25th Rant: Online Social Media Tea Party?

There is a reason I had titled this rant like I did. Back in July during the debt ceiling debacle Hugh Hewitt, a talk radio host as well as a columnist for TownHall.com, mentioned that a “Twitter Tea Party” is needed. I had tweeted a couple of things during that Tea Party, and think that another one is needed right now. Only thing is I will go one better. What we need is just as I had mentioned in the title of this blog entry, an ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA Tea Party.

As far as I know, there are 8 forms of Social Media online right now:

1. Facebook (http://www.facebook.com)
2. Twitter (http://www.twitter.com)
3. Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com)
4. LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com)
5. Digg (http://www.digg.com)
6. YouTube (http://www.youtube.com)
7. any and all blogs
8. any and all message boards

(NOTE: If there are any others I am forgetting, please let me know. Also, I realize I am missing sites like RedState, Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Nation, and FreedomWorks and FreedomConnector as well, but I have included them in the final two forms.)

With sites like Facebook and Twitter, I would propose we find out the online pages of ALL of the political figures - whether they are local, state, or national – and post on their sites, telling them how you think they are doing and just let them know what you would like to see enacted on either a bill or some other pending legislation, as well as your thoughts on how they had voted on prior pieces of legislation. Also, Facebook and Twitter are good sites to post articles and other items to let people know what is happening not only in America but all around the world.

With sites like Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Digg, I would propose that we find articles and other items, like we did with Facebook and Twitter, and post them to our pages to let people know what is happening. This way we can get the word out and keep others up to date on what is happening.

In the event that the articles we had found are already posted to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, or Digg by others, we should like, share, Retweet, Digg, and/or even comment on them.

With YouTube, we have a choice of either uploading a video of our own opinions on certain events, uploading videos of rallies or speeches, or commenting on the videos which are already out there.

For the various blogs and message boards out there, we can employ the same methods we used above, especially sharing them on the other social media outlets. This way the same articles get multiple coverage.

Why do I say post the same articles on all forms of social media? The answer is real simple. You might have different friends on Facebook than you do on Twitter (for example) and as such your Twitter friends might not be aware of a certain issue if you had only posted it to Facebook. I use all of the above social media outlets and there are some friends who are one outlet but not on others. If you only post to one social media outlet and then tell your friends on another they might feel out of the loop if they had not read a certain article, blog entry, or anything else. That is why we should cover ALL of the social media outlets, regardless of what they are, and get the word out there.

If you are interested in a Social Media Tea Party, please let me know and hopefully we can try to work something out. My email and Instant Messengers are always open and available for discussion about this.