by Karl Kurtz
At a session on "Social Networking 101" at NCSL's Spring Forum earlier today, Arkansas House Majority Leader Steve Harrelson made his presentation about how he uses a blog, Facebook, and Twitter to communicate with constituents by posting his presentation under the title, "Liveblogging the NCSL Spring Forum," in his blog and projecting the post on the screen:
I'm sitting on a panel to discuss legislative technology and new media, and I've been given 15 minutes to provide a compelling argument as to why public officials should use the Internet to connect to their constituents and provide a running commentary on facing us all. Given the tight schedule, I'm going to hit the highlights and list three main points...
He went on to talk about immediacy, no filters and transparency as the key advantages of social networking for legislators. It was an excellent presentation. You can read it for yourself.
Rep. Harrelson's web site/blog, Under the Dome, is one of the most sophisticated ones for a state legislator that I have seen, integrating policy and political news, his Twitter feeds, and a public opinion poll, and making great use of photos (sometimes in fun, as with this photo) and maps.
Rep. Harrelson also featured Arkansas Speaker Robbie Wills' blog, which includes a weekly webcast, this week from the Spring Forum in Washington, D.C. Speaker Wills also publishes his Twitter feeds on his blog.
Rep. Harrelson said that in addition to providing an effective means of communication with constituents, bypassing the media, other legislators, news media and lobbyists track his and the speaker's social network sites to find out what is going on at the capitol.
Comments