Inside PBS Blog

"What an experience! I'm recovering from my caucus and post-caucus celebration! Way to make a showing, Iowa!"

These werenâ€â„¢t the words of Democratic caucus winner Barack Obama or Republican winner Mike Huckabee. These were the words of @YogaGirl, a West Des Moines resident who blogged about her caucus experience on Twitter last night.

Twitter, a âہ"microbloggingâ€Â tool that lets people publish posts of up to 140 characters live, was one of many types of new media used to cover the Iowa action.

As MediaShift blogger Mark Glaser discusses, the Iowa Caucus
feed was the brainchild of GOP consultant Patrick Ruffini. But it drew in Twitterers from both parties and provided real-time data from 20 people who participated in the caucus.

The feed also connected to a Facebook group, which explained the rules and format for Twitterers to follow.

The Iowa caucuses are well suited for social media, since unlike most voting they involve friends and neighbors negotiating and showing their support for candidates face-to-face.

We can expect to see similar new media experiments in the more traditional New Hampshire primary next Tuesday â€â€œ like the Facebook/ABC debates on Saturday and more prominent Flickr feeds from candidates on the trail.

But it remains to be seen how successful social media is when the event itself is less, well, social.