Hillary, the 'e-diplomat,' is taking the Internet by storm

Posted By P.J. Aroon Monday, March 23, 2009 - 2:53 PM Share

Hillary Clinton with BlackBerry, Nov. 11, 2008

From the Associated Press:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is embracing new media, using the Web to promote the agency and her role as the nation's top envoy.

and

Daily views of the Dipnote have doubled from 10,000 a year ago to 20,000 today, with 700 subscribers to its RSS feed, twice as many as in March 2008. The number of followers of the department on Twitter has tripled since Jan. 20, when Obama took office, while the department's Facebook friends have increased by 2 1/2 times in the same period.

and

What remains unclear, though, is whether the spike in interest reflects the revamped Web site or the public's fascination with Clinton's latest career shift.

Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
EXPLORE:INTERNET, STATE DEPARTMENT
 
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ANNE

3:44 PM ET

March 23, 2009

my compulsive sexist comments

my compulsive sexist comments of the day, 1. could she *be* any cuter?! and 2. I love her nail beds. Always have.

Thanks Preeti!

 

STILL4HILL

6:19 PM ET

March 23, 2009

My compulsory reply to your compulsive sexist comment

1. It's a rhetorical question, I know, so it requires no answer, but ...too cute!
2. Her nail beds! That beats me loving her hands! You know how to get really specific!

(Not sexist, btw, just compulsive. I look at her and I have no control over my mouth or fingers).

Thanks, Preeti!

 

NYCGIRL

7:41 PM ET

March 23, 2009

What a riot!

anne and Still4Hill,

You two are a riot! Thanks for the chuckles!

BTW -- What exactly is Twitter? I've heard of it, but I'm not into social networking sites, so I haven't looked at it. What kind of information do you get from the State Department if you sign up for Twitter? Thanks!

 

STILL4HILL

8:31 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Twitter

It's a social networking site where you can post very short messages: 140 characters max. For example to alert someone to a new blog post or news story, or you can communicate with friends and family. Hillary sent an email saying to follow her on Twitter - last spring I think. Then you could go to her profile and see all the little remarks about where she was, how many people etc.

 

NYCGIRL

1:50 PM ET

March 24, 2009

NYCgirl

Still4Hill,

Thanks for that info. I'm not sure how to sign up for Hillary's announcements. I went on Twitter and searched for "Hillary Clinton" and all I came up with were a bunch of posts about the upcoming theatrical movie about her. I would like to receive the State Dept. announcements, or whatever you were referring to. If you can tell me what I should do on Twitter to get those announcements, I would appreciate it. I would like to sign up before she gets to Mexico. Thanks!

 

STILL4HILL

2:55 PM ET

March 24, 2009

First you have to go to her blog

The blog is the State department blog:
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/index/

Then on the right you'll see links to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. She's all over the web and I am lovin' it!

 

NYCGIRL

4:38 PM ET

March 24, 2009

Thanks!

Okay, I did go over to the State Dept. blog and look at the links. I clicked on the "Follow on Twitter" link and all of the recent Dipnotes posts came up, so I am assuming I can follow the posts on Twitter without actually signing up. That's good to know. Thanks for the help, Still4Hill.

 

STILL4HILL

8:37 PM ET

March 24, 2009

Actually, you can. But if

Actually, you can. But if you want to say anything to Dipnote, you'll need an account. I don't twitter Dipnote much, I mostly comment on the blog.

 

ANNE

8:21 PM ET

March 23, 2009

i too love her hands! that's

i too love her hands! that's so funny. :D. Funny story about her nail beds, one of them times i met her, as i was shaking her hand i totally made sure to check them out.

 

STILL4HILL

8:29 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Awwwwww

Lovely hands, and she uses them so gracefully. Lucky you, shaking that pretty hand!

 

ANNE

11:56 PM ET

March 23, 2009

lol.

lol.

 

MPINTX

4:08 PM ET

March 23, 2009

What remains unclear, though,

What remains unclear, though, is whether the spike in interest reflects the revamped Web site or the public's fascination with Clinton's latest career shift.

Wait, the only two ways we can be categorized are 1) silly voyeuristic fangirls wanting the latest scoop on a political celebrity, or 2) silly fangirls all wowed and "ZOMG! KEWL - it's teh teknologeez!"?

How about a third option - we care deeply about our country, and want to be informed about what this marvelous and hard-working SOS is doing, since we aren't going to hear/see much of it in the mainstream media?

Ya think that could be it? Ya think?

Nah, can't be. We're all subscribing to Hillary's RSS feed becuz we flighty wimminz want the fashion tips, dontcha know.

