As the US elections are getting closer, the various social 
media channels are really buzzing again with activity.
Just like in business, twitter is a great tool to use
for getting the latest updates from your favourite brand
or in this case election candidate or party,
it’s also great for following and even participating in
the various live debates happening online in real time.
So why is twitter so popular and suitable for this purpose?
Well here are some good reasons: It’s free, simple to setup and relatively easy to use.
We have setup a simple three step guide that will have you setup, following your chosen
election candidate or party and engaging in the political debate in literally minutes.
Our simple three step guide:
- How to setup your twitter account
- How to find and follow your favourite candidates
- How to find, follow & participate in the debates as they happen on twitter
1: How to setup your twitter account
Visit the Twitter website and click “Signup for twitter” to create your account.
Use you own name or choose any name or handle you want to use.
Once your new twitter account is created, then login and click “Settings.”
From here, you can setup your account details, manage your password,
configure how you receive updates, add a profile pic etc.
2: How to find and follow your favourite candidates
From your witter homepage: Simply click on the #Discover option ( top of the page ) then enter the name of the candidates you want to follow in the search box on the top right hand corner and hit search, when their twitter page opens then simply click “follow” on the top right of their page. Hey presto: Now you are following them and you will start seeing their tweets appearing in the timeline on your twitter home page in seconds.
3: How to find, follow & participate in the debates as they happen on twitter
Twitter users engage in organised real-time conversations using a technique called topic trending, this is
achieved simply by adding a Hashtag (#) in front of a word to associate the word with a specific topic, tweets containing similar hashtags trend together in categories, so you can follow real-time conversations by following a trending topic live on your twitter stream.
To help you kick things off we have assembled a list of the most popular twitter topics re the 2012 presidential election
all you have to do is insert them on the search box to start following the conversation:
Most popular topics: In no particular order: ( Enter them in your search box, one at a time )
#2012election #DEM #GOP #IND #TODT
#RonPaul #Obama #RomneyRyan2012 #Mitt2012 #RomneyRyan2013
How to find what is trending now on twitter in your area:
If you want to find out what exactly is trending now on twitter in your area, then this is great
tool for displaying the top trending topics in real time : see Trendsmap
The end
off you go and participate!