Cory Booker! (Cue narrator of old “Superman” TV show.) He’s hip! He’s cool! He has more Twitter followers than God! Races into burning buildings! Rescues freezing dogs! More than a one-man department of city services, he’s setting the bar for elected officials, exploiting the Internet for public good and personal political profit! And now he’s got some pro tips for you and your little Twitter feed.
With more than 1.3 million followers, charismatic and social network savvy Newark mayor @CoryBooker has more Twitter acolytes than the population of the city he governs. At his presentation “The Media Politician” Sunday at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Booker recalled he agreed to give the 140-character outlet for communiqués a try for three months after tech-besotted actor Ashton Kutcher explained its importance. “I thought I was being punk’d,” he said. But then he got a desperate tweet from a homeless Iraq War vet. He hooked up his constituent with the help he needed in a matter of seconds. His Honor was hooked.
He’s a little surprised that other politicians haven’t caught on to the power of social networking. They hopscotch from one event to the next, perhaps reaching 2000 people in a day, instead of hundreds of thousands in an instant. Booker is still taken aback that his tweeting serves as a role model for much bigger political players. “A mid-level mayor shouldn’t be in this place,” Booker mused.
Booker shared some lessons learned from his adventures as America’s second-most-followed African-American politician (No. 1 lives in the White House), along with some rules he has learned to follow.
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