 

ANNE

8:26 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Been there done that, and we

Long live Hillary. A true patriot, trailblazer, brilliant woman, fighter and devoted public servant. Truly amazing and inspirational. :)

 

SAKEL

10:24 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Long live Hillary!

Hillary is the kind of Public Servant we want to clone forever. If the empty suits now in government were replaced by "Hillary clones", this world would be in great shape indeed!...

The most devoted public servant whose compassion and intelligence cannot be matched by many opportunistic Empty Suits residing in Washington!

 

STILL4HILL

3:00 PM ET

March 24, 2009

LOL!

When it comes to talk of Hillary, suits, and shapes, - WELL! It's pretty obvious that her suit is not empty and as somebody in Europe said (Pres. of EU?) she's in GREAT SHAPE.

I'll take her curvy suit over the empty ones any day.

I know. I completely left out any comment about her competence, intellect, EQ, etc. It was my totally shallow, sexist comment for the day.

 

STILL4HILL

6:34 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Not at all unclear

I saw that article pop up on Twitter at least 20 times yesterday. What "the lack of clarity" fails to take into account is that Hillary has been using all these social networks since long before she arrived at Foggy Bottom.

She had websites, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, and Flickr accounts very early on, and when she added Twitter, that was the first time I ever heard of it, and I opened an account.

Some of us had been "following" her for a very long time when all of those sites but one or two were taken down, and we were left high and dry.

When she was leaving for Asia and let us know that the networks were up at State it was the end of a long drought without Hillary. I believe there might have been a stampede that week.

Why are we all there? Because SHE's there! And it's not just because she's cute, fashionable, huggable, blindingly brilliant, quick on the uptake, and exudes a passion that could start a tsunami, it's also because we learn something new every time we watch her or hear from her.

She is phenomenal. State had better make sure those servers are up to speed. More and more of us are going there every day. We don't want to crash the system. We need our fix!

 

SAKEL

10:16 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Why is Foreign Policy so Malevolent? Cheap shots...

Hey, FP -- tell us why you had to ruin a good story with your venomous juxtaposition of a rather incongrent photo of the Secretary of State? Did Michele The Now Proud First Lady perhaps give you a copy of her fave shot? Otherwise, we can't fathom why you'd use such an irrelevant and unphotogenic photo of Hillary!

Looks like FP's choice of photographers is disgustingly heading down the loo......Come on guys, either hire your own photographer or use a half-decent pic available from your formidable archives...you're so pathetic....

 

SAKEL

10:22 PM ET

March 23, 2009

FP -- We need more photogenic photos of HRC!

Come on,FP, go pay a bit more to your photographers. Surely there are dozens more photos to choose from where she's using her Blackberry, eh?

Hillary shines as Chief Diplomat and she just received from Ben Affleck the Global recognition of a Trailblazer award!
Well deserved, Hillary! She's truly the icon of millions of women and girls in this world of ours....

 

ANNE

11:56 PM ET

March 23, 2009

I like the pic. it just looks

I like the pic. it just looks normal to me. She's got a scarf tied and she's looking down, everyone's face does that. i like it. :). But then again, i think she's perfect looks-wise.

 

ANNE

12:24 AM ET

March 24, 2009

And her highlights are the

And her highlights are the freakin' bomb.

 

STILL4HILL

3:06 PM ET

March 24, 2009

She looks adorable

Ditto, Anne, she's perfect. Look at this.

http://image.blingee.com/images15/content/output/000/000/000/4fe/371583192_720641.gif

 

P.J. AROON

2:58 PM ET

March 24, 2009

Actually, there aren't dozens

We get our photos from Getty Images, as you might have noticed in the photo credits. I searched Getty yesterday, and there were only two photos available through our subscription that had Hillary using a BlackBerry. If you see a better photo on Getty, let me know. www.gettyimages.com
 

NYCGIRL

3:07 PM ET

March 24, 2009

I like the picture you chose

Preeti,

I like the picture you chose. I'm not sure what the other poster is complaining about, but Hillary looks just fine to me in the "Blackberry" shot. Thanks very much!

 

STILL4HILL

3:08 PM ET

March 24, 2009

Preeti, don't worry about it

It's a cute pic. The photogs @ State seem to be doing a great job - maybe because they love their new boss so much ;)

 

Madam Secretary is an obsessive blog about all things Hillary Clinton. From her policies to her pantsuits, Madam Secretary delivers up-to-the-minute news, analysis, and gossip about America's top diplomat.