Phone banks versus tweeting banks

I received the below email from the MoveOn For Bernie Team, soliciting me to attend a volunteer-led phone bank in Alabama.

I am trying to set up tweeting banks, including one in Alabama. See The IOWA tweeting bank, NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank, and ALABAMA tweeting bank.

I am sending hundreds of tweets soliciting participation in my tweeting banks and sending my own tweets as part of the banks.

Can anyone say that time spent making phone calls on a phone bank is more or less beneficial than time spent sending tweets on a tweeting bank?

Tweets can be sent at the rate of five to ten a minute. A phone call lasts however long it lasts. A phone call achieves greater messaging impact than one tweet, but how about compared to 20 tweets? Phone banks may have better targeting, as compared to tweet banking possibly being more scattershot.

[Edit 8/7/17: A tweeting bank seeks to achieve a "pyramiding" effect by soliciting tweet recipients to join in and send their own tweets. I don't believe phone banks seek to achieve a "pyramiding" of phone calls. Whether "pyramiding" of tweets can actually be achieved requires tweeting banks to be experimented with.]

To me, comparing the value and effect of a phone bank versus a tweeting bank is an imponderable.

A campaign team may decide that it does not want volunteers doing any tweet banking and wants volunteers to do only phone banking.

I am interested in the opinions of others.

Possibly I can be persuaded that volunteers should not spend any time on tweet banking.

I would say, get volunteers to do whatever they are willing to do. If they are willing to phone bank, that's great and have them phone bank. If they are willing to tweet bank, have them go at that.

What do you think?

ADDENDUM
There have been 260 page views of this blog entry.
Phone banking is a long established, tried and true campaign tool, which volunteers readily understand, and which is in Bernie's Volunteer Toolkit.
I don't think there is anything like The IOWA tweeting bank in Bernie's Volunteer Toolkit.
The object of The IOWA tweeting bank is not to have "conversations" with Iowa voters. The object is to flash in their head a thought that, in its flashing, may influence their voting decision.
In The IOWA tweeting bank, the thought is about our broken Congress and which Presidential candidate has the best potential for doing something about it if elected.
The IOWA tweeting bank calls for volunteer tweeters, in an organized way, to each send hundreds of individually directed tweets this weekend, and for there to be numerous tweeters (10, 20?) who are tweeting.
While there have been a couple of offers to tweet, I am not sure the offerors understand the tweeting that is being looked for in The IOWA tweeting bank.
My guess is that The IOWA tweeting bank will not get going this weekend, but we'll see.

ADDENDUM #2
I am sending to users of the #iacaucus hashtag this tweet:

In deciding who our next President shall be, what should our country do about Congress? http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html

There have now been 1717 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html

ADDENDUM #3
An hour and a half ago on MSNBC Live, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said "tens of thousands" of calls were being made in Iowa and "thousands and thousands" of campaign workers were on the ground. MSNBC link.
A single volunteer on The IOWA tweeting bank can, in the next  48 hours, fairly easily send 1500 tweets to Iowans (and a hundred volunteers could send 150,000 tweets).
This morning I sent about 350 tweets on the ALABAMA tweeting bank, and that generated almost 200 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html.
The tweets described in Addendum #2 were to active campaign supporters of the candidates, who were tweeting using the #iacaucus hashtag, and most of whom were probably not Iowans. The next step is for tweets to go to average Iowans who are not actively sending political tweets this weekend. I will take that next step shortly and will report here.
There have now been 2,447 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html.

ADDENDUM #4
I have tweeted for about 40 minutes to City of Ceder Rapids followers. My tweets said:

In deciding who our next President shall be, what should our country do about Congress? http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html

I was able to see page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html go up as I did the tweeting. When I stopped my tweeting a few minutes ago, there had been about 65 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html as a result of my tweeting.
If you do tweeting and you tell me, I can report to you how your page views are going up as you do your tweeting.
If others do not participate on The IOWA tweeting bank prior to Monday night, another attempt will be made next week on the NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank.
Thanks for your attention.

ADDENDUM #5 (2/1)
On CNN this morning, Secretary Clinton said her campaign hsd knocked on 120,000 doors in Iowa.

[MoveOn email]
From: MoveOn Elections Team <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 10:47 PM
Subject: Feel the Bern in Alabama
To: Robert Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>

Dear MoveOn member,
On Monday, voters in Iowa will cast the first votes in the Democratic presidential race—and voters in a dozen more states will follow them over the next four weeks.
Bernie can win—but only if each and every one of us rolls up our sleeves to help make possible the kind of change America truly needs.
Right now, we need to talk to every voter we can in early voting states. Because when voters hear Bernie's message, they support him.
Can you attend a volunteer-led phone bank near you to talk to voters in early voting states?
Click here to find events near you and RSVP!
We really can take our country back from the billionaire class. We can get big money out of politics, create good-paying jobs, make college debt-free, combat climate change, and confront racism.
But we need to all put our shoulders to the wheel right now and fight for it.
At the volunteer events, you'll have the opportunity to meet other Bernie supporters, connect with voters, and help make an impact. And if you can't find an event that works for you, you can always host one yourself.
RSVP now for an upcoming Bernie phone bank near you.
Thanks for all you do.
—Matt, Ilya, Emily, Nick, and the rest of the MoveOn for Bernie Team
Want to support our work? We're going all-out to help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic nomination. Polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that the race is close, so we really can win. But we can't do it without small-dollar donations from people like you. Click here to chip in.

