Up until last night, the person with the most followers on the micro-messaging service was Digg founder and Web celeb Kevin Rose, with 56,482 other people following his every public mind burp. It took none other than Barack Obama (or, rather, Obama’s campaign machine) to take the Twitter crown away from Rose. Obama can now finally stand tall knowing that 56,791 people subscribe to his campaign Tweets.
How do the two top dogs on Twitter differ? While Obama auto-follows everyone who follows him and more:59,474 people in total. I’m sure he reads every Tweet (no 2000-person limit for Presidential candidates). Rose is more stingy with whom he follows. Only 97 people—but one of them is BarackObama!.
While Rose likes to tell everyone what he’s drinking (nice unicorn background image, Kevin), Obama invites his followers to sign up so they can be the first to find out who his VP pick is going to be. How about Rose? He knows how to get the vote out and seems ready for a new gig.
Note to the Obama campaign: you might want to change the background image from your nondescript campaign button to a picture of Obama.
And John McCain? He’s not in the top 100. In fact, he’s nowhere in sight on the Twittersphere (it’s not exactly his constituency). Or at least, I can’t find him. There’s this unofficial account, JohnMcCain2008, which has attracted 1485 followers. But then, McCain doesn’t even use a computer, so you cannot very well expect him Twitter.
Not that it matters. This may be the Internet election, but Twitter still won’t be a factor until at least 2012. Or will it prove to be a more powerful influencer in the elections than its early-adopter pedigree would suggest?
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I´ve started following Barack Obama´s Tweets last night. Guilty!
See the whole top 100 list here: http://twittercounter.com/?inc=100
i guess 56,800 < 56,791
Never even heard of Kevin Rose till this article.
lol
Same here lol, politics is always having new people coming around..
http://blabtech.blogspot.com
I dont get the point of this post. From an communication perspective, 56,000 is still very small number for a presidential nominee so twitter is not really helping get a message out. Moreover, popularity on twitter reinforces the idea of celebrity versus any policy discussion. Lastly…Kevin’s background is of a pegasus, not a unicorn.
There is no point.
Ever been at TechCrunch on a weekend? There is an institution called the “TechCrunch mob”. 2 or 3 times a weekend Arrington writes a rant that guarantees hundreds of comments from mobsters. Officially, it’s called “user engagement”. Digg does it much better, but whatever, for Arrington it reduces the number of posts he has to write, since there’s always stuff for people to read.
Now Arrington is getting lazy. First he hired Gillmor for the weekend rants. Worked fine. But Gillmor now has RantIT. Now, Arrington is taking a so-called vacation, and Erick Schonfeld has to write one good rant per day. Yesterday’s got 380 comments. So today, Erick’s target is only 200.
Its a small number reached at this point but it is 56k that McCain wont reach because he doesn’t know how too.
He is uninformed and could care less about new ways to reach out to people.
Its more about awareness of whats happening today! Not what happened when I was a youngster sonny. hehe
true, but these are 56,000 influential and/or tech savvy people who can relay/advocate Obama’s message to at least 10 people around them, if only through their own blogs. That’s at least 1/2 a million voters that could well make a difference this time. Just remember how the election in Florida made Bush win with only a difference of less than 100,000 voters!!!
That is no unicorn, Man. It’s a high-flying pegasus.
Obviously, Erick has no clue as to mythical creatures. Unicorns have, well, a horn. That’s where the “uni” comes in
actually, that’s where the “corn” comes in. (that’s what she said)
Somebody should ask McCain “Do you have a Twitter feed” and note his reaction. “A what?”
I wouldn’t judge his Internet savviness on whether someone knows what a “Twitter feed” is. Heck, as the developer of a social website I hardly know or care what a Twitter feed is. Now, if he didn’t know what “Google” was I may question his staying current with the times.
No need to judge his Internet savvy, he admits that he has none.
So we can conclude he is clueless in that regard.
Yes, Its more about the fact that Obama’s team IS aware of this new medium and is actively participating and using it that is impressive for any suit, let alone a presidential candidate!
Al Gore will tell you that he’s been on Twitter since he invented it.
