The Gold Mouse Awards for Social Media go to the nominees who use specific social media practices in ways that:
- Demonstrate an effort to be transparent and accountable;
- Focus on constituents and constituent service; and
- Attempt to keep constituents informed of, and engaged in, the work of the Members and of Congress.
These specific practices serve as examples for Senators and Representatives who wish to achieve similar goals with their online communications. Most of the award-winning practices are platform-agnostic, meaning they could be performed on social media platforms other than the ones these Senators and Representatives use. Regardless of the platforms used, these practices are models for other offices to follow as they consider how best to incorporate social media into their communications and constituent service strategies.
Descriptions of each of these practices and why they are worthy of recognition is included in the 113th Congress Gold Mouse Awards report: "Best Practices in Online Communications on Capitol Hill" (6MB).
Senate Members |
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Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) |
Compilations of social media |
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Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) |
Issue-based listicle. |
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Bob Casey (D-PA) |
Location-based legislative information. |
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Mark Kirk (R-IL) |
Sharing personal journey that led to legislative action. |
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Patrick Leahy (D-VT) |
Hashtag for updates during markup |
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Jerry Moran (R-KS) |
Outreach on an issue before Congress. |
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Bernie Sanders (I-VT) |
Integration across platforms without redundancy. |
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House Members |
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Stephen Fincher (R-TN) |
Making Congress approachable. |
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Tim Griffin (R-AR) |
Responsiveness and engagement via social media. |
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Mike Honda (D-CA) |
Constituent-focused social media |
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Darrell Issa (R-CA) |
Connecting past and present using |
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Barbara Lee (D-CA) |
Using social media to “caucus” with |
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Thomas Massie (R-KY) |
Accountability and transparency |
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Jim McGovern (D-MA) |
Sustained, issue-based, cross-platform integration. |
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Patrick Murphy (D-FL) |
Photo contest with a legislative |
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Erik Paulsen (R-MN) |
Weekly videos with updates and |
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Mark Takano (D-CA) |
Using popular culture as tie-ins to congressional activity. |