D.C. goes public through social networks

Congratulations, Washington, D.C.! Men’s Health magazine named you the most socially networked city in the United States.

The magazine said D.C. is “where staying connected can get out the vote, and virtual handshakes help shape our nation.”

According to Men's Health, more and more members of Congress are blogging and a growing number of them are tweeting. A group of House Democrats today was answering Twitterers’ questions about policies as part of an organic town hall meeting. Another House member, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), AKA @repjustinamash, tweets about each of his votes on all bills that come up. The Senate itself tweets about its votes.

In the Executive Branch, officials chat on GovLoop about the issues the government faces. And they tweet about their what new initiatives their offices are taking on. They contact contractors and interact with the public through wikis. Even inspectors general and audit agencies tweet now and then. The world has changed.

To get its results, Men’s Health calculated the number of Facebook and LinkedIn users, Twitterers, and use of other major social networks. It also considered the percentage of households that check out chat rooms and blogs.

As for other leading cities, Atlanta and Denver earned the second and third spots, respectively, followed, strangely enough, by Minneapolis. (Its twin city right next door, St. Paul, Minn., came in 29th.)

Some cities aren’t connected socially. The least socially connected cities, Laredo and El Paso, Texas, moseyed into the 99th and 100th spots, respectively.

For any city in the bottom 31 on the list, it may be sad to say that you’ve been out-networked by Anchorage, Alaska.

Get the full list.

Posted by Matthew Weigelt on Mar 10, 2011 at 12:55 PM