goals to evaluate the use of Twitter for
you and adjust your activities accordingly.

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ADVICE FOR YOUR TWITTER CAMPAIGN

Do follow interesting people from the start. Maybe drop them an @ message in the beginning telling
them how you found them, and why you are following them. This will get your conversation started
and you will learn how to use Twitter while engaging with people who were there before you.

Don‘t follow people indiscriminately. If you cannot engage with the people you are following, Twitter
becomes an ordinary and very short RSS feed. If you follow someone, follow them because you are
interested in the things they do and you want to read about it, not because you are collecting people
like stamps or butterflies. If you are not interested in the people you are following, it will show and
your Twitter persona will lose credibility and your cause along with it.

Do write engaging messages about the things you do or hear. Drop a message if you read something
interesting. Use the Re-Tweeting convention if another user’s message caught your eye and you
want others to know about it. This will enable your followers to connect with other members of your
community of interest. Chances are most of them don’t know each other. Use you Twitter feed to
share the wealth and shed some light on other interesting folks.

Don‘t use Twitter simply as an automatic news feed to your blog. It is tempting to use Twitter as a
simple “push” medium. Although you could use it only to send messages about new content on your
blog or ask people to participate in an event, this will not help your feed. Twitter is not a news feed.
Twitter is a conversation tool. Keep it personal. Give your feed a voice. Don‘t just write when you
want something from your followers. Be there for them. Ask them what they expect following your
feed. Try to engage them in an open conversation.

Do keep Tweeting. Tweet often. You will not be great at Twitter, not at first anyhow. So keep at it. A
guide can only go so far. You have to learn what works for you and your followers. You will only find
your way to Twitter if you take a few wrong turns. So keep learning while Tweeting.

Don‘t allow for long gaps of inactivity. Twitter is to be used often and it works best as a semi-
constant stream of messages. For the occasional deep insight use your blog. With Twitter, the signal
lies not in the occasional Tweet, it lies in the stream.

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Do be very careful with automation. There are quite a few scripts out there that promise to
automate various functions of your Twitter feed. This includes, for example, the automatic following
of Twitterers who follow your Twitter feed or the automated following of Twitterers who use certain,
predefined keywords. This might seem to be a simple way to keep routine tasks away from you and
free you for the bigger and better stuff but it can be negative. By frequently turning to automated
solutions you might lose the personal touch - the most important appeal of a Twitter feed. What
appears to save you time can actually lead you to alienating your audience.5

Don‘t automatically send direct messages. No matter how you decide on other automated scripts,
this advice bears repeating: do not automatically send direct message. A direct message is a personal
notice to someone. If you automatically send direct messages to all your followers you are abusing
this function of the service, and they won’t be happy about it. Don’t fall in the trap of the marketing-
hypsters and pyramid-business-model-schemers and forego the temptation to spam your audience.
Trust me, it’s just not worth it!

5 Thanks goes to Joe Solomon for bringing the issue of automation to my attention.

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APPLICATIONS THAT HELP YOU USE TWITTER 6

When you start out using Twitter you will probably follow only a small group of Twitterers, so
keeping track of their Tweets will pose no great challenge to you. Maybe you even will be able to
keep track of them using the Twitter web interface. With an increasing number of Twitterers you
might find this approach will soon reach its limits. Luckily there are a number of desktop applications
for various platforms and operating systems. In this section we introduce you to the most commonly
used desktop applications for PC and Mac.

twhirl twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/) is a desktop application that displays new Tweets on
your desktop as they are published. thwirl also allows you to post messages from the
application to your Twitter feed. This application runs on Adobe Air and can
therefore be used on both PC and Mac.

Pros: twhirl can access your profiles on different microblogging and social media
services. This makes it a great one-stop application for all your relevant updates.
twhirl enables you to save Twitter searches by regularly updating new messages in
your fields of interest.

Cons: Since twhirl runs on Adobe Air it can be resource intensive. Also, its simple
stream-based visualization of new messages soon reaches its limits when you are
following a large number of Twitterers.

