Twitter stats, plus Flickr and the GovLoop effect

Short one: I’ve posted a blog on K-TOC reporting the data provided by Tweetreach, a way-cool application that takes a stab at quantifying the “reach” of a Twitter account. Visit us at K-TOC for the details, but here’s the juicy bits: Tweetreach estimates that our combined accounts generated about 100,000 impressions within an audience of about 25,000 people. This is a long way from precise, of course, but it’s a start, it’s a baseline.

Big props to Tom Hein and Kim Qualls, both Public Affairs Managers, who were KDOT’s Twitter leaders. On their own initiative, they set up district accounts in late 2008 and started tweeting motorist information. (Old USN maxim: “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.”) Now those accounts are among our most effective means of reaching a large audience in a hurry.

Also, my latest personal experience of what I call the GovLoop Effect: Jim Culp of the Washington Department of Transportation posted a note earlier today in the Transportation 2.0 Group here on GovLoop that describes WSDOT’s Workzone Safety outreach on Flickr. I went through all 75+ photos with our PIO, and that proved sufficient to motivate us to finally grab a Flickr account of our own. More to the point, right now one of our staffers is going through KDOT’s photo archives looking for material suitable for adding to WSDOT’s page.So don’t ever underestimate the power of a post around here; it’s a chaotic joint, but a lot gets done.