I was recently invited to talk about social media in front of a group of women participating in a program that trains Democratic women to run for office. (It’s called Emerge. Got a similar group for Republicans? I’ll be happy to do the same for you.) The things I told them would probably be good advice for anyone new to Facebook, Twitter, blogging and other forms of social media.

Image by Fred Cavazza

Before writing up my notes for the presentation I asked my Twitter followers and Facebook friends to tell me what they thought politicians should know about using social media. They were pretty specific: Be yourself, be real, and interact instead of broadcasting.

So that’s pretty much what I told the 20 or so women in the class.

Be yourself and be real. Do it yourself. You cannot outsource this job to anyone else, so write in the first person. Don’t underestimate the power of connection. Bring your followers into your life and make them feel as though they’re having a virtual beer with you. Be funny and humble, but don’t be afraid to brag when you’ve done something that’s earned you recognition.

Interact with your friends, fans and followers. Respond to followers on Twitter and commenters on Facebook just as you would respond to e-mails from those people (assuming they’re civil). Use Google Alerts (and/or RSS feeds) to find out when newspapers and other Web sites publish information about you or about issues of interest to you. Read the comments on those stories. COMMENT BACK. Engage in conversation with the readers.

Avoid a Twitastrophe. Act your age. U R 2 old 2 Tweet like this. Don’t be mean or negative or attack. Be the best version of you.

Use multimedia tools. Post pictures to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, your blog and your Web site. Use YouTube to post videos of things you do or events you hold. And make it easy for users to share that information using Share This or a similar service.

Learn by example. If you’re not sure what to do you can always follow the example of someone who has done it well. As a candidate, Barack Obama made excellent use of social media. And after he got elected, he built on his campaign infrastructure and continued to use it to promote his ideas and policies as president. Want to know more about how he did it? Check out Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit.

Here are some other great resources:

Mashable has how-to guides for many social media sites and strategies.

Mashable also has lists for social media and politics.

And here’s a story called Social Media Meets Politics: Pols Chasing Publicity Find Web Waters Welcoming.

Got other suggestions for politicians and wannabe politicians? Leave your tips in the comments section.

Udall is now officially on Twitter at @SenatorTomUdall, has an official Senate Flickr account in addition to his already-existing Facebook and YouTube pages.

Surprisingly, Udall is just the second member of the New Mexico delegation to use Twitter. The first was the person who succeeded Udall in the 3rd Congressional District, Democratic Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (@RepBenRayLujan).

According to TweetCongress, 155 members of the House and Senate are active members Twitter — 99 Republicans and 56 Democrats.

So if you’re looking to connect with Udall’s office, there are a few more ways.

So far, one person has bit (though two comments have apparently disappeared).

This is not a new phenomenon. Duke City Fix (“Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM”) managing editor Sophie Martin says in an e-mail to NMI tahat she thinks it is “great” that candidates reach out online.

Richard Romero’s campaign isn’t the first to have done so on the Fix. In some cases (Michael Cadigan comes to mind) it’s not just the campaign but the individual candidate who’s interacting with the voters directly, and that seems to me to be the ideal — real voters communicating with the real candidate.

Martin mentioned that asking the question isn’t enough. She argues that to make the communication truly effective, it has to be a two-way conversation. “If a politician solicits responses or reactions online and then fails to respond to the public’s comments, it looks worse than never reaching out at all,” Martin wrote.

So far, it looks like Romero is on top of things, answering the only comment that is left up on the post.

Martin cited a recent post by incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez on Facebook that NMI’s Marjorie Childress wrote about yesterday.

We see an example of that right now with Mayor Chavez’s popular bar closings tweet. His Twitter account feeds to his Facebook profile, and people have been responding on Facebook. In some cases those responses merit follow-up from the mayor or his staff, but as of this moment (21 hours since the original tweet) there’s been nothing. Maybe the tweet was sent out with no expectation of a reaction from the public, but if so that raises the question — why do it at all?

Since she wrote that, Chavez, the all-but-announced candidate for reelection, has responded three times (by my count) to the fifty-plus comments on the Facebook posting.

It should be noted that on his Twitter account Chavez often replies to other Twitter users, even some who are openly hostile to him.

Romero’s Twitter account, however, isn’t as active.

Not just because of the announcement itself, which is huge political news, but in the fashion in which Sanchez’s announcement was made — via Facebook.

But radio news guy and blogger Peter St. Cyr noted on his personal Facebook page that the Senate Majority Leader hasn’t updated his status since the status-update-heard-around-the-state.

New Mexico Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez got lots of press for announcing he was forming a 2010 Gubernatorial Exploratory Committee on Facebook, but hasn’t posted anything else – since May 31st. Gimmick?

“I’m still not as good as I’d like to be, but I’m learning,” Sanchez told Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Steve Terrell after his announcement.

For ten years, Congresswoman Heather Wilson helped shape national policy serving in the U.S. Congress. An Air Force Academy graduate and Rhodes Scholar, Wilson lives in Albuquerque with her husband, Jay Hone, and their children, Joshua and Caitlin.

Wilson served five-terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before deciding to give up her seat and run for the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by Pete Domenici. Wilson lost in a close Republican primary against her fellow ex-U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce.

Pearce went on to lose handily to Democrat Tom Udall in the general election.

In addition to her personal page, she also has a politician page, though that still lists Wilson as the officeholder of the 1st Congressional District. But that position is currently held by Democrat Martin Heinrich.

Update: Wilson writes in, on Facebook of course, saying that the politician page is not official and was set up by a supporter. Wilson says she did put a post on the wall at the politician page telling supporters where to find her on Facebook.

