The tweeting plan

I have been trying for months to push forward tweeting campaigns to advance the cause of campaign finance reform.

I believe I have made progress in getting people interested, and it is worthwhile to lay out a plan for them.

Some things should be indicated. These are:

1. I have endeavored to get campaign finance reform organizations to promote my idea for tweeting campaigns, but none has stepped forward to do that yet.

2. In my idea of the tweeting campaigns, I think it is necessary to push beyond tweets (and retweets), which go only to one's followers, and beyond the use of hashtags predicated on people knowing about the hashtag in advance and having an interest to look at tweets under the hashtag. The messaging about campaign finance reform needs to be much more aggressive. My idea is for numerous volunteers to send massively thousands of directed tweets to various categories of recipients, which categories would be systematically selected. The tweeting would done over an extended period of time. The tweeting would be such that 30 to 40 tweets could be sent by a single volunteer in 15 minutes. An hour or two a week by a volunteer would be meaningful. The tweets need to have something to link to, which link would contain a fuller message tailored for the particular category of recipients

3. The Twitter world is a gigantic and daunting cacophony to register even a minuscule effect in. I think a focused effort in small geographic areas should be done initially. As a suggestion, I would pick a single Congressional district to start with. If ten to twenty volunteers did coordinated tweeting into a single Congressional district for a couple of weeks, I think notice could be gotten, and a tweeting campaign could grow from there. If a Congressional district is picked, I think there needs to be a volunteer from the district who would be the "public face" of the tweeting campaign in the district. 

4. A place for volunteers to discuss the campaign, and how it is working, is needed. In March, I created this Tweet to Defeat the Money Monster in Politics Facebook Community. Take a look and tell me what you think of it as a venue for volunteers to communicate.

5. Let's call ourselves the "The CFR Tweet Squad."

To get volunteers to participate, the tweeting plan must be agreeable to the volunteers.

I have received "indications of interest" from persons I have previously tweeted to. I am going to tweet again to those persons, with a link to this blog entry. I wish for those persons to indicate whether the above plan idea is agreeable to them, whether they have any suggestions, and whether they are willing to do volunteer tweeting in fact.

I will try to recruit other volunteers by tweeting links to this blog entry.

If you want to email me, my email is rdshattuck@gmail.com.

I sure hope this flies.

Sincerely,

Rob

EDIT 8/1/15

Let me expand in reaction to replies I have received.

I have a year's worth of experience with how hard it is to have impact through tweeting, massive or otherwise. I have managed to get my name known in the Alabama 6th Congressional district to a degree. It has brought me to having some public credibility in doing this past week that which is described in Who will debate this?

Subject to hearing other ideas, I would propose tweeting campaigns in other Congressional districts that use tactics I endeavored to employ in the Alabama 6th Congressional district.

The tactics are premised on the view that the struggle is not left against right, Republicans versus Democrats, but rather of us voter outsiders against Washington insiders. To the extent that is correct, the consequence is your Representatives in Washington probably don't want to talk about the matter, and the starting point is to try to establish in a public way the unwillingness of Representatives to be forthcoming with their constituents.

I initiated my tactic 15 months ago, and have continued it ever since. You can trace some of my efforts through my blog entry Just answer the question, Gary Palmer, and Who will debate this? exhibits the tactic continuing just this past week.

If you are thinking about participating in the proposed tweeting plan, you should decide whether you think my tactic has value in advancing the cause of campaign finance reform that is worth spending time on.

If you don't think my tactic has worthwhile value, you need to propose a different tactic for the tweeting plan.

If you think the tactic is worth expending effort on, the next step is to think about whether the tactic can be speeded up in having effectiveness in other Congressional districts. I think it can be speeded up in other Congressional districts, but let me hold up on discussing that for the time being, pending hearing from volunteers that they think the tactic is worth spending time on.

EDIT 8/3/15

The Florida 17th and 18th Congressional districts have been picked to initiate the tweeting plan. See FL 17th and 18th Cong'l districts picked.