Kasim Reed, other mayors, state and national politicians, and members of the Atlanta City Council on Twitter. With their number of tweets, how many they are following and how many followers they have as of May 22.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed @KasimReed 1,341 — 5,863 — 38,955.
Newark Mayor Corey Booker @CoryBooker 28,066 — 72,030 — 1,386,724
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg @MikeBloomberg 5,802 — 149 — 492,683
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel @RahmEmanuel 1051 — 2 — 63,224
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa @villaraigosa 225 — 40 — 7,251
Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray @mayorvincegray 4,175 — 622 — 13,901
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal @GovernorDeal 404 — 241 — 7,499
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss @SaxbyChambliss 495 — 182 — 6,014
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson @SenatorIsakson 187 — 302 — 9,708
Members of the Atlanta City Council on Twitter
Ceasar Mitchell @ceasarcmitchell 1,302 — 1,200 —1,706
Kwanza Hall @kwanzahall; 8,467 — 7,252 — 9,484
Cleta Winslow @cmwinslow04; 3 — 2 — 78
Alex Wan @AlexWanforATL 236 — 121 — 486
Joyce Sheperd @joycesheperd 373 — 542 — 267
Yolanda Adrean @yadrean 266 — 63 — 110
Aaron Watson @AaronforAtlanta 159— 170 — 229
H. Lamar Willis @HLWillisPost3 1,188 — 1,081 — 652
Keisha Bottoms @KeishaBottoms 19— 72 — 158
Michael Julian Bond @Michael_J_Bond 0 — 0 — 152
NOTE: According to the city council’s communications office, city council members Carla Smith, Ivory Young, Natalyn Archibong, Howard Shook, Felicia Moore and C.T. Martin do not have Twitter Pages.
Members of the Atlanta City Council on Facebook
Ceasar Mitchell 166 Likes
Carla Smith 111 likes
Kwanza Hall 334
Aaron Watson 461
According to the city council’s communications office, city council members Cleta Winslow, Howard Shook, C.T. Martin and Keisha Bottoms do not have Facebook pages. Felicia Moore, Alex Wan and Ivory Young do not have official city Facebook pages, but they actively post city-related business on their personal pages.
Kasim Reed recently has become quite the active tweeter.
It just takes him a while to string together those 140-character messages.
“I value writing, and I like the process of putting my thoughts together,” Reed said. “So it was difficult for me at first, and I was very dismissive of the forum. One hundred and forty characters was offensive to me. I didn’t like it, so I rejected the medium.”
A Howard University-trained attorney and writer, the Atlanta mayor has now fully embraced many forms of social media, including Twitter and Facebook. He's also led a social media revolution through City Hall, preaching the virtues of getting government more connected while building a network of followers he can have ready access to.
“What I like about Twitter is it is direct and authentic,” Reed said. “It has morphed into something that I enjoy, because I can express how I feel. If you read my tweets, it is me.”
Sonji Jacobs Dade, the city's communications director, said when she came aboard in 2010, she found a city website and social media philosophy that was woefully behind the times.
“The whole world had moved and the city’s way of communicating was still in a 1990s framework,” Dade said. “One of my goals was moving the city in the direction of digital communication, and social media is a huge part of that.”
Between Twitter, Facebook and emails amassed during his 2009 campaign, Reed has "a universe of 100,000 individual identities" he can reach out to.
The city's website has been completely re-designed to include easier access to social media platforms and offer video on demand, streaming video and RSS feeds. Most city departments have their own Facebook page and Twitter accounts where they receive and dispense information, and the YouTube page run by the Atlanta Police Department has become a vital crime-fighting tool.
Two weeks ago, City Council President Ceasar Mitchell hosted his first "Twitter chat," to "provide citizens with ample opportunities to be part of the public dialogue," about crime in the city. And, as part of the budget process, the Atlanta City Council recently held a virtual town hall meeting where a quarter of the questions posed came through Twitter.
"People don't have to just come to city hall to do business anymore," said Anne Torres, deputy communications director in charge of social media. "So, in order for the city to get our message out, it is important to meet them where they are – online and in social media."
#FOLLOWME
As the universal embrace of social media has become inevitable, politicians and governments have had no choice but to come along for the ride.
