What Twitter does in Washington

Adam Sharp fits in well in the Beltway political scene where he used to work -- first in the office of Senator Mary L. Landrieu, and then as the executive producer for digital services at C-Span. But his new job, as Twitter's Washington liaison, requires a slightly different skill set.

Now Mr. Sharp, a 32-year-old with brown hair, glasses and a sprinkling of pale freckles across his face, is the human embodiment of Twitter, an energetic and smiling ambassador for that ubiquitous blue bird, ready and willing to answer questions, troubleshoot and offer free tips.

When Twitter hired Mr. Sharp late last year, his job was not to convince a few slow-to-adapt House members that they needed to get with the times. Instead, he is trying to help the thousands of politicians and government employees already on Twitter to use it better.

Since he officially began work on Dec. 1, the job has been evolving. (When Republicans regained control of the House, Mr. Sharp helped the chamber's new leaders seamlessly switch their Twitter handles to reflect their new roles, John A. Boehner, for example, upgraded from @GOPLeader to @SpeakerBoehner.)

"His job strikes me as making lots of friends and helping lots of people, and who would not return a phone call from Twitter these days?" said Howard Mortman, the communications director for C-Span, who worked with Mr. Sharp. "I think he is getting incredible access, the kind of access many folks would be jealous of, because he is offering a service that many people want these days."

Mr. Sharp was an obvious choice for the job. He has always had something of a geeky, techie side, and has been known to walk around Capitol Hill greeting people by their Twitter handles. When he proposed to his wife, he laid everything out first in an elaborate PowerPoint presentation -- complete with satellite photos of the exact spot in Rock Creek Park where he planned to drop to one knee.

Twitter officials, who did not make Mr. Sharp available for an interview, emphasize that he is not a lobbyist. In fact, he is not even trying to sell politicians on the virtues of Twitter.

"It is really easy to get the passion and excitement that he has for the product and for the mission of getting more government and political folks on Twitter, and that was important to us," said Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter's general counsel, explaining the company's decision to make Mr. Sharp its manager of government and political partnerships. "The goal is just increasing the great content that's on Twitter, and the focus is on government and political actors."

The company has grown from its infancy -- when many people thought it was yet another social media platform for telling your friends what you ate for lunch -- to a fully evolved business with 200 million registered users who understand that Twitter can be a powerful information tool.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, as part of its increased use of social media under its administrator, W. Craig Fugate, stopped by Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco this month. Twitter offered technical expertise, and the agency helped Twitter understand how it could better serve its users in an emergency.

For instance, Mr. Fugate said, the agency has already used Twitter as one method to publicize evacuation orders from local officials. At the California meeting, one subject was how, in the event of a natural disaster, Twitter could promote -- essentially, feature -- messages from his agency or official hurricane forecasters that would go to users in affected areas.

"My sense of it was, as they've grown, they've built this tool and it has this capability, and they're looking at this as another way to support their customers during an emergency," Mr. Fugate said. "They know that there's a need out there, and they want to be able to link them into the official information when there's a disaster."

For Twitter's part, there are several upsides to working with a government agency like FEMA, or in helping a politician to use Twitter to better reach constituents.

"We believe that open exchange of information can have a positive global impact," Mr. Macgillivray said, seeming to echo Google's "Don't be evil" motto. "But the other thing is, the more usefulness people can get out of our service, the more they'll like it, the more they'll come back, the more they'll tell their friends about it, and we do think that government information is really useful."

He mentioned Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, who has a Twitter account and recently began responding to his followers, as well as Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark, who used Twitter during a recent blizzard to find snowed-in residents, dispatch snow plows and even personally shovel them out.

"That's the magical moment that's instantly connecting you to something important to you," Mr. Macgillivray said. "Once someone has had that sort of experience on Twitter, they stick around."

Early this month, Mr. Sharp traveled to New York to address the Senate Press Secretaries Association's annual conference. Mr. Sharp, who had served as the association's president in 2007 while in Ms. Landrieu's office, was greeted as an old friend. Though he was sick and losing his voice, his presentation -- which walked the group through how to hold an online town-hall-style meeting on Twitter -- was the one that everyone was buzzing about over drinks later.

"This guy comes in and says, 'I was one of you, I know what you're trying to do, and you're all on this product that will help you and your boss do your jobs better,' " said Steve Wymer, the president of the association. "And he's rattling off why he loves his company and why he took the job and why he thinks Twitter can help people connect and make the world a better place. And everyone is asking for his e-mail."