White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

New Twitter Advertising Pays to Follow. No, Really.

By

Wondering why certain Twitters are being suggested to follow over the people you know? Thank Twitter’s ingenious advertising plan.

All Things Digital’s Media Memo revealed yesterday that paid suggestions is just one of three advertising plans being put to use by Twitter:

The idea is a simple one, people familiar with the company’s plans tell me: Twitter will try to help corporations and brands increase their Twitter following by inserting them alongside other Twitter users it suggests in its “Who to Follow” feature.

Don’t fret, though. If you’re not a fan of say Greta Van Susteren or Jimmy Carter, you won’t be inundated with their profile pics forever locked in your Who To Follow. Twitter’s algorithm will ensure just because someone pays to promote their Twitter, they won’t spam people who aren’t relevant to your friends and followers.

The official announcement will come shortly. The adoption of this in campaign promotion and outreach will be the thundering noise to follow.

Haus of Gaga Fails To Beat Senate

By

In a tale as old as time, beauty can’t beat the beast with 100 backs–especially when it comes to legislation.

That’s exactly what the Internet learned upon today’s 56-43 vote to not pass $726 billion in defense spending, according to the AP, which also included language to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, or DADT as the official Twitter hashtag.

Lady Gaga gained a bit more steam last week after tweeting a Senate vote should be scheduled against “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” which picked up further press when Harry Reid re-tweeted her to explain there was an upcoming vote according to Politico; Gaga was referencing her recent appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards where her dates were all gay servicemen and women.

Since Gaga has adopted DADT as her rallying point–quite literally yesterday in Maine, as MTV reports. Her rallying speech (video above) called for an end to the practice. But today’s block doesn’t bode well for the repeal anytime soon, as the Times claims:

Congress has approved the annual Pentagon authorization bill for 48 consecutive years, and it seems likely that the measure will be brought up again after the election in the relatively calmer — if somewhat unpredictable — atmosphere of a lame-duck session.  The House has already approved legislation allowing the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the provision will likely be easier to pass in the Senate after Dec. 1 when a Pentagon study on the effects of ending the policy is due.

Still, the House has already passed legislation to repeal the act and December 1st is another day. Perhaps the Senate hasn’t heard the last from the Haus or Gaga.

Tw'oh No, Twitter!

By

As Twitter continues to unroll its “New Twitter” functionality, a rather pornographic exploit came to light this morning.

Mashable explains that “The flaw uses a JavaScript function called onMouseOver which creates an event when the mouse is passed over a chunk of text. We’ve seen the flaw being abused to launch simple pop-up windows, redirect users elsewhere (including porn sites), and we’ve also seen it used in combination with blocks of color, covering the true “intention” of the tweet.”

The bug was fully patched as of 9:50 am according to Twitter’s Status Blog, luckily saving the day of all bloggers and media types desperate to tweet their relief.

(video via Gizmodo)

Fake AP(ps) and Reports are The New Attack Ad

By

So long Daisy and Demon Sheep; hello mobile phones and faux-reports!

The Washington Post reports on Robert Ehrlich Jr.’s recent advertising campaign to take back the governor’s seat this year. Instead of a generic spot airing on the cable networks, the former Maryland governor provides on-location briefings via YouTube “covered” by Andy Barth, a former TV reporter and now acting as his press secretary.

[Read more…]

Tale of the Tweets: Obama v. Obama

By

Obama’s premiere Oval Office speech last week was the worst of social media and the best of social media.

Mashable ran “Obama Speech on BP Oil Not A Hit with Facebook and Twitter Users” after taking data provided by Crimson Hexagon from “83,000 Tweets and public Facebook comments” over a nine hour shift. But taking such things into account can provide little feedback, especially when 15 percent of the poll were annoyed they missed So You Think You Can Dance and the other five questioned why so many people would anonymously make fun of the president.

[Read more…]

Obama Tweets, Media Follow

By

1562488393_210c6f0377With a president who addresses the nation weekly via YouTube, can you really be surprised that the White House is now on Twitter? The account name is — surprise again — WhiteHouse, and it’s yet another way the Obama administration is trying to get its message out beyond the usual avenue of the White House press corps.

As of this moment, there are nearly 33,000 followers, including at least one White House correspondent — Jake Tapper of ABC News. The media at large have noticed with articles (Washington Post and USA Today, for instance). Doubtlessly more news organizations will as well.

The question: Is a Twittering White House a good thing? Let us know what you think in a comment.

And be sure to follow WHCInsider on Twitter, too!