I suspect that every author interested in creating buzz about his or her book will be using hash tags and Twitter before long.
Now imagine a candidate who wants to attract followers and interact with them. That's right. A hash tag plus an ever widening circle of followers of his or her tweets.
As usual, Lileks led the way here, mastering and making very amusing tweets a staple of his daily creative typhoon, and the brains at RobinsonandLong.com quickly figured out that Lileks' tweets would draw eyeballs, so those short bursts of smiles are carried there.
It won't be long until every media outlet figures out that, like blogs, tweet streams are crucial for audience growth.
I write long form books, magazine articles, columns and blog posts. I have now begun to try and master the 140 character message worth reading. Each length is suitable to a different message, but they all matter, as do the platforms on which they are carried. Here's hoping the GOP --young and old, techy and Luddite-- figure out that they have to figure out social media. And very very soon.