One of the things you will be immediately impressed by if you cover the campaign of Chuck DeVore is how active and engaged his online outreach team is. If you write a blog post about DeVore or even send out a tweet about him, you promptly get a response from the campaign, and often something from the candidate himself or his wife. It’s one of the things the Chuck DeVore campaign has done right, and as a result, Chuck DeVore has built a very respectable Twitter following, from the ground up.
It appears now that the NRSC may be attempting to fake the same level of support for their preferred candidate, Carly Fiorina. In the last 36 hours, Fiorina has gone from having over 400 followers (less than your humble correspondent) to having over 8,000 followers; in other words, she’s added over 7,500 followers in the last day and a half. At a glance (and it’s difficult to evaluate these things), the overwhelming majority of these followers appear to be spam/porn/inactive twitterers.
Now, I suppose it is possible that a bunch of people who don’t really use twitter suddenly became interested in following Carly Fiorina’s twitter account. Evidence suggests otherwise, however. As I noted a few days ago, the NRSC recently made a few CYA moves in support of little-known candidate Al Ramirez. Soon after, Al Ramirez suddenly also found himself the beneificiary of thousands of twitter followers; almost the exact same number, in fact as Carly Fiorina. Ramirez was overjoyed by this news and tweeted about it, specifically thanking the NRSC for getting him all the new followers!
I attach a screencap because since that time, this message (specifically thanking the NRSC) has been pulled down, replaced by this somewhat more innocuous tweet thanking… no one in particular for Ramirez’s bounty. It certainly seems that the NRSC has been busy boosting Al Ramirez’s twitter followers and then someone wised up and told him that he shouldn’t mention that. Because, you know, someone might notice that Carly Fiorina has also had her follower count artificially boosted by almost the exact same number and might connect some dots.
Of course, ultimately, this is somewhat of a silly and venial stunt the NRSC appears to have pulled here. That, ultimately, is the major source of the problem. It stinks of amateur hour astroturfing, and more importantly, it discredits the work done by Chuck DeVore and other Republican candidates who have worked hard on their outreach to the online community on the right. This isn’t the kind of situation where I could point out that fairness demands that the NRSC do the same for DeVore, because I’m quite sure DeVore doesn’t want it.
I checked five of the "inactive" followers...
Vladimir Friday, October 30th at 2:26PM EDT (link)…all five were following exactly 20 other accounts.
All of the followed accounts had tens if not hundreds of thousands of followers. I can’t say as I checked them all, but I’d sure be surprised if these accounts turn out to be real.
There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Checked a few more.
Vladimir Friday, October 30th at 2:35PM EDT (link)Some have as many as 24 followed accounts, none less than 20.
And some of these have a handful of junk twits. Just because they’re not empty doesn’t mean they’re not a bot.
Nice move, guys. Way to cover your tracks.
There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Tweets. Whatever. nt
Vladimir Friday, October 30th at 2:35PM EDT (link)There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Twitters "20 suggestions"
caconservagirl Friday, October 30th at 7:26PM EDT (link)Out of curiosity of this article, I went to look at Twitter and check it out. When I signed up, “20 suggested people you may like” came up. CarlyforCA came up as well as Nick Cannon, E! News, and I Can Has Cheezburger.
I refreshed my brower on that page and MakeCASpecial (Al Ramirez’s twitter page) came up along with Good Morning America, John Mayer, and ABC News. Twitter must like Al!
Devore website problems
Thomas_Hauber Friday, October 30th at 2:50PM EDT (link)His website still has some problems. I have tried twice to signup and after a day and a half, have still not received a confirming email.
Also, he is collecting some demographic information and unfortunately in the category of sex you have either male/female or blank. Obviously that needs to be fixed.
Well, on the male/female thing...
KeepOhioRed Friday, October 30th at 3:19PM EDT (link)it IS California remember…
Yeah, so?
Cheryl Friday, October 30th at 3:38PM EDT (link)LOL
Ahnold is werking on it now.
blooch Friday, October 30th at 3:59PM EDT (link)Keep checking. It should say “Girlie men” soon.
“I have to admit that Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a smart man. He was, in many ways, a psychologist.”–drealoth
Why does this matter?
Flagstaff Friday, October 30th at 3:00PM EDT (link)I’m serious. Does a candidate get extra votes when he has more Twits following him? Even if they’re phantom Twits? Do people believe that the number of Twits corresponds to political viability?
What am I missing?
Pluto, the Ninth Planet - Forever!
Everyone wants grassroots credibility...
Neil Stevens Friday, October 30th at 3:17PM EDT (link)But only one of our candidates has that.
Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
Ok, now the "Get 1,000s of Followers Overnight!!" spam makes sense
Erick Brockway Friday, October 30th at 3:41PM EDT (link)Somebody has a bot army that’ll follow whoever you want for a fee.
Now checking some of the other bot follows, each has 20 or 21 follows, and looking at them no two have the same that I’ve found but seeing names like “Justin Timberlake” and “ABC News”, I wonder how many of their followers are legit now?
Don’t really care about the rest, but it sure looks trashy when a politician does it.
Well, here’s one possibility, Carly is on the Official Suggested Followers list, also listed is Meg Whitman showing many of the same fake followers.
Note to lefties;
“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
Ronald Reagan
Join the RedState Strike Force
Chip in to get rid of “Babs” (Yes ma’am) Boxer.
Here's some more info on the power of the "Suggested Followers" list
Erick Brockway Friday, October 30th at 4:15PM EDT (link)First, somebody noticed far more Democrats listed than Republicans.
Here Twitter explains their selection process for the list, and I’m sure somewhere being former CEO of HP, whatever harm she may have done, may help explain how she got on the list.
Now it seems to make it fairly easy for someone with a bot Twitter army to get huge money for following someone listed.
Search turns up quite a few “services“. I don’t suggest clicking on any like I did, “Are You SURE you want to leave this site” pop ups hammer you relentlessly.
Note to lefties;
“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
Ronald Reagan
Join the RedState Strike Force
Chip in to get rid of “Babs” (Yes ma’am) Boxer.
Twit Popularity
billf Friday, October 30th at 4:49PM EDT (link)I wonder if the NRSC thinks their Twit followers will vote for Fiorina and Ramirez at the polls
This happened to me
wimom Friday, October 30th at 9:40PM EDT (link)I signed up and then never used the site. I noticed I got an email that said I was now following Carly. I didn’t know who it was and just ignored it.
He could win a lamest coverup/excuse award
bk Friday, October 30th at 9:57PM EDT (link)Check out some of the tweets since this happened. He was thanking the NRSC for moving some conference room tables. How could anyone have thought he meant anything else?
And another thing...
caconservagirl Saturday, October 31st at 5:09AM EDT (link)Leon, if you are going to pick on Fiorina, then use her Twitter site and not Ramirez’s as your example. It really looks like you didn’t do your homework on this one. Fiorina is racking up Twitter followers at a much greater rate than Ramirez is.
The NRSC held an event for Ramirez, not Fiorina. Ramirez has filed his FEC paperwork, not Fiorina. Ramirez is a candidate, not Fiorina. Is the NRSC really backing Fiorina then? How can they back someone who isn’t really a candidate then throw an event for another candidate who is running for the same office?
I think you are looking for a conspiracy that isn’t really there.