Twitterific Twitterific (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific) is a neat little desktop
application for Mac. Like twhirl it allows you to receive and post Twitter messages
from your desktop.

Pros: Twitterific has a clear no-nonsense layout. Since it does not run on Adobe Air,
Twitterific it is quite resource effective. If you follow only a few people and you have
to watch your memory resources, this is the way to go.

Cons: The only free version of this application injects advertisements in the Tweets
you receive. For an advertisement-free version of the application you have to pay.
Also, like twhirl, its stream-based visualization of new messages soon becomes
irksome if you follow many Twitterers.

TweetDeck When you are starting to use Twitter at scale and the number of Twitterers keeps
increasing you need more sophisticated applications to help you keep abreast of the
constant stream of incoming Tweets. TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/)

6 Joe Solomon suggested this section in his feedback to a preliminary version of this guide.

16

is a desktop application that helps you do just that. Like twhirl, TweetDeck runs on
Adobe Air. Therefore it can also be used on PCs and Macs.

The difference from twhirl is that it allows you to collect Twitterers in groups whose
Tweets are then displayed on your desktop in separate message streams. This is
especially valuable if you follow Twitterers for different reasons. With this feature
you can easily scan for new Tweets for different topics and various categories. For
more tips on how to configure TweetDeck for High Volume Twittering read for
example how one of the Twitter wizards, Chris Brogan, is using TweetDeck (Brogan
2008)7.

Pros: TweetDeck has a clear layout that enables you very easily to browse your
Tweets of interest. It is free and platform independent.

Cons: TweetDeck runs on Adobe Air and is therefore quite resource intensive. It also
requires a lot of screen real estate.

EventBox EventBox (http://thecosmicmachine.com), like TweetDeck, is a desktop application
that helps you cut through the clutter and lets you focus on the really relevant
Tweets. EventBox is a Mac application that allows you to display new messages on a
collection of your social media profiles. The application lets you define smart groups
that enable you to group Twitterers for contexts or topics. EventBox also allows you
to stay informed about the new messages of Twitterers whom you don’t have to
follow. This is called “profile peak.” EventBox also lets you define searches for
hashtags or keywords. Through different display options you never drown in the
flood of incoming Tweets.

Pros: EventBox has a clear layout that enables you to easily browse your Tweets of
interest. Since this application does not run on Adobe Air, it goes comparably easy on
the resources of your system.

Cons: EventBox is not free. It also requires a lot of screen real estate.

Twitter Search Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com) is not an application but a web service.
Still, for your Twitter communication strategy the use of Twitter Search is vital. This
Twitter search engine enables you to keep track of keywords, topics or the way other
users are talking about you or your movement.

Not enough? Have a look at the Twitter applications page (http://twitter.com/downloads). There
you’ll find tons of applications that help you use Twitter, neatly categorized according to platform or
operating system. There you will also find various applications for Twitter on smart phones.

7 Link courtesy of Joe Solomon.

17

MICROBLOGGING ALTERNATIVES TO TWITTER
What to do with this guide if you don't live in the USA, Canada, the UK, or India

In the early days of Twitter it was possible to receive SMS updates of Twitter feeds no matter which
country the user was in. Twitter had to stop this service due to high costs (Stone 2008). Twitter
currently offers free mobile phone forwarding only in the USA, Canada, and India, and has made an
agreement to extend this service to the UK (Vodafone 2009). This led many political activists outside
of these countries to migrate to different microblogging services (Buck 2008). This guide focuses on
Twitter because it is the most widely used microblogging service, but the same underlying principles
apply for similar tools. Below are descriptions of three alternatives.

Jaiku Jaiku (http://www.jaiku.com/) is a microblogging service that was developed by Jyri
Engeström. It is much more location-based than Twitter and has a large following
among smart phone users. In 2007 Jaiku was bought by Google, which has since
decided to focus less on proprietary hosting and more on its App Engine, making the
future of Jaiku uncertain (Engestöm 2009. Jaikido Blog 2009).

Identi.ca Identi.ca (http://identi.ca/) is an open-source microblogging service. It works
similarly to Twitter and has a large following in the Open Source community.

