Obama's #PrezRezVisit

Trending in Indian Country: "PrezRezVisit" Gained National Attention

By Vincent SchillingOn June 13, As President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama made their way to visit the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and meet with Tribal leaders, ICTMN and Indian country took the #PrezRezVisit hashtag Twitter Ball–and ran with it.

Within hours of first introducing the hashtag on Thursday, via a tweet by this correspondent @VinceSchilling, Thousands and thousands tweeted about the excitement, cautious optimism and speculation about President Obama and the First Lady’s visit.

Shortly before President Obama was to land in North Dakota, the #PrezRezVisit hashtag had gained such steam and recognition, The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip reported on the “cautious hope” Native Americans were expressing.

“[O]nline, Native Americans have been determined to keep the conversation alive. More than 5,000 tweets with the #PrezRezVisit hashtag have been sent out so far, after the trend was started Thursday by Indian Country Today correspondent Vincent Schilling,” Phillips wrote in The Washington Post.

Immediately after posting of the tweet, Indian country and supporters jumped into action on #PrezRezVisit which only gained traction as the time for the President’s and First Lady’s arrival loomed closer. Within hours, the hashtag was trending in such places as Chicago, Philadelphia and Canada.

In addition to attention from The Washington Post, MSNBC’s Ed Show also dedicated a segment to Obama’s visit and the popularity of the #PrezRezVisit Hashtag.Comment:  Rather than cover this visit in Newspaper Rock, I tweeted and retweeted about it using the #PrezRezVisit hashtag.

The event didn't generate a lot of hard news. Most of the news value was in the announcer's poking fun at the Obamas and their interacting with the Lakota, especially the children. Twitter was a great tool for that.