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.