Booker passes 1 million followers on twitter, but how he uses social media is what's impressive

by: Jason Springer

Mon Dec 21, 2009 at 04:00:00 PM EST

I saw a tweet over the weekend congratulating Newark Mayor Cory Booker on surpassing 1 million followers on twitter.

1 million connections, 1 million thank yous for 1 million followers. Let's continue 2 unite 2 provoke peace, inspiration, laughter, & love

If you're curious about how long it took him, we did a post towards the end of May where he had just 67,000 followers and he was predicting 100,000 by the end of the month. It's not just that he has people following him, it's how he uses the social media tool. Take this example:

RT @SteveScottWCBS: My live WCBS 880 interview with @corybooker this morning was my first-ever radio interview set up completely on Twitter!

Now he's scheduling traditional media appearances by using new media. He really is a fantastic example of how you can use new media to amplify the work you would have already done. During the snowstorm over the weekend, people were contacting him notifying where they needed snow plows. He was responding directly to let them know help was on the way. Then he followed up so she would let him know when it was done. He even solicited help via twitter to have people join him shoveling out seniors and disabled residents and saw people respond to the call.

He's put up videos of the Newark Night Patrol and why people help as they try to make the city safer. He took on Conan O'Brien at NBC and Barry Melrose at ESPN when they gave negative critiques of the city getting them to not only stop being negative, but completely turn around their rhetoric. In Conan's case, Booker parlayed the feud into a contribution to his "Newark Now" charity. In the Melrose situation, Booker got a public apology on ESPN after he toured the city.

He uses youtube to record his "week in review" and then publishes them on twitter for wider viewing to help change public perception of the city in combination with their daily work on the ground. We've also seen the Booker/Kutcher service challenge that encouraged people to volunteer and participate in service to their community.

Mayor Booker doesn't use twitter to replace anything, he uses it to supplement the work he would be doing anyway and amplify the reach of the message in the process.

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