From the piece on sfgate.com, the online version the SF Chron:
"No candidate has ever used all of these tools at once - and it had to happen with a candidate from the Bay Area. This is the capital of new media," said Newsom's political consultant Eric Jaye, who noted that San Francisco-based Twitter, Palo Alto-based Facebook and San Bruno-based YouTube, now a subsidiary of Google, are all located in the region.
Jaye said the mayor has amassed some 270,000 followers on Twitter - second only to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - as well as 40,000 on Facebook, 150,000 names on his campaign e-mail lists, and reaches thousands of others with his regular blogs on the Huffington Post and Daily Kos, two progressive Web sites.
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Methinks that more and more candidates will do this, especially if they think that the announcement could turn into a shit storm because of controversial actions in the past. "Whether or not you like it..." I hope good reporters will get the entire story.
While announcing on twitter, facebook, and youtube is definitely very convenient and appeals to younger eyeballs, ONLY using these media is not inclusive of other people who do not subscribe to any of these Web-based networks. Hopefully, candidates and other political figures do not forget the population who still get their news from good old newspapers and TV.
I think at this point and time, Newsom is being very smart in using these technological avenues. Obama was the first president to really hit the internet hard and through various channels and look where it got him- the largest amount of new voters and it opened up and appealed to a new demographic. Gavin Newsom is following suite and I think in California, this will definitely help. From PCMAG.com: "It's official- running for Gov of CA. Wanted you to be the first to know. Need your help," Newsom wrote on his Twitter feed.
The mayor also posted a video on YouTube and a note on his Facebook account. He raised approximately $15,000 the first day in online donations.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345778,00.asp
I think it is interesting that he tried to use these new technologies for his announcement, but I don't believe that it was necessarily for the right reasons. I don't think that he did it to try and promote these new networks as much as he did it to simply avoid the press. I think it was somewhat of a publicity stunt to use such an abstract form of communication. I feel as though he should at least have a follow-up press conference to answer people questions.
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