Plurk Plurk (http://www.plurk.com/) is an alternative to Twitter. This microblogging
service focuses on the emotional side of short messages. Its special feature is its
heavy and creative use of emoticons. If you look for a very personal and emotional
way to connect to your community, maybe this service is the way for you to go.

In addition to these services, many of the uses of Twitter can be implemented through phone-based
SMS and through bulk messaging software like FrontlineSMS (http://www.frontlinesms.com). Even
without free mobile Twitter, you have many options.

• You can still Tweet from your phone, but it will be long distance and more expensive.

• You can use this guide as a source of ideas on using SMS in your campaign, even if the
platform is not Twitter.

• You can use one of the alternative microblogging platforms above.

• If your collaborators and supporters are online, you can use Twitter as a web-based service.8

8 Paragraph courtesy of Mary Joyce.

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CONCLUSION

Twitter can strengthen the communications strategies of political activists, be they individuals or
groups. Its services represent a tool for information distribution and for the coordination of collective
action. Don’t be put off by the explicit hedonism in many Twitter messages or by the information
noise that the constant buzz of the Twitterverse is producing. Twitter is more than a mere marketing
soapbox. This guide attempted to show the different ways Twitter can be used to work towards
social change. Behind all the noise, there lies strong possibilities for your movement.

Play with Twitter, explore it, read about it, evaluate your efforts and write about them. Twitter is
new. There is no way of telling if Twitter as a company will be around for long or if the service will
remain attractive for political activists. What is certain, however, is that the larger phenomenon
behind Twitter, microblogging, will remain an important part of online communication, and the only
way for you to find out if microblogging works for you is if you try it yourself.

19

FURTHER READING

The best way to stay informed about the possibilities and developments of Twitter is to keep an eye
on the group of bloggers who cover this area extensively. Between them you should be aware of the
major developments in the Twitterverse.

Web Strategy by Jeremiah (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog) by Jeremiah Owyang: Although
Owyang writes from a marketing perspective, his blog provides great insight in the social media
phenomenon.

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media (http://beth.typepad.com) by Beth Kanter: This is
a great blog on the different uses of social media for nonprofits. The blog does not focus exclusively
on Twitter, instead it covers the whole social media spectrum.

Howard Rheingold‘s Twitter Bookmarks on delicious (http://delicious.com/hrheingold/twitter): A
great repository for all things Twitter. The author of Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold keeps a
comprehensive and up-to-date list of links dealing with Twitter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author Andreas Jungherr is a student of political science at the University of Mainz, Germany. His
research focuses on social media in political communication, political mobilization by parties and
NGOs and practical aspects of political leadership. He twitters as @a_jungherr at
http://twitter.com/a_jungherr and occasionally blogs at Too bad you never knew Ace Hanna
http://the-blank.net/contains/andreas/.

ABOUT DIGIACTIVE

DigiActive (www.DigiActive.org) is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping grassroots
activists around the world use digital technology to increase their impact. They pursue this mission
through a variety of activities, including a best practices blog, trainings, a research program (R@D),
and guides like this one. To get involved, contact Mary@DigiActive.org .

20

SOURCES

@dahowlett: http://twitter.com/dahowlett.

@davewiner: http://twitter.com/davewiner.

@DigiActive: http://twitter.com/digiactive.

@dina: http://twitter.com/dina.

@EthanZ: http://twitter.com/EthanZ.

@hrheingold: http://twitter.com/hrheingold.

@nateritter: http://twitter.com/nateritter.

@pistachio: http://twitter.com/Pistachio.

@sarahcuda: http://twitter.com/sarahcuda.

@teeth: http://twitter.com/teeth.

@viss: http://twitter.com/viss.

@waelabbas: http://twitter.com/waelabbas .

@zephoria: http://twitter.com/zephoria.

Arquilla, John and David Ronfeldt: Swarming and the Future of Conflict. RAND: 2000.

Arrington, Michael: Bloggers Lose The Plot Over Twitter Search. 2008/12/27.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/27/bloggers-lose-the-plot-over-twitter-search/.

BBC News: Benazir Bhutto killed in attack: Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been
assassinated in a suicide attack. 2007/12/27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm.

