Ann Romney got a rude welcome to Twitter this week.
A battle between Romney, who only joined site on Wendesday, and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen was the focus of political and social media writers late this week. And the dust up, according to some observers, also showed a stronger and more confident side to Mitt Romney’s social-media efforts. A side.
To quickly recap, on Wednesday night Rosen said in an interview on CNN that Ann had not worked a day in her life. She was soon criticized for the comments and quickly headed to Twitter to defend herself.
“When I said @AC360 Ann Romney never worked I meant she never had to care for her kids AND earn a paycheck like MOST American women!” she wrote on Wednesday night.
She continued to defend her comments and eventually drew criticism from the women she was targeting. Ann made her first tweet addressing Rosen’s comments, and it instantly gained dozens of retweets.
“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work,” Romney wrote.
Later on, Rosen offered an apology and a Twitter welcoming to Ann, adding that the microblogging site is a “exhilarating and often unforgiving place.”
But the Twitter argument was actually helpful to Ann and her new account. Within a day of launching, the former first lady of Massachusetts already gained more than 30,000 followers. One political observer said that Ann’s new account shows the campaign is turning a page in the social media battle.
On Fox News, Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said that up until now, Romney’s campaign has yet to master social media, but the recent push to promote Ann’s account was a “sign of things to come.”
“Last night, they really came out very quickly, creating this new twitter handle for Ann Romney. The staff jumped on it and pushed it — it was a totally different campaign last night,” Trippi told Fox News.
But Ann isn’t new to social media. In fact, she first established her Facebook page in 2010 and has even become active on Pinterist.
Yet Ann Romney has had the most success on Twitter. According to Topsy.com, she hit almost 70,000 mentions late in the week. That’s more than even Justin Beiber received.
Even if her husband loses the race for the White House, the Romney family will always be able to hold on to that victory.
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