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On Twitter, U.S. Senator makes own rules of engagement

One member of the U.S. Senate won’t follow you back on Twitter. Don’t take it personally though, especially if you live in Missouri, because there’s a good reason to Sen. Claire McCaskill’s technique. While the concept defies conventional wisdom of social media engagement, engagement is exactly why she’s a non-follower.

“Most members of Congress who tweet have staff help on their tweeting,” she wrote on her blog. “I took a different route. I decided I would do this myself.”


Sen. McCaskill explains that she reads — and replies — to nearly every Tweet addressed to her; however, if she followed everyone back, she’d have to sift through too many Tweets to find the ones that truly require her attention. It comes down to time management, she explains: rather than allocate all that time to engaging on Twitter, she’d rather spend it engaging on her work for Missouri.

The junior Senator’s Twitter handle (@clairecmc) currently counts more than 38,000 followers and she’s posted more than 1,500 times. Mashable credits her with creating the #MO hash tag as a means for residents of Missouri to get her attention.


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This post is adopted from an anecdote in a paper to which I contributed for my employer called, “Ten (and a Half) Great Social Media Successes.” It’s good content, and I’m glad to have a post!

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