Lots going on this week, but probably a slow week next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Don’t forget to follow GovSM on Google+ ow.ly/7y5s5 and Facebook ow.ly/7y5t5

1. Pandora Opens Box of Targeted Political Advertising ow.ly/7yfbD
2. How many iPad apps does it take to make Congress more efficient? Turns out, the answer may be two. ti.me/sSEFft
3. For politicians and elected officials, getting on Google+ is easy. Announcing Google+ Politics Guide ow.ly/7y4Bl
4.  Welcome to @twitter, @TSA via @AdamS
5. RT @digiphile: Unexpected. #gov20 RT @steverubel Tumblr spurs users to generate 87,834 phone calls to Congress in 1 dayj.mp/rwxaM1
6. Facebook takes its hacker army to DC for a Congressional hackathon – ow.ly/7xc01
7. NASA reaches 20,000 followers on Google+ faster than it did on Twitter and Facebook tnw.to/1BtSD
8. Facebook Aids Bid To Recall Wisconsin Governor – bit.ly/ufzQUR
9. RT @digiphile: A @WhiteHouse epetition on #SOPA now has 20,173 signatures http://t.co/H0gOHEJr I’d love to see rate of increase today
10. Team Bachmann’s Twitter fail politi.co/vplB98 How the Bachmann Campaign failed to get traction on twitter
11. RT @AdamS: Old boss, meet the new boss: Welcome to @twitter, @SenLandrieu!
12. How can govt leverage#socialmedia? Find out from @smburns, CEO of GovDelivery [VIDEO] bit.ly/rGB9Xl
13. GOP republican candidate Mitt Romney on Google+ hangout (virtual town hall style meeting) with Video! ow.ly/1fG7p1
14. Council member, former Mayor @marionbarryjr joins Twitter:wapo.st/tCWdy5
15. RT @Joseph_Marks_: #Whipcast app more promotion than #transparency #gov20 @Nextgovow.ly/7uPGh
16. Tampa Mayor on Quora – good writeup by @JordanRaynor http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/tampa-mayor-buckhorn-one-of-first-politicians-to-engage-with
17. Rep. McCarthy promotes his new app, ‘Whip Cast’ – The Hill’s Video: bit.ly/tGANxP via @JaredRizzi
18. Why Americans use social media | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project:bit.ly/rTEGuW via @acarvin
19. BLACKBERRY HILL: iPhones, Droids allowed on Capitol Hill, but few use them. Here’s why: roll.cl/uz4pND
20. Twitter Can Predict Who’s Winning the GOP Presidential Race [STUDY] – on.mash.to/v86GmF
21. Newly updated House Committees page, dozens of new social media links. ow.ly/7tbvK
22. Government Agencies Go Google+ — InformationWeek twb.io/t9R3wR
23. FEMA Director Craig Fugate is on twitter, @CraigatFEMA, and google+ ow.ly/7rEGi
24. RT @katieharbath: All Facebook: How Facebook Moved The Outcome Of An Ohio Election –bit.ly/uvtCTr
25. RT @TweetWatch: #Twitter is the real-time#spinroom of the 2012 presidential election:abcn.ws/uVRgcH

I recently updated the Klout scores for all the Presidential candidates on GovSM. Interestingly, despite the recent sexual harassment accusations, Herman Cain’s Klout score has continued to rise. Over the past month he has added nearly 4 points to his score (and continued to gain during the accusations) while other leading candidate scores have remained relatively flat (President Obama, Romney, Perry).

The entire issue of whether Klout scores provide any value has been debated for a long time. For me, the score numbers themselves are meaningless. As is most of the information gathered about a single user in a vacuum. However, I think there is some valuable information that can be gathered by comparing Klout scores of social media accounts from users in similar fields, such as athletes or authors. In this case, I think Klout can be very useful in comparing candidates for President.

By following political social media accounts and their statistical breakdowns over time, we can glean some useful information. Namely, that the odds of Cain’s messages being shared has not changed, rather his total number of followers has grown (by the thousands). As an increasing number of the public becomes familiar with Cain (for whatever reason), he is attracting social media followers. And those followers are sharing and responding to his messages to an equal rate as before. Which means that not many are following him to watch him implode – he is attracting new and curious GOP voters.

With Gallup’s newest polling (polled during the sexual harassment accusation) showing Cain gaining in the horse-race polls and tied with Romney, I think Cain’s follower count and Klout score track very well with his popularity increase in the polls. What will be interesting to see after the GOP primary and 2012 election is whether social media statistics and derived scores can be a useful predictor of future electoral success.

(For the record, at the time of this writing, Intrade is only giving Cain a 4% chance of winning the nomination).