As defined by Twitter, the # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It helps categorize topics and create an interactive conversation about that topic among all Twitter users.

A post by Gilad Lotan on Social Flow provides great insight into what characteristics the “Twitterverse” associates with the GOP presidential candidates.

Hashtags like #GOP and #teaparty are used roughly equally when talking about all GOP candidates, but hashtags such as #gayrights, #flipflop, and #jobs are associated more with Mitt Romney, while #palestine, #immigration, and #abortion are better associated with Newt Gingrich.

Even though less than 10% of the nation is active on Twitter, these associations offer much insight into the public perception of events and the GOP candidates.

For those of you who may have missed some of today’s relevant social media articles, here are a few for you to check out!

President Barack Obama, who has been characterized as anti-business by his political opponents, has received more in campaign contributions from business executives this year than any Republican presidential candidate. Obama Backers Make President Top Fundraiser From Business.

The Facebook political team commend Newt Gingrich for using WayIn, a polling application, as well as providing a tab that enables potential volunteers to find campaign-related events. Gingrich Savvy On Facebook, Says Company’s Political Team.

The pros and cons of apps vs. mobile-enabled websites are discussed. It’s apps vs. mobile-enabled websites in GSA smackdown

Enjoy!

Their profile and first tweet say “Updates from the Twitter Government & Politics team, tracking creative & effective uses of Twitter for civic engagement…Welcome to @gov! Stay tuned for best practices, case studies and other updates from the Twitter Government & Politics team…”

With a big presidential election year ahead of us, I wonder if they intend to keep track of the use of Twitter in political campaigns. We should keep an eye on the official Twitter blog for more information.

Governing broke this news in “Twitter Launches @Gov Account for Tracking Civic Engagement” by Dylan Scott.

Our Highlighted Site of the Week is Gov 2.0 Radio, hosted on blogtalkradio. Produced by Adriel Hampton, Government 2.0 covers topics such as government transparency, open data, citizen engagement, social media, and much more. You can enjoy streaming the dozens of radio programs at any time.

Stay on top of the latest Gov 2.0  announcements by following them at Gov 2.0 Radio Twitter and at their Citizen 2.0 Facebook.

According to his blog, Adriel Hampton: Wired to Share, Adriel has worked as an investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and is a journalist and gov 2.0 strategist.

Political ads are not only optimized for mobile devices, now they target their markets precisely: “Political advertisements go mobile for 2012 elections” by Emily Shultheis from Politico.

The White House’s We the People online petition project has brought surprising results – more petitions were submitted about animal rights and legalizing marijuana and fewer were about education, the economy, and foreign affairs. Read Nextgov’s “We the People draws a curious crowd” by Joseph Marks. Here is Nextgov’s summary of the results.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has received more grief than it was worth over a disparaging tweet: “Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback apologizes to teen after she refuses to apologize to him” by Melissa Bell in the Washington Post.

Social media has been seen as a catalyst for change  in world events in the past few years. It remains to be seen what role it will play in our presidential elections in the upcoming year. As groups and individuals use social media strategies for promoting candidates and causes, they will want to be able to measure their efforts. This week’s Highlighted Site of the Week is VoterTide, which sets out to do just that.

PACs and lobbyists take note:

“Whether you’re a candidate, consultant, fundraiser, lobbyist, or media professional, you have no choice but to follow the conversation online. VoterTide Pro makes it easy with comprehensive, easy-to-read metrics that put the data at your fingertips.”

If you are using any of the forms of social media in support of a candidate, VoterTide can measure the comments, retweets, and the buzz that result and put the data  into their political context. You can also keep track of your opponents!

VoterTide claims to revolutionize the way political polling is conducted. All of the information you need to track the conversations surrounding your candidates and issues would be available on a social media monitoring dashboard.

According to the site: “You go to the boards for your candidate – tweeting, sharing links on Facebook, posting YouTube videos, and doing all you can to persuade your friends to vote for the one who you know is best. But do your efforts matter? At VoterTide, we show you that they do. You may not have the resources to contribute big bucks, but you do have the power to Rise the Tide in your candidate’s favor.”

I have not been able to determine whether there is a free version of VoterTide, but there is VoterTide Pro for a fee, and the site offers a free demo. Take a look. I think we’ll be seeing many more services targeting this need in the near future.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is under investigation for violations of campaign finance laws. The Associated Press covers the story in “Lawyers: Feds investigate Richardson fundraising,” by Barry Massey.

The New York Times reports that a fundraiser for New York City Comptroller John C. Liu was arrested for illegally funneling contributions.  Read the full story at “Fund-Raiser for Liu Is Accused of Role in Illegal Donations” by William Rashbaum, David Chen, and Benjamin Weiser.

An Associated Press article reports that Mitt Romney’s emails from when he was governor of Massachusetts were removed at the end of his term. Read “Report: Romney-era emails wiped from Mass. Records” from today’s Boston Herald.

Budgets cuts are further threatening government transparency initiatives. Nextgov reports about it in “E-gov cuts could endanger digital transparency initiatives, groups say” by Joseph Marks.