Barack Obama will tell you that he was for Twitter before he was against it.
The for it before against it guy was Kerry. Nice try.
They’re both flip floppers Brad.
LOL. Funny post Aaron
Whatever–McCain flip-flops more than a fish in a microwave.
That’s funny
Wait… actually it’s sad…
Somebody should ask Obama “Do you know Russia is on the UN Security Council” and note his reaction. “A what?”
that’s lame
Hahaha
Follow up: “what’s a UNSC veto?”
oh come one… how about asking McCain where is Pakistan, or who a shiites? McCain is by far the dumbest of them 2.
dp81, twitter audience is the one difficult to reach on traditional media.
so those 56k matters.
Obama should choose his running mate based on the best tweet.
one in ever three posts Erick Schonfeld writes is about Barack Obama…love affair much?
…and starting with this post, Erick Schonfeld now shares Kevin Rose’s affinity for male horse genitalia:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitte...../wings.jpg
“…And John McCain? He’s nowhere in sight on the Twittersphere. Or at least, I can’t find him.”
114 year old John McCain has publicly stated that he doesn’t not know how to use a personal computer and he has his wife write all his emails for him.
McCain is 71 years old, but the rest is factual.
Get you facts straight TechCrunch, that is no Unicorn, Unicorns have HORNS and no wings. Pegasus have Wings and no Horn. Does no one know the difference between a Pegasus and a Unicorn anymore?
How many HORNS have Unicorns? U need horns for unicorns? Hahahaha!
nobody really knows how many, since they don’t exist. i’ve heard santa claus has 3 balls.
McCain sent an official rep to debate Obama rep on Twitter a few weeks ago. Funny, when I wrote about the SMS thing the other day I got the worst reactions! “Stick to tech, jerkface!”
Finally, if this is some underhanded way to prod Kevin to run for President I think we all know he’d rather see Gary V. do it.
I think followers at twitter really matters. The cool kids at twitter are more into communicate something, than the average joe. So, the message can find it´s way. Wrong or right?
Yikes, Unicorn?
That embarrassing. Please tell me you know what a gazebo is at least!
Yep, Twitter is the ultimate tool to deliver any message to targeted audience
What about the 2000 follower limit?
BTW, Magnify 360 just secured 2.5 million in series A funding.
http://tinyurl.com/MAGNIFY360SECURES2-5MILLION
Who gives a crap? Give us real tech news.
I love unicorns. I’ve always loved unicorns.
Love, juliejulie
So 56,000+ reporters for Barack and 56,000+ bloggers for Kevin. Cool.
“This may be the Internet election, but Twitter still won’t be a factor until at least 2012.”
Will twitter be around in 2012?? Do you forget that in 2004 the most cutting edge technology used by candidates was meetup.com and paypal? I don’t think either candidate even had a MySpace page or any sort of blog. If Barack Obama is still using his 2008 twitter account in four years I’ll be shocked.
I was at the Ferry Building Market in SF a few months ago and saw Kevin Rose buy an Obama pin. Guess I should have tweeted at the time but I’m guessing Barak can count count Kevin among his followers.
Wouldn’t it be kind of obvious for John McCain to not have a Twitter feed? I mean, his target audience is in the southern USA, who are notable for not catching up on the latest web trends (MySpace is still very popular here, dominating Facebook). And he’s in his 70’s, so it’s kind of understandable that he doesn’t have any web presence.
For what it’s worth, it appears Obama seems to have acted on your advice and changed his background image… though it’s still very blue.
You can follow Obama (or anyone else on Twitter) without actually “following them.” Just create a widget like this one:
http://www.mikesommers.com/obamatweets.htm
and poplulate it with any twitter feed you like.
tx
m
Thanks for posting this…
I follow viral potential of both candidates on
http://youreputation.com/
and will add search.twitter.com (besides Digg, Technorati, Google Groups) in the pool..
This thread is a classic: a few people people talking about the issue and the rest obsessing about unicorns!
Pegasus is not a “type” of creature, it is the name of one mythical being. The horse of the son of Poseidon; aka, the horse god.
Look it up….
That’s a pegasus, numb nuts.