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

This email was sent to Robert Shattuck on January 29th, 2016. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To opt out of "MoveOn for Bernie" emails, click here. To remove yourself from the MoveOn.org list, click here.


Ben & Jerry are also weighing in:

From: Ben & Jerry <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 10:21 AM
Subject: FW: It's not about him, it's about us.
To: Robert Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>

With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, we wanted to make sure you saw our message in time.Hi Robert—With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, we wanted to make sure you saw our message in time.

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Hi fellow MoveOn member,

It's down to the wire in Iowa.
We can either make history or it'll be just more of the same old, same old.
We're all-in for Bernie Sanders, and we're stumping for him in Iowa right now. The energy here is electric. Bernie's within two points of victory.
If all of us who believe in Bernie stand with him right now, he can win Iowa, win New Hampshire, win the Democratic nomination, and become president of the United States. But if we don't support him right now, then he won't.
We came to Iowa because we needed to know that, win or lose, we did everything we possibly could to fight for Bernie. Will you join us?
Click here to join this historic effort with a donation of $10—or any amount—to support the Bernie Sanders campaign and MoveOn's all-out effort to help him win Iowa, win New Hampshire, win the Democratic nomination, and become president.
(Whether or not you've donated already, please chip in right now, during this final push in Iowa.)
It was a total no-brainer for us to drop everything and get to work for Bernie in Iowa.

Here are five reasons why, if you support Bernie like we do, that donating to his campaign right now—and MoveOn's efforts to help him win—should be a no-brainer for you, too.

1. Bernie's the real deal. We've been working alongside him for years, as he's fought to end war, to get big money out of politics, to strengthen Social Security, to fix lopsided tax policy, to demand fair wages, to tackle rising student debt, to fight for Black Lives, and so much more.

2. He wins elections. The political elites never thought he'd become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont—let alone win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. And they all laughed when he ran for the U.S. Senate—but he won! Again and again—for decades—he's won when the pundits thought it was impossible.

3. Bernie's surging in the polls, trailing by only two points in one recent Iowa poll, and closing in fast. He has an amazing ground game—and more TV ads on the air than his opponents!

4. If Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire, it'll give him huge momentum towards winning the Democratic nomination—and the presidency.

5. If Bernie Sanders becomes president, he'll take on the billionaire class—and fight for the rest of us. Just take a deep breath and imagine Bernie winning Iowa and New Hampshire. Then imagine a bold progressive in the White House, breaking up the Big Banks. (He beats Donald Trump in a hypothetical match-up, so it really can happen.)
Bernie absolutely can win, but only if we give it our all. And if we don't, he won't. Because as he'll tell you, it's about us—a movement of millions of Americans. Not him. So don't wake up the day after Iowa and wish you'd done more. Join us instead.
Here's the link to chip in $10, or whatever you can, to help power Bernie's Iowa and New Hampshire victories:https://act.moveon.org/donate/lets-go-bernie?t=5&akid=161495.24908740.40J5jG
As we've been going around Iowa, we've encountered our fair share of folks who support other candidates. We can accept that.
But what seems so defeatist are the folks who say things like, "I believe in everything Bernie Sanders says. He's on the right side of the issues, but I don't think he'll get elected—so I'm not going to support him."

Please do what you can. In a close race like this one, your $10, $25, $75, or any size donation can really make the difference.
(If you've donated before, a new donation can help. And if you haven't yet, now's the time!)
The Iowa caucuses are just under five days away. The average grassroots donation Bernie receives pays for nearly two extra hours of work from a field organizer who can mobilize about ten volunteers at a single canvass or phone bank. And your donation to MoveOn will help them mobilize their 40,000 members in Iowa to put Bernie over the top.
Having the resources to win Iowa is critical.
Will you invest in the future of our nation by supporting the Bernie Sanders campaign and MoveOn.org's efforts to help Bernie win? Chip in $10 here:https://act.moveon.org/donate/lets-go-bernie?t=10&akid=161495.24908740.40J5jG
Thank you so much. Let's win this!

—Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Want to support our work? The average contribution from a supporter like you affords the Bernie Sanders campaign nearly two extra hours of work from a field organizer who can mobilize about ten volunteers at a single canvass or phone bank. And now, MoveOn.org has joined the effort. Click here to chip in $10, or whatever you can.

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

This email was sent to Robert Shattuck on January 29th, 2016. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To opt out of "MoveOn for Bernie" emails, click here. To remove yourself from the MoveOn.org list, click here.