It took 163 days, 17 tweets, 645 followers, a John Ensign staffer asking if we were the real deal and even being named a "Best Congressional Tweet of the Week" by the Washingtonian before Dullard Mush's Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment came to an inglorious end Monday, June 8.
Apparently Heller's staff finally realized there was a Twitter account out there in their name. Of course, Sunday's post pointing out Heller's winning tweet might also have been a factor. That said, the end came surprisingly swift and without notice. I always figured I'd receive a direct message from someone in Heller's camp asking what was going on, or a notice from Twitter itself, and then turn over the account in good standing. The big question was when that would actually occur. But the account just disappeared and reappeared in its new official form Monday.
The Beginning
The experiment began innocently enough December 28, 2008. I had just read an article about politicians embracing online media, Twitter in particular, around the same time I was hearing about Twitter name squatters. So, being curious, I checked on Nevada's delegation and, to my surprise, found Heller and Shelley Berkley's names still available (Berkley's still is as of today). Being in Heller's district I picked his up, as more of a caretaker, figuring I'd be contacted pretty quickly. But a funny thing happened. Nobody noticed.
Well almost nobody. Despite nary a tweet, the account was gaining a couple followers a week. It had been about six weeks when I began to think that having a blank Twitter page might make the congressman look a little odd, so a decision needed to be made -- to tweet or not to tweet. I chose to tweet.
The First Tweet
But then the question became "What do I tweet?" I had no plans on making it a spoof site, though an "It's official, I'm running against Harry in 2010" would have been interesting, so I needed something legitimate to post. Luckily, his site had press releases.
So on February 13, 2009, the first "Dean Heller" tweet was launched.
Just like the bailout, this legislation will prove to be a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. http://tinyurl.com/at96lyBut the problem is, once you do one, you have to keep it going. Especially when someone opens the floodgate of followers.
Tomorrow: A blogger's wife's spirited defense, a curious Ensign staffer and the media.
Part 2: More of the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment
Part 3: Some Trouble on the Heller Twitter Front
Part 4: How the Heller Twitter Experiment Was Discovered
The Google cache of the Original Congressman Dean Heller Twitter account.
6 comments:
Ha, I noticed way back...in maybe january/february? and pointed it out to someone. At some point you had your email address associated with the account.....I was just waiting for you to admit you were either officially Tweeting for Heller or doing it as a joke but never followed because the account wasnt active. Funny because I then totally forgot about--its no surprise that I'm not interested in what Heller has to say/tweet ;-)
Gut-splitting hilarious!~!
Nice, that's hilarious. I think was following you too.
Thanks.
Another blogger told me someone had noticed the email address. I should have swapped it out then. Instead, I think that email address, my main one, is now banned by Twitter.
"I always figured I'd receive a direct message from someone in Heller's camp asking what was going on, or a notice from Twitter itself, and then turn over the account in good standing."
There's one big problem with that. The only way someone can send a direct message to you is if you're following them.
http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/14606
"If someone is following you, you can send a direct message from the web ..."
Like I said, I'm not a Twitter expert. I guess I meant an @DeanHeller message. Plus, I always checked who was following the account. If there was one where the bio said "Dean Heller staff member" I'd have followed and then sent a message.
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