You’re all ridiculous.
Stephen Colbert is number 31, with more than 100 followers since yesterday… even though he has not posted a tweet since more than a year.
I think the presidential candidates need to focus on what’s really important - politics, policies and the issues this country faces! Not how many Twitter followers, Facebook or digg friends they have. Get to the REAL issues and off the damn fence so that we can make somewhat of an educated decision for Election 2008.
I love Twitter and social networking - but being a top-followed Twitter candidate is NOT a decision making factor for me. Spend more effort in your campaigns and taking a stance than on Twitter.
Um, I think having a presence on Twitter is evidence that Obama is both spending effort on his campaign and taking a stance. . . unless a free and open Internet isn’t an issue that you care about. Besides, the candidates aren’t the ones focusing on Twitter client counts–WE are. Duh.
BTW: Pegasus would kick a unicorn’s ass
I like McCain because he’s an old white male with tons of cash and is still bangin a hot chick. “You ever try to shoot pool with a rope.”
and the cash is hers, btw.
Politics is all about sales and marketing. You have to find innovative ways to attract customers, or in this case, voters. More power to anybody who can harness the power of technology in attracting voters. Here are some great resources to attract a customer base like Barrack has done on twitter….
http://www.JohnAssaraf.com/hia.....s=hiac2008
http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
What about John McTaint? I can’t believe he didn’t make it into this article.
http://twitter.com/JohnMcTaint
He’s definitely got some hilarious videos too: http://johnmctaint.com
He should use a Liger instead of the unicorn.
Please resize your images. It’s a PITA to remove them with firebug everytime they screw up the bloglines layout. Do we really need images this large? 1309px × 802px.
Obama, Kevin Rose, Twitter, McCain is lame… that headline was built to be #1 on Digg. Who thinks it will make it on to the number slot on http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....y-keyword/ ?
Why does
http://www.barrakobama.com/ (yes spelt incorrect)
go to johnkerry.com ?
“(McCain) is uninformed and could care less about new ways to reach out to people.’
—————-
I’m sure Obama set up his Twitter account himself, since he’s on vacation and has lots of free time.
McCain’s been on vacation for the past 26 years, and is now ready for nursing home.
Obama supporter do not like Hillary, She will not be vice president, everyone should get that out of there head,
Obama said before he don’t need Hillary supporters,
On MSnbc and CNN they always show the same obama supporter
and at one time claims if Hillary did the convention that all Obama supporter would Vote for McCain, I have the old CNN videos on this,, If Hillary was asked to be the VIce prez, I hope she says NO,
So she can run again in 2012, with out the Obama tactic, and bias of media,
there for I will not vote for Obama, this will be the first year, I will vote republican, and Vote for McCain,
Because even tho I am a Democrat,,,I do think its who will be better for the job, Obama is not the one,,, this country will fall apart fast he going to be worst than Jimmy Carter,, and watch how fast Obama supporter jump ship,
And say I didn’t vote for him, Obama right about one thing,
Pelosi is coming up for re-election, and there a campaign out on her to vote her out of office, time for a new change
She forced Hillary out,,, Hillary supporter and California going to put her out of office,
“McCain’s been on vacation for the past 26 years, and is now ready for nursing home.”
—————-
You act as though Obama has actually accomplished something other than using the political offices he has had as stepping stones to a higher office.
Dig has sucked for a couple years now. Its turned into a bunch of groupthinking liberal idiots. All the good users left it a long time ago for reddit. What’s left now is 33% huffpost, 33% apple fanboism, and 33% mrBabyMan recycled posts. As far as Rose, well, who cares? Seems like just another narcissistic wanker.
realizing the power of twitter…we made ourselves an account.
follow schoolshift as we begin our journey of starting an online business
http://www.schoolshift.com
An online school resource for prospective and current college students
OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!
Obama definitely has my vote. The sooner Bush gets out of office, the better.
Does nobody know how to spell nomore and grammar correct in your sentence? I hopes Obama’s win his elektion so we get better scools.
It is not a unicorn it is a Pegasus.
It’s this fierty for me, the Barak Obama the President the USA.