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Politics

Scott vs. Crist: The Twitter Wars Begin (Well, Sort Of)

October 13, 2014 - 6:00pm

Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist sparred in a war of words in Miramar on Friday in the first of three televised debates for this years election. TV debates are nothing new -- weve seen them time and time again. But in a day and age where news keeps moving faster and faster, Twitter has increasingly become one of the best ways to stay up-to-date on current events.

In one corner: the Florida Democratic Party and Charlie Crists campaign team, their fingers ready to furiously tweet debate highlights. In the other: the Republican Party of Florida and Rick Scotts people, prepared to make Scotts message heard loud and clear.

Well, sort of.

As someone who followed the debate closely on social media, one of the more striking things I noticed about it was that it seemed like Scotts campaign team failed to show up. Sure, there were lots and lots (and lots more) emails hitting my inbox from the governors campaign team, but I basically heard crickets from their social media channels -- Twitter, most notably.

Some quick facts:

The Florida Democratic Party tweeted nearly 100 times about the debate on Friday -- many tweets were retweets from the Charlie Crist and Scott Free Florida campaign, but they were still tweets, nonetheless. Crists Twitter tweeted over 50 times about the debate, with Crists digital strategy team huddling together to throw in a few more tweets, which dominated the associated hashtags for the debate.

Scotts campaign account, ScottForFlorida, tweeted around 50 times on Friday. But the numbers get worse for Scott. The Republican Party of Florida? Two tweets on Friday, neither of which was about the debate. And Scotts own Communications Director, Matt Moon, didnt tweet at all on Friday.

I wasnt the only one who noticed.

FDP Press Secretary Max Steele made the same observation.

ScottforFlorida's live tweeting garnered virtually no engagement compared to the thousands#TeamCharlie tweets /rts, he tweeted.

Crist's digital director Amanda Litman picked at the Scott campaign team as well -- she said the Scott campaign team's rapid response consisted of printing out pieces of paper to pass out at the debate.

If Twitter was any indicator, it seemed like Crist totally blew Scott out of the water on Friday. There were almost no tweets about Scotts debate victories, nothing about any good one-liners.

Virtual silence.

In an era where news is often broken over Twitter, its the perfect place for candidates -- and campaigns -- to update followers (and voters) of minute-to-minute, second-by-second happenings in live events like these.

And for Scott, its an opportunity. Scott isnt as seasoned a debater as Crist. Hes not a particularly smooth talker. He jumbles his words sometimes.

He knows this, his campaign team knows this, and the Republican Party of Florida does, too -- so shouldnt they be doing all they can to boost the narrative in his favor?

This is just the beginning of debate coverage, of course, and theres no word on whether Scotts campaign team intends to carry on in their course of hammering away on massive TV buyouts while seemingly ignoring free media engagement channels like Twitter.

But if one things certain, its that the next few weeks are going to be about reaching out to voters in every way possible. The clock is ticking. Times running out, and Scotts campaign team might just let this one slip away.

Reach Tampa-based reporter Allison Nielsen via email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.


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