Obama tries Twitter to make debt-ceiling case

Have tweets replaced letters as a way for voters to make their opinions known to lawmakers?

It's at least been added to the arsenal for citizens, The Hill reports.

In a televised address July 25, President Barack Obama took to the bully pulpit, urging people to "keep the pressure on Washington…. Make a phone call, send an e-mail, tweet."

And an Obama administration official says the strategy of applying pressure through social media paid off, Mashable reports. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted to New York Times reporter Brian Stetler that the administration "believes e-mails/tweets helped pressure Congress to act."

The administration even helped facilitate constituent contact with representatives by sending out tweets containing the Twitter handles of several Republican members of Congress. Obama's official Twitter account, @BarackObama, lost 36,000 followers in the process, but the administration also managed to get a deal to raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid default.