Anonymous and unsolicited text messages are being sent against democratic candidates in Virginia. Here is the Washington Post article “Anti-Democratic text messages in Northern Va. prompt lawsuit, complaints” by Anita Kumar.

Government Technology discusses the tension between the demands of government transparency and the realities of state bugdet constraints in “Transparency Demands Cost Governments Money” by Sarah Rich.

NCSL has updated their 2012 Legislative Session Calendar.

Judicial races are getting expensive. PoliticsPA.com posted “Pa. Rated as Second Costliest Judicial Elections; Candidates Weigh in” by Sari Heidenreich. Here is the recent study by the Brennan Center For Justice, “The New Politics of Judicial Elections: 2009-10” that ranks judicial elections in the states.

Photo of texting by Alton on Wikipedia.

Who can possibly top New York City? This week’s Highlighted Site of the Week is the city government’s NYC Digital. Their statistics are staggering: a four million digital audience, 202 million pageviews of NYC.gov in 2010, 52 agencies represented, 4000 points of engagement, 98% residential broadband access, 200 social media channels, and – as they are proud to say – it is all because they have one plan for New York City’s digital future.

According to the site: “New York City is one of the world’s leading digital metropolises. As Part I: State of the Digital City illustrates, New York City government engages over 25 million people a year through more than 200 digital channels including NYC.gov, mobile applications, and social media.”

They work hard to promote civic engagement, encourage new business startups with their Business Solutions Centers, and host hackathons where they provide city data to programmers so they can write cutting edge web and mobile applications to help the city. For those involved in government relations, their Lobbying Bureau page has many links in its helpful FAQ list.

The hundreds of NYC Social Media Sites range from the mayor’s office Twitter feed and Children’s Services’ Facebook, to the Departments of Aging,  Buildings, Business, Community Affairs, Education, and many more. Take a look at their 21 Mobile Apps, where you can have information about the road conditions, sports events, Department of Health updates, directions for getting around the city, sanitation department info, and the latest news from the mayor’s office sent directly to your mobile phone.

NYC Digital is as big as the city itself and just as humbling, I must say. Have a terrific weekend, everyone!

Photo of the New York City skyline at night by Francisco Diez on Wikipedia.

Lobbyists are prominently mentioned in this Wall Street Journal piece, “Washington Area Is Tops in Income” by Elizabeth Williamson.

NCSL published “Social media tools can pose ethical problems for lawmakers,” by Judy Nadler. The article explores the ethical considerations lawmakers face when using social media tools. The article raises the question about the types of relationships that are established on a network like Facebook by citing the example of someone running for office: “A ‘push’ was organized to add key lobbyists, government contractors and others as ‘friends.'” Nadler discusses government-using-social-media issues such as transparency, playing favorites, and the obligation officeholders have to choose the words they use online carefully.

The Fierce Government IT article, “‘Snapshots cannot accurately archive gov 2.0 content, says Navy official” by Molly Bernhart Walker, discusses the challenges posed by the need to keep a record of government presence in social media platforms.

From Federal Computer Week: A recent survey takes a look at mobile device trends in “Government workers using mobile to access social media, survey shows” by Alice Lipowicz.

With eight tweets and more than 700 followers, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is now Tweeting about court decisions and other news.

The Associated Press covered the story, as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News in this article, “Pa. Supreme Court to go on Twitter” by John P. Martin.

You can find the Supreme Court’s Twitter feed here: @SupremeCtofPA.

Photo of the mural on the wall of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s chambers by Ruhrfisch on Wikipedia.

Watch How New York City Government Is (and Isn’t) Using Social Media on PBS. See more from Metrofocus.

Govloop blogger Scott Burns was on a panel discussing the use of social media by New York City government. He gives us a glimpse into that discussion with his blog post: “How New York City Government Is (and Isn’t) Using Social Media” from October 17.

The panel included New York City’s Chief Digital Officer, people from the MTA and the New York City Council, as well as representatives from Microsoft and GovDelivery. If you are interested in social media strategy, measurement, as well as its limitations, this video offers a wealth of information straight from the city’s agencies. You can also find New York Public Media’s Metro Focus coverage of the event here.

Government Technology featured “The Top 10 Government Facebook Pages” on October 14. Govtech’s lists the top Facebook fan pages based on number of people who “liked” them. The top spot surprised me.

Mashable’s Aliza Sherman wrote “4 U.S. Government Agencies Getting Social on YouTube” on October 13. This article reveals how four government agencies are using YouTube.

Code for America lists the cities they will be helping in 2012 in their blog post, “Meet Code for America 2012” by Jennifer Pahlka from October 13. Eight cities are listed, but none from Ohio. Maybe next year…

You can now watch streaming video feed from the U.S. House floor on your mobile device. HouseLive.gov is beta testing the process, which uses Silverlight, Flash, and HTML5. It should be compatible with your Android device, or on an iPhone and iPad.

Alex Howard of Govfresh wrote a great blog about it in “HouseLive.gov embraces open format to bring live video to mobile devices” on October 11.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s blog made the announcement about it here: “House Floor Now Streams to Your Mobile Device via HouseLive.gov” by Don Seymour.