In fact, with 38,955 Twitter followers as of Wednesday, Reed is playing catch-up to other big-city mayors. While has more followers than Los Angeles' Antonio Villaraigosa and Washington, D.C.'s Vincent Gray, he has about 24,000 fewer followers than Chicago's Rahm Emanuel. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has about 492,683 followers. But the undisputed king is Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has 1.4 million followers and has tweeted close to 28,000 times on subjects as diverse as city services to sports.
It wasn’t until midway through the last presidential campaign, Reed admits, that he finally got it.
“Social media was a big part of the overall strategy for the president’s re-election effort, and I was exposed to how essential that was when I visited his headquarters in Chicago,” Reed said. “Every person in public life should have seen it.”
Reed also hired Torres last September to help craft his social media message. Her last job? Building Mayor Booker’s communications empire.
#DAWNOFANEWCENTURY
City Councilman Kwanza Hall estimates that every day he spends about an hour tweeting, sending Instagrams and updating his Facebook status on subjects ranging from biking to what he had for lunch to actual legislation.
“People are not reading the paper or listening to the radio anymore to get their news,” said Hall, who tweets up to 10 times a day. “And if they are, they are getting that information on their computer.”
Hall was the first member of the council to fully embrace social media, and it shows. On his main Twitter account — his office has three — he has 9,484 followers, more than all of the other council members combined. His 8,400-plus tweets top every elected official in the city, including Reed.
But not everybody on the council has fully embraced social media. Only nine of the 16 have official Facebook pages. Cleta Winslow's three tweets – none since March 24, 2010 – may seem paltry, but she is one of only 10 councilmembers with Twitter accounts.
Councilman Michael Julian Bond, whose hobbies range from collecting comic books to action figures, said that while he is active on Facebook, he hasn’t been thusly motivated Twitter.
He actually has two Twitter accounts. But he's never sent a tweet from one and hasn't sent a tweet in more than 1,400 days from the other one.
“I was born in the last century,” Bond said. “I am still learning.”
#WHATSFORLUNCH?BEEF?
When approached on Facebook or Twitter — which is now daily — Reed often chats with followers, answering questions and even throwing in an occasional friendly jab — usually about sports.
His tweets are always professional and well-tailored, whether it is clarifying his record on crime fighting or acknowledging bigger issues like the Oklahoma tornado.
In April, Creative Loafing wrote that Reed and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank were hosting a May 19 fund-raising event for President Obama.
Neither the article nor the Creative Loafing tweet mentioned that, while there would be a fund-raiser, Obama’s main purpose for coming to Atlanta was to speak at Morehouse College’s graduation.
Within minutes, Reed was on Twitter, pointing out what he saw as flaws in the story.
“I wasn’t over the top or overly sensitive,” said Reed, who is one of Obama’s top surrogates. “But I thought that was a huge that Morehouse wasn’t mentioned.”
Reed and the reporter went back and forth, before the reporter acknowledged his omission.
“The mayor is a fast learner,” said Torres, who, along with Dade, tries to monitor what Reed sends out. “He has taken well to social media and using it in a way it should be used — authentic, engaging and responsive. Whether the comments are good or bad.”
And unlike other politicians, all of Reed’s tweets – at least as of last October — are his.
“Even if they disagree with me, if somebody is interested in a serious conversation, I will engage,” Reed said. “If it goes in the direction where it is rage, anger or nonsense, I just disengage and keep moving. But anybody who knows me knows I am not going to be somebody’s lunch.”
#DONTTRYTOBETHEFONZ
On the Reed’s desk is a little book containing all of his Twitter pictures from the 2013 inauguration. He said he still worries about what social media is doing to young people, in terms of writing and their ability to communicate. But as he flipped through his book, he said he understands the power of the medium.
"You can tell when you share with people and it moves them. So what I am trying to do is give people a sense of being mayor," said Reed, adding that he is still taking baby steps. "I don't do anything in terms of technology that I don't know or understand. And I don't have people teaching me who don't know what they are doing. The key is to do what you are comfortable with. Don't try to be Fonzie. Don't try to be hot."
Follow staff writer Ernie Suggs on Twitter.
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