Twitter and the United States’ Congressmen

By Eric Haberkorn, Ellie Miller, and Ben Nielsen

The use of the online communication service Twitter is exploding worldwide and politicians are making good use of it to communicate with their citizens as well. Nearly all of the members of Congress have Twitter accounts that they use to keep citizens informed as to what they do on a daily basis. We followed four Republican Congressmen (Ron Paul of Texas, Rob Wittman of Virginia, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and Darrell Issa of California) and four Democrat Congressmen (Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, Nancy Pelosi of California, and Leonard Boswell of Iowa). The Congressmen use Twitter to make announcements as to where they might be that day or events that happened in Congress. Many of them also use it to communicate with citizens in their district/state and respond to their inquiries.

Based on the data we collected for these members of Congress, we feel we can categorize them based on how they use Twitter to communicate. These categories for their Twitter usage are as follows: active and tweeted often, inactive and tweeted often, active and tweeted infrequently, and inactive and tweeted infrequently. Rob Wittman, Neil Abercrombie, Nancy Pelosi and Darrell Issa are active and tweeted often. They tend to tweet multiple times each day and communicate with other twitter members often as well. Leonard Boswell, Ron Paul, Debbie Stabenow, and Ben Nelson are inactive and tweeted often. They infrequently post updates yet they are tweeted by other twitter members often. None of the Congressmen we collected data for fell into the other two categories, however. It appears that twitter users are interested in communicating with their representatives via Twitter, however only some of the representatives are active in using it to communicate back to the citizens.

Name	Party	Twitter ID	Date Began Using Twitter	# They Follow	# That Follows Them	# of Total Updates	# of Updates in Our Collection	Rank in # of Tweets for Our Collection
Neil Abercrombie	D	NeilAbercrombie	11/1/2007	5300	4821	377	33	1st
Rob Wittman	R	RobWittman	7/1/2008	350	2810	762	67	1st
Nancy Pelosi	D	NancyPelosi	8/1/2008	5	1028	253	0	Not in Top 10
Ben Nelson	D	SenBenNelson	2/1/2009	0	1899	35	4	Not in Top 10
Debbie Stabenow	R	Stabenow	2/1/2009	0	967	5	0	Not in Top 10
Leonard Boswell	D	LeonardBoswell	2/1/2009	209	1132	54	0	Not in Top 10
Darrell Issa	R	DarrellIssa	3/1/2009	4824	7291	884	69	1st
Ron Paul	R	RepRonPaul	9/1/2009	41	503	20	0	Not in Top 10

Members of Congress’s Twitter Use

To further analyze each Congressman’s use of Twitter, we looked at each of their status updates and categorized them. The Congressmen’s use of Twitter had some similarities, but each of the members had a category that their status updates fell into more often than not. The categories that we coded each update with are: “local”, “join me”, “policy”, “refer-me”, “refer-other”, “criticism”, “party”, “interaction”, and “other”. Looking at each category gives a better idea of how each Congressman uses their Twitter account. Because four of our Congressmen had no status updates during the time we captured data, we will primarily focus on the four who did have updates.

Name	Party	Twitter ID	Status Updates	Most Common Category of Tweets (# of tweets)	% of Total Updates
Darrell Issa	R	DarrellIssa	69	Refer-other(20)	28.99%
Rob Wittman	R	RobWittman	67	Refer-other (17)	25.37%
Neil Abercrombie	D	NeilAbercrombie	33	Local (15)	45.45%
Ben Nelson	D	SenBenNelson	4	Policy (2)	50%
Ron Paul	R	RepRonPaul	0	-	-
Debbie Stabenow	R	Stabenow	0	-	-
Nancy Pelosi	D	NancyPelosi	0	-	-
Leonard Boswell	D	LeonardBoswell	0	-	-

“Local” Tweets:

Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii had nearly half of his tweets relating to local events that took place. He often uploaded photos and commented on different events he was at in Hawaii. The other seven Congressmen rarely talked about local events or issues that pertain to their local citizens.

