A win for gov 2.0 as Twitter hires State Department staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton

So you never know what news will pop up during the hot, muggy D.C. summer (especially on a Friday).  Today brings a surprise announcement from the State Department’s Katie Jacobs Stanton that she’s leaving D.C. and returning to California to work for Twitter.

Interestingly enough, the former Google employee and White House staffer isn’t taking on the Government Liaison role Twitter recently advertised; according to her tweetstream she’ll be helping drive the international and business strategy for Twitter from their San Francisco offices.

Jacobs Stanton was previously President Obama’s appointee as the White House’s Director of Citizen Participation. Wikipedia notes her work at Google included Google Moderator, Google Finance, and the Open Social initiative.

I think this is fantastic news for Twitter and the fast-growing government 2.0 movement. Combined with boots on the ground in D.C., it appears Twitter will be gaining some great insights into the business of government and how they can possibly better tailor their service for government use.

Congratulations to both Katie and to Twitter!


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Steve Lunceford is a strategic communications professional for a leading provider of consulting services to U.S. Federal and state/local governments. He has 20 years experience in media relations/corporate communications (including 10 years in the Public Sector), working on behalf of firms such as Sprint, Choice Hotels International, BearingPoint, RadioShack and the NFL. Steve is also the founder of GovTwit.com, the world’s largest directory of government on Twitter, and is an evangelist for the use of new media technologies to help achieve traditional communications objectives.

4 comments

  1. Steve Lunceford July 9th, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    The Washington Post, TechCrunch and LA Times have picked up on Jacobs Stanton’s move:

    State Department’s Katie Stanton moves to Twitter
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/07/state_departments_katie_stanto.html

    Former Googler And White House Staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton Heads To Twitter
    http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/09/former-googler-and-white-house-staffer-katie-jacobs-stanton-heads-to-twitter/

    Twitter hires State Department’s Katie Stanton
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/07/twitter-hires-state-departments-katie-stanton.html

  2. Steve Lunceford July 9th, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    TechPresident had time to actually speak with Katie today and @NancyScola has a great write up:

    Headed West to Twitter, Katie Stanton Reflects on Washington
    http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/headed-west-twitter-katie-stanton-reflects-washington

  3. Ari Herzog July 9th, 2010 at 11:24 pm

    I figured something was up when she recently changed her @kateatstate account to @katies.

    But… how is this a win for government if she’s working on business strategy?

  4. Steve Lunceford July 10th, 2010 at 12:18 am

    @Ari: I think having someone with experience at both the White House and State Dept. reporting directly to Twitter’s COO would be a good thing as Twitter refines it’s business strategies, including an increased focus on the government market.

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