Brogan, Chris: How I Use Twitter at Volume. 2008/11/11. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-i-use-twitter-at-
volume/.

Buck, James: Twitter out, Jaiku in. 2008/10/23. http://jameskarlbuck.com/?p=89.

Caulfield, Brian and Naazneen Karmali: Mumbai: Twitter‘s Moment. 2008/11/28.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/28/mumbai-twitter-sms-tech-internet-cx_bc_kn_1128mumbai.html.

Chitosca, Marius: Emergency 2.0: Twitter helps public services speed up ahead the government in crisis
situations. 2007/08/09. http://www.smartmobs.com/2007/08/09/emergency-20-twitter-helps-public-
services-speed-ahead-the-government-in-crisis-situations/.

Engeström, Jyri: Signal (and noise) about Jaiku this week. 2009/01/16.
http://www.zengestrom.com/blog/2009/01/signal-and-noise-on-jaiku-this-week.html.

Fitton, Laura: Motrin’s Twitter Moment. 2008/11/16. http://pistachioconsulting.com/motrins-twitter-
moment/.

Howlett, Dennis: Benazir Bhutto assassinated: Twitter’s utility. 2007/12/27.

21

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=269.

Jaikido Blog: Jaiku Engine is now open source! 2009/03/13. http://jaikido.blogspot.com/2009/03/jaikuengine-
is-now-open-source.html.

Jarvis, Jeff: Attention + Influence do not equal Authority. 2008/12/28.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/12/28/attention-influence-do-not-equal-authority/.

Le Meur, Loïc: Twitter: We Need Search By Authority. 2008 a. 2008/12/27.
http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/12/twitter-we-need-search-by-authority.html.

Le Meur, Loïc: Twitority Made It. 2008 b. 2008/12/28. http://loiclemeur.com/english/2008/12/twitority-made-
it.html.

Mehta, Dina: Benazir Bhutto Assassination. 2007/12/27. http://dinamehta.com/blog/2007/12/27/benazir-
bhutto-assassination/.

Morozov, Evgeny: More Analysis of Twitter’s Role in Moldova. 2009/04/07.
http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/07/more_analysis_of_twitters_role_in_moldova

Owyang, Jeremiah: A Groundswell at SXSW: How The Audience Revolted and Asserted Control. 2008a.
2008/03/12. http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/03/12/a-groundswell-at-sxsw-how-the-
audience-revolted-and-asserted-control/.

Owyang, Jeremiah: The Motrin Moms Backlash by the Numbers. 2008b. 2008/11/17. http://www.web-
strategist.com/blog/2008/11/17/motrin-mothers-groundswell-by-the-numbers/.

Pincus, Jon: #topprog … yeah, that could work. 2009/01/29. http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=334.

Poulsen, Kevin: Firsthand Reports From California Wildfires Pour Through Twitter. 2007/10/23.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/firsthand-repor.html.

Scola, Nancy: Progressives Have a Hashtag. 2009/01/29. http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/progressives-
have-hashtag.

Scola, Nancy and Allison Fine: Update: Twitter: An Antidote to Election Day Voting Problems? 2008a.
2008/10/06. http://techpresident.com/node/6411.

Scola, Nancy and Allison Fine: Update: Twitter Vote Report Project Gathers Steam. 2008b. 2008/10/20.
http://techpresident.com/node/6446.

Simon, Mallory: Student 'Twitters' his way out of Egyptian jail. 2008/04/25.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/index.html.

Stone, Biz: Changes for Some SMS Users—Good and Bad News. 2008/08/13.
http://blog.twitter.com/2008/08/changes-for-some-sms-usersgood-and-bad.html.

Tapscott, Don and Anthony D. Williams: Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York:
2006.

Twitter Vote Report. 2008. http://blog.twittervotereport.com/press/.

Vodafone UK External Communications: Vodafone UK Customers to Tweet via SMS. 2009/03/27.
http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/local_press_releases/uk_press_releases/2007/
vodafone_uk_customers.html

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The DigiActive Guide to Twitter for Activism

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