Progressives Gather Forces on Twitter

Launched yesterday (8/23/09), TweetProgress.us, already has nearly 1,200 registered progressives and counting. Created by Jim Gilliam (@jgilliam), Tracy Viselli (@myrnatheminx), Jon Pincus (@jdp23) and Gina Cooper (@ginacooper) as a directory for progressives on Twitter, TweetProgress.us is the newest phase in our efforts to better organize progressives on Twitter.

After first learning about how organized convervatives were on Twitter, under the #TCOT hashtag (Top Conservatives On Twitter), from my colleagues at the Center for American Progress, I launched the #TOPPROG hashtag to help better organize tweeting progressives. Within 24 hours, #TOPPROG cracked the top 20 hashtags and remained in the top 25 for a couple months.

Shortly after launching #TOPPROG, a few other progressives on Twitter, including Viselli and Jon Pincus (@jdp23) launched #P2, a shorter hashtag for progressive conversations on Twitter. As they evolved, #P2 has become the primary hashtag for conversations among progressives, while #TOPPROG is increasingly being used to bridge conversations with #TCOT and the libertarians' #TLOT.

It quickly became apparent that progressives, while not aggregating en masse under a single hashtag like conservatives, were very active on Twitter. #P2 and #TOPPROG, along with #ProgressiveTuesday, #EcoMonday, and #green, are among several hashtags being used to aggregate progressive-themed conversations.

With the arrival of TweetProgress.us, we now have a growing directory of progressives.

Jim Gilliam, who built TweetProgress.us after a brainstorming conversation with Viselli, also built Act.ly, an evolving platform for using Twitter to take grassroots action (initially, petitions). With these tools, along with TweetLeft.com, which feeds a live stream of #P2 Twitter posts, progressives are not only organized on Twitter, but well equipped.

If you know of more Twitter tools for progressives, please post them in the comments section below.

Follow Alan Rosenblatt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drdigipol

Comments

[TheLar]

Instead of #TOPPROG - I suggest in keeping with the other hash tags, #TPOT.

Incidentally, I just launched a hashtag myself, #fearofthemonth - to speculate on what the next GOP Republican Conservative scare tactic will be. Can be funny, true, false, unfunny, whatever. Try it!

Thanks! See you in the tweet-o-sphere! (?)

Larry Nocella
www.LarryNocella.com

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

#topprog has been in full use now for many months and has built up its own momentum. Meanwhile, some of the pushback on it were that it was too derivative of #TCOT. #TPOT would only be more so.

[TheLar]

Makes sense. Thanks for considering it and thanks for the reply. Keep up the good work!

[Jon Pincus]

Great article, Alan. One thing I'd add is that #rebelleft was started at just about the same time as #topprog, and we've worked closely with them as #p2's been getting up and going.

There's an overview of Hashtags for progressives on Twitter at http://p2pt0.wetpaint.com/page/Hashtags -- more suggestions welcome!

[TheGreenMiles]

Ala, thanks as always for your great work in this area. One question about TweetProgress.us, any plans to be able to sort the progressives? I'd love to be able to find people by topic or by location. Thanks again!

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

Great idea Miles. Jim says search is coming. :)

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

As @debergalis mentioned on Twitter, ActBlue now allows you to donate via Twitter.

[Suzanne Turner]

and, p.s., don't forget about #fem2 - hashtag for any and all women's issues discussions

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

Of course, #fem2 and also #women2follow

[Jon Pincus]

Great point about #fem2, Suzanne -- in fact the #p2 name was chosen in part as a hat-tip to #fem2. We had an excellent Twittercast in June discussing how #p2 and #fem2 could potentially work together.

[Suzanne Turner]

Great piece, Alan, thanks! Funny, I learned about this HuffPo piece from a tweet by conservative David All!

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

I am always thankful to David for promoting my work :)

[mommadona]

Herding Cats 101 = feed them, and they will come.

[JimR]

Um... that's great, I guess. It will join other groups that have effected great social change through tweets, like.... um....

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

Like #AmazonFAIL, which led to there reversal of classifying LGBT themed books as "adult.
Like #IranElection which provided more breaking news from those elections than the MSM
Like #AfghanElection which scooped the press many times again

Twitter is far too young for it to be dismissed. Remember many dismissed blogs as kids in their pajamas... until Trent Lott, Dan Rather, etc. And SMS was considered kids stuff, too, before it took down incumbent governments in the Philippines and Spain.