Social media networks obviously skew young; 70 percent of 18-29-year-olds have used a social media service at least once. But even those older than 30 are still using social media at a pretty high rate — 43 percent of 30-39-year-olds is still a significant number. And 29 percent of those in their 40s is almost even more impressive.

While the use of social media may be at or nearing a plateau among 18-29-year-olds, growing just three percent over the past two years, the 30-39-year-old demographic and 40-49-year-old demographic have shown huge leaps, of 22 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

And once people begin to use social networks, they all like to check in on them frequently — often on a daily basis.

Looking at these numbers, 43 percent of all people who are on social networks (social networkers, Pew calls them) check in on them daily.

There are 19 percent who check in multiple times a day. And the vast majority (82 percent) check in at least once a week.

Pew summarizes:

Nearly a quarter of social networkers who are younger than 30 (23%) say they use these sites several times a day, while another 25% use them about once a day. Social networkers in their 30s check in with only somewhat less frequency; 15% use sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter several times a day, while 26% check about once a day. The figures are similar for social networkers 40 and older.

So what does this mean politically? Well, a politician now must not only have a Web site, but also a Facebook page and YouTube account at the least. President Barack Obama has an account on every social networking site for both himself and the White House (for example his personal Facebook page and the White House Facebook page.

How is our congressional delegation doing on this front?

There are caveats to some of these, however. Every single one of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall’s accounts are from his campaign and not from being a newly elected Democratic senator. None have updated their MySpace accounts since the election (though I don’t blame them on that, since I rarely go to my MySpace page).

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, a Hobbs Democrat, created a Facebook page, but did nothing on it, not even making a status update.

Facebook may be the best way, at least on a social network, for politicians to let their constituents know what is going on. Even if it is just saying that he is glad Obama was in Rio Rancho, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Santa Fe Democrat, gets some reaction from his constituents who are on Twitter. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, an Albuquerque Democrat, has been doing good work on Facebook as well, highlighting funding coming to New Mexico and his bills in Congress.

Heinrich also gets extra points for having his House Web site link to both his YouTube and his Flickr accounts – but not his Facebook page.

And New Mexico’s senior senator, Jeff Bingaman, features a YouTube video on his Senate Web site.

For many politicians, social media isn’t a top priority — but it is increasingly part of their communications strategies. That’s because it is a relatively easy and completely free way to reach a young, technologically-connected audience that may not watch the evening news or read the Albuquerque Journal.

And with people increasingly going to the Internet to find out information, this is another way for them to get the word out on their issues.

Those that start working on it now won’t have to start working on it in a few years when that 33 percent of adults who use social networks rises to 43 percent or 53 percent.

And in this modern world, it isn’t only politicians that need to have a full social network. For any individual belonging to a group or organization, using social media is fast becoming just another way to communicate with group members or with the public in general.

NMI’s Twitter account is at @NMIndependent.

Other panelists included Sophie Martin of Duke City Fix, Nora Heineman-Fleck of UNM, Greta Weiner of GWDC, and surprise guest Leah Etling of Santa Barbara community blog edhat.com.

In the interest of full disclosure: I’m really not an expert on social media, I’m just a nerd. And I’m not even a very good one at that. But I know a little about this stuff and I like sharing. So during the panel I talked about our site as well as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and how businesses and organizations can best use social media.

I talked specifically about my own addiction to Twitter, the shocking number of high school boyfriends I’m friends with on Facebook and how hard I work to keep my professional contacts on Facebook from seeing embarrasing drunk photos of me posted by my friends.

I also talked about our NMI webcasting and liveblogging efforts, and how important it is to make your readers/customers/fans feel connected. Bringing our readers into the reporting process gives us a better final product and our readers love it.

Here are some of the suggestions that I jotted down before the panel, a few of which I was able to share, and a few I didn’t have time to mention.

1) First, if you sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed, you need to be using social media for work. That means yes, you need a Web site. And you need to be using social media to promote that Web site. Get on Facebook today. And make sure you have “Share this” boxes on your site, so visitors can post your information to their own sites and pages.

2) Use social media for crowdsourcing. Do you want to know what people think of your new logo? Ask 400 Facebook friends or Twitter followers and you’ve got a huge focus group to give you the answer. Ask them what new flavor of ice cream you should make, what kinds of books you should stock, what kinds of services you should offer or if they’ve ever been ripped off by a credit card company. They’ll respond.

3) If you use Facebook for personal and professional reasons, you must figure out a way to manage the difficult intersections between the two. In part, that means using the privacy settings to prevent the embarrassing photo problem. See this article for excellent step-by-step directions.

4) Do you need to use Twitter? Not if you don’t have anything useful to say. Twitter is fantastic for journalists, news junkies and tech-savvy people with very specific interests. For example, I use Twitter to get breaking news from dozens of journalists and news organizations I “follow” on Twitter, and I use it to follow a select group of chefs, restaurant owners and food writers. But many businesses haven’t yet figured out how to use the site well. You will need to be newsy, funny, newsy and funny or useful to survive on Twitter. Straight up advertising simply doesn’t work because people are under no obligation to look at your messages, or “tweets.”

5) If you do decide to tweet, consider linking your Twitter account to your Facebook page. Here’s a tutorial. It will save you time, but remember that your followers on Twitter may be a different audience than your Facebook friends. Keep that in mind.

6) Follow us on Twitter! NMI has its own feed @NMIndependent. I’m @gwynethdoland, Matthew Reichbach is @fbihop, Trip Jennings is @trip_44, Heath Haussamen is @haussamen, Marjorie Childress is @m_ruth and David Alire Garcia is not on Twitter! Can you believe that?

If you have more suggestions for how to use social media to promote your work, put them in the comments section below.