“Join Me” Tweets:

The Congressmen we looked at sometimes used Twitter to invite their followers and citizens to an event or broadcast that they were a part of. Darrell Issa often invited others to watch him on Fox News, whereas Rob Wittman encouraged followers to join him on a telecast town hall meeting. Abercrombie also invited followers to watch him on television, but also invited them to a bill signing. These three were the most active tweeters and seem to be the most personable too, often inviting citizens to events and broadcasts so they can voice their opinions.

“Policy” Tweets:

To build up support for bills or to announce new bills, the Congressmen often tweeted about different policies. Of our eight Congressmen, Rob Wittman tweeted the most often about policy, often talking about both nationwide and statewide concerns. Neil Abercrombie had a handful of policy tweets, but they all had to do with local concerns and building support for new measures. When Darrell Issa tweeted about policy, he often questioned the other party and bills that they were voting for and against. We found it interesting that a majority of all of the policy tweets we collected were about local concerns and statewide policies, rather than current congressional issues.

“Refer-Me” Tweets:

The eight Congressmen we followed often tweeted about articles and websites that had their views and/or comments on different events. Senator Ben Nelson had tweets referring to his weekly online column that he writes on his website; Rob Wittman also tweeted about a similar column he wrote, too. Issa often referred users to videos of his views and responses to the health care issue. The rest of the Congressmen rarely, if ever, posted refer-me tweets. It seems that tweets like this tend to be used by the Congressmen to point followers to their views or information about them on other sites.

“Refer-Other” Tweets:

For Rob Wittman and Darrell Issa, the most common category their tweets fell into was refer-other. They both seem to post a lot of links to stories and editorials that they find interesting and pertinent to things going on locally and nationally. Instead of interacting with other Twitter users, they tend to just use their Twitter accounts to create awareness of different measures. Neil Abercrombie had no such tweets and seems to be more interested in interacting and notifying citizens and followers of events, as did Senator Ben Nelson.

“Criticism” Tweets:

Many of the Congressmen didn’t have many criticism tweets, probably to avoid controversy and bad publicity. The most outspoken Congressman we followed was Darrell Issa, who is very critical of President Obama and the Democratic party in general in many of his tweets. The only other Congressman with any “criticism” tweets was Neil Abercrombie, whose tweets were more concern for the state of Hawaii than critical of anything.

“Party” Tweets:

None of the Congressmen we followed had any tweets about their party or anything to do with parties really. If the tweets did mention parties then tended to be more criticism or policy-based tweets.

“Interaction” Tweets:

Neil Abercrombie was our only Congressman who interacted with other Twitter users. He is very polite and thanks them for things they say and discusses issues in a civil manner with them. He seems to be the most personable Congressman that we collected data on because of this interaction and the amount of local and join me tweets he also has.

“Other” Tweets:

Each of the Congressmen had some tweets that didn’t really fit into any of our categories, so they were categorized as “other” tweets. Most of them were simply announcements, pictures, and links irrelevant to politics or any issues currently being dealt with. Darrell Issa tweets often about what he is doing and where he is at. Many of Rob Wittman’s tweets “other” tweets are pictures of him with other political figures or things he ran into. This category is how we categorized all of the tweets the Congressman made that didn’t necessarily pertain to politics or other issues.

When looking at all of the tweets the members of Congress made, it seems there is a correlation between the time they have been on Twitter and the number of updates they make. Neil Abercrombie and Rob Wittman were two of the most active tweeters and they have been on twitter for longer than the rest of the Congressmen we selected.

Citizen’s Twitter Use with Congressmen

With a new administration in the White House and a new Democratic-majority in Congress, many of the tweets that citizens post for Congressmen urge them to take action on a reform or policy. The issues that have risen with the new administration are policies that many people have strong feelings about; something that can be seen in a lot of the tweets we collected. We collected many tweets containing hash tags that associate them with these issues. Some people repeatedly posted many with at-replies to the Congressmen.

