Robert Gibbs Could Teach Politicians a Thing or Two About Using Twitter

Robert Gibbs is using Twitter to connect to regular Americans in a rather innovative way, soliciting short questions on the micro-blogging site and then answering them via video a few hours later. This type of engagement is exactly what politicians should be using Twitter for – a two-way exchange of ideas between the electorate and the individual.

This morning at about 10AM Gibbs posted the following message on his official Twitter account:

“Had a trip or 2 since last time, but let’s get back to it: Send in your q’s using #1Q. What do you want to know?”

Using the #1Q hashtag, regular American citizens could send Gibbs a question and get a response. Hundreds of questions flooded in throughout the afternoon, and by 1PM Gibbs and his team had selected 2 to answer via video.

The First Question website hosts Gibbs’ latest video response to Tweeters. he addressed two questions today: one about pushing a vote on Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell during the lame-duck session in Congress, and another about whether the President would have to water down the START treaty to get it passed. You can watch Gibbs’ full responses to these questions here.

Gibbs has done a similar Q&A via Twitter before, once this month and once in October. We’re hoping that this starts a trend of transparency and engagement with citizens on Twitter that Gibbs maintains and other politicians embrace.

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