Let me start off by saying I thought it was very cool to see that President Barack Obama was embracing the social media and new media worlds during his election campaign (some he still uses), and I wish him nothing but the best with his Presidency.
But infopreneurs can learn an important lesson about Twitter and social media in general by looking at President Barack Obama's Twitter page. Go ahead, check it out at http://Twitter.com/BarackObama.
On the surface it looks great! Nice background and positive reinforcement of President Obama's image. President Obama has 330,000+ followers, and he follows back most people (although I never 
got a follow). This is no small feat since he apparently is able to follow 312,000+ people while being The President of the United States and still having a nice family :)
Now look at the tweets of President Obama. This could change of course, but at the time of this post:
1. The last tweet from President Obama was on January 19th when he asked us to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. (UPDATE 3/25, a new tweet was finally posted after more than 2 months)
2. The prior entry on Twitter was from President Obama on January 15th regarding his Inauguration Day.
3. The tweet before that from President Obama, was on November 5th when he was elected to the Oval Office.
4. Prior to that he (or his staff) was tweeting on a regular basis, usually at least daily throughout his campaign.
So what's wrong with this picture? President Obama (likely at the advice of his PR advisers) started using Twitter to help call attention to his campaign efforts, and then once he got elected and took office he--gulp--abandoned Twitter!
Yes, the man clearly has a full plate now as President. However, what was the point of building up a tremendous following on Twitter like that and not maintaining it? And since he clearly has good intentions of staying connected to "we, the people", is there any easier way to do so than with 140 characters on Twitter?
And it's not like people aren't noticing he's abandoned Twitter. My friend and one of my trusted mentors, Paul Colligan, pointed out Obama's Twitter withdrawal awhile back on a webinar I recently caught up on. My first reaction was "say it ain't so, Paul." And I was shocked to see he was so right!
If you look through President Obama's "@replies", lots of people on Twitter are calling him on it too. Some are politely asking "what's up? " Why aren't you tweeting anymore? Some are commenting that maybe he's too good for Twitter now (which I don't believe, but you can see where people would get that idea). Now that's certainly not the impression you would want the American people to have. People are also sending him lots of opinions and comments via Twitter--but it's all one way.
Nobody's perfect. We all get busy, or sick and fall off the radar screen for a few days. It can be hard to keep up with all the various forms of online presence. Plus, sometimes you find that something you were doing in the past no longer fits in with your overall business plan. And not everyone decides to stick with Twitter once they start it up (although I personally think this is a huge mistake as Twitter is a force to be reckoned with--please see my prior post Twitter: Infopreneur Friend Or Waste Of Time or What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know, The Podcast episode 8 Why Twitter Is Definitely An Infopreneur's Best Friend for more on this).
However, President Obama, it's generally not a good social media strategy to abandon white hot social media site Twitter--at least not without an explanation.
Surely there must be some White House intern who could give you a hand and be your proxy, and both put up new tweets at least daily, and respond to the best @replies. But please admit it if someone else is always going to be tweeting on your behalf, because Twitter users aren't wild about obvious "designated tweeter" tweets, when they are led to believe they are authentic. (Gary Vaynerchuk brought this up when he called out Britney Spears' Twitter usage a few months ago). Either way, President Obama, we miss you on Twitter and look forward to your return very soon.
What a country, where we can all Twitter, blog, podcast and make YouTube videos about President Obama! How bad can things really be if we have that freedom?
P.S. President Obama, since you're hard at work creating jobs for America, if you need the help of an entrepreneurial Marketing veteran, who was twice laid off, and had to learn to create her own "job" as an infopreneur, I'm available to coach your staff on a freelance basis :)
If you enjoyed this post, you're my kind of infopreneur, and I want to help make 2009 your year! 
You CAN learn how to become empowered and capitalize on your unique knowledge (something no employer or business failure can ever take away from you), through the wealth of infopreneur and marketing knowledge found in my new book--What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™ - Achieving The Life You Were Meant To Have By Making Money From What YOU Know! CLICK HERE. It goes into lots more detail than I can in my infopreneur blog.
Happy Infopreneuring!
--Melanie R. Jordan, Everybody's Infopreneur Coach and Host of infopreneur podcast What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know(TM), The Podcast Available 24/7 at http://www.WhatYouKnowIsWorthMorePodcast.com
Don't miss a post--subscribe to the What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know - The Blog For Infopreneurs feed. It's easy! CLICK HERE
Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/melaniejor
Check out more of Melanie's empowering publications on work-at-home lifestyles, healthy eating and foreclosure investing, and learn about her Marketing and Infopreneur Coaching Services at http://www.SunLoverPublishing.com
Check out Melanie's Other Blogs:
The Healthy Food Review where healthy eating with favorite comfort foods is deliciously possible! at http://www.TheHealthyFoodReview.com
Copyright SunLover Publishing LLC 2009