Name	Party	Twitter ID	Most Common Policy	Percent of tweets	Total Number of responses
Nancy Pelosi	D	NancyPelosi	Health Care	100%	2706
Ben Nelson	D	SenBenNelson	Health Care	78%	1107
Leonard Boswell	D	LeonardBoswell	Health Care	89%	1041
Neil Abercrombie	D	NeilAbercrombie	Health Care	77%	851
Debbie Stabenow	R	Stabenow	Other	48%	831
Darrell Issa	R	DarrellIssa	Other	67%	794
Rob Wittman	R	RobWittman	Health Care/Other	49%	222
Ron Paul	R	RepRonPaul	Other	90%	123

The most common topics people tweeted their Congressmen about are health care and the Copenhagen Treaty. The people who tweeted their Congressmen seem to have strong views on these policies. For example, people were either one hundred percent for or against the health care reform. People who were against the health care reform would mention death panels and six-month waits for surgeries. Political tweets seem to be fairly extreme because people who have strong opinions about policies are more likely to tweet than people who have moderate opinions.

The issues that people tweeted about varied based on the congressmen that they were sent to. Citizens tweeted Ben Nelson, Neil Abercrombie, Nancy Pelosi, and Leonard Boswell about health care most of the time. Many people tweeted Debbie Stabenow about health care and random issues that effected Michigan. The people who tweeted Ron Paul and Darrell Issa had the most unique tweets. Many of the tweets that were directed to Ron Paul were about the bill he is sponsoring to audit the Federal Reserve. None of the people who tweeted the other congressmen we captured had tweets about the Federal Reserve. People also wrote tweets that advertised Ron Paul’s new twitter account. This is probably because Ron Paul just begun using twitter. The tweets directed to Darrell Issa were about things like the subpoena on mortgages held members of congress and the Republicans being locked out of the House of Representatives. Ron Paul and Darrell Issa seem to have individual followings, while the rest of the Congressmen are tweeted as if the person is talking to congress as a whole.

Most people sent their Congressmen links to stories about the issues they were concerned about. Citizens frequently had a firm but respectful tone when they addressed their Congressmen. People almost exclusively referred to their congressmen in their tweets. Leonard Boswell seems to be more controversial than most Congressmen. People frequently criticized Boswell’s views on health care. Citizens sent similar tweets to all of the Congressmen that we captured except for Ron Paul and Derrell Issa. Paul and Issa’s followers tend to tweet about issues that have to do with these Congressmens’ personal agendas. Citizens generally tweet their Congressmen about issues that are popular. At this time the Copenhagen Treaty and the health care reform are at the forefront of peoples thought. Overtime, the topics that people talk about will change, but people will almost assuredly continue to tweet their congressmen about the prevalent political issues of the time.

Name	Party	Twitter ID	Most Common Type of Articulation	Total Percent	Total Number of Responses
Nancy Pelosi	D	NancyPelosi	refer	99%	2706
Ben Nelson	D	SenBenNelson	refer	94%	1107
Leonard Boswell	D	LeonardBoswell	criticism pol	65%	1041
Neil Abercrombie	D	NeilAbercrombie	refer	86%	852
Debbie Stabenow	R	Stabenow	refer	41%	831
Darrell Issa	R	DarrellIssa	refer	49%	794
Rob Wittman	R	RobWittman	repeat	50%	222
Ron Paul	R	RepRonPaul	refer	85%	123

Most Personable Member of Congress

When looking at the types of tweets and overall tone of the tweets, we found that Neil Abercrombie is the most personable Congressman of the ones we followed. He often tweeted about local events and posted pictures of the events he attended. He also was very kind to other Twitter users with posts such as: “@Audacityeby50 thank you for your kind words” and “@spiraljetty thank you. It's an issue that needs to be worked on. Our obligation is to our children.” Abercrombie seems very active in his state and community and seems like a very personable Congressman. He ranked third in total updates for our collection, but his updates were more for the people that follow him and interaction with them when compared to the top two in terms of total updates. Wittman and Issa each had more tweets than Abercrombie, but they were more their thoughts and daily actions rather than interaction and local events. It seems that Congressmen either use Twitter often to update followers on their activities and announcements or